Roughly 70% of all homes in Maricopa County are built in HOA areas—that’s over 9,000 separate HOAs. One of the challenges with HOAs is they have a lot of power. In fact, they have more power than you know, which is why—if you’re planning on moving into an HOA neighborhood or you already live in one—there are a couple of important things you need to know about them in return.
First, know what your HOA documents allow you to do and do not do. I’ve come across an amazing service called The HOA Report that can help you with this. You see, when you buy a house in an HOA area, you have to sign a contract with that HOA. Most people don’t read through all the pages of their HOA and CC&R documents, though, so this service goes through those documents for you and gives you a summary of the important information contained within them.
There are all kinds of rules and ordinances for each HOA too, so the other thing you need to do is know those rules and ordinances.
“HOAs are more powerful than you know.”
For example, different HOAs have different regulations about pets. You can move into a condominium complex that you’ve been told is dog-friendly but still get a knock on the door a day later from the government telling you that you need to get rid of your dog because it’s over the weight limit for pets.
As another example, I have a neighbor who once added some beautiful landscaping to their front yard that the HOA had signed off on, only to later order them to remove that same landscaping because dimensionally it wasn’t what they thought it would be. This neighbor spent several thousand dollars in court fighting this order, but they still ended up having to remove the landscaping.
If you have any more questions about HOAs or you have any other real estate needs I can help you with, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.
