So Julie mentioned today that Texas’ drought could potentially last until 2020. Which brings up the question - what are we going to do about HOAs? Most HOAs have structures in place that involve penalties for letting grass brown or die, and provisions against replacing turf with - well, anything.

The CCR (Covenents, Conditions, and Restrictions) that govern neighborhoods generally require a quorum so large to overturn that it is nearly impossible. And that appears to be intentional.

I’m fascinated to see what will happen over the next few years. I know that the state attempted to pass a bill allowing Home Owners to install solar panels against the wishes of their HOA (it failed to pass). It seems there’s potential for massive uproar here.

What do you think? Will there be change or will homeowners just water our drinking water away?

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Comments

Anonymous

2011-09-30T16:17:06.000Z

Recent article about a hood in Hutto and their lack of water restrictions. Google around, it was interesting. I think it was in the statesmen. Man I hate HOAs.

Tim

2011-09-30T18:10:42.000Z

Yeah, I sympathize. The problem is HOAs are legally required to enforce this. So it only takes one bad egg neighbor threatening to sue to keep an HOA going with this stuff, and it’s nearly impossible to change the CCRs. That’s why the HOA board members in that article sound so schizoid. They are responsible for enforcing this no matter how stupid it seems. That’s why I think we’re going to need a state level fix.

Anonymous

2011-11-02T21:40:27.000Z

It’s pretty ridiculous…I wonder about this as well. My dad has received a few fines over the past few months and even a letter saying the HOA expected him to re-sod immediately. I’d like to think that reason and logic will kick in at some point, but I have no confidence that will happen at an HOA level. I think local governments will have to interevene.

Tim

2011-11-03T03:33:42.000Z

Unfortunately, the situation is setup where it’s nearly impossible for HOAs to stop enforcing these covenants. I think we’re going to have to have intervention at the state level to change things.

Etta

2011-11-09T08:45:24.000Z

I’m just breaking all the rules up here in North Austin. :)

Tim

2011-11-09T09:19:43.000Z

I dunno, what Facebook is doing with notes and RSS feeds anymore. I can’t figure out how to turn it off either…

Alejandro

2011-11-11T01:34:32.000Z

There’s things we can do to address this issue: We could just outright ban non-native grass within city limits. We could require that HOAs use only reclaimed water for watering purposes, or simply make it easier for people to reclaim their own grey water. We could also require xeriscaping in all new homes and buildings. The city simply has to get its act together and prioritize water conservation.

Tim

2011-11-11T01:44:14.000Z

I agree in those common sense solutions. But it’s my understanding that cities and counties can’t actually override HOAs. That has to happen at the state government level.

k kraft (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/index.php/listblog/.html)

2011-11-22T19:39:16.000Z

our hoa is reasonable; no one is being asked to resod right at the moment. BUT there are people who no matter what, won’t water at all. too lazy to even get a hose out and hand water, too lazy to weed, mow- and these are the same people that never took care of their yards in the first place. these are the same people that cost other neighbors who do try by- eating up association’s fund just to get them to do the basics. these are homes now that are full of weeds, have their grass and weeds growing over sidewalks, dead and weedy flower beds. so they drag down the entire neighborhood and property values. they were simply asked for a plan to bring yards into compliance, in addition to weeding and edging as a minimum. yet we still have the same people that whine and use the drought as an excuse to look like white trash.

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/index.php/listblog/.html)

2011-11-22T20:30:13.000Z

K - I definitely dealt with people who feel the way you do when I was on an HOA board. Unfortunately, HOAs have next to no power to change for positive or negative. Getting our board to be able to just put in some better guidelines for incredibly subjective things like “keeping lawn mowed and edged” were very difficult. Not because we couldn’t agree on the guidelines, but because HOAs are legally setup to be vague and incredibly hard to change.

Ultimately in a case like this year we legally would have been required to send out notices about dead grass (and sod replacement) or risk being sued by a homeowner, as changing our CCRs would have required 2/3 of the neighbors having time to attend a meeting and then lawyer fees to get them vetted and changed. It would have been at least a 2 year process.

Ultimately considering the board can only levy fines, put down liens, or foreclose we found we had little recourse in dealing with truly problematic neighbors. And as we said when dealing with a particular house - an HOA can do many things, but it can’t fix a lack of taste.

I’ve since moved, mainly because I had other things to do than inspect my yard with a microscope, and since moving out I’m far less angry and my grass looks better than it ever looked while I lived under an HOA. Not to mention that my neighborhood as a whole does.

I don’t believe HOAs have ever proven their benefit at keeping neighborhoods looking “nice”, but it’s definitely easy to see from talking to people that they keep a lot of marginal improvements from happening that could make your neighborhood better. Economics says when you increase regulation on adding flower beds, window boxes, or repainting a house, at least a few people who might otherwise spruce up the place are going to avoid it. At worse your neighborhood will look like it’s run by an HOA.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who don’t want to waste their lives watering grass. Unfortunately our housing is currently focused on giving everyone who wants a free-standing dwelling a large plot of weed strewn dirt that they’re expected to waste resources on. It’s not for everybody. Which is probably why non-HOA neighborhoods typically sell for double-digit percentages above HOA neighborhoods.

The market has spoken. “Nice” HOA controlled neighborhoods are quite simply worth less to the marketplace than non-HOA neighborhoods. And woe befall you if you become a “Not-Nice” HOA controlled neighborhood.

I’m in favor of doing away with HOAs entirely and requiring that people become involved in their civic process, as I see little point to thousands of undemocratic replications of city government.

Troy

2011-11-23T03:34:04.000Z

Unless code enforcement is going to expand by a factor of 100, most water wasters are ostensibly ratted out by their neighbors. If everyone is cheating in an HOA, there is no incentive to “tell” on ur neighbor. Even if the state supercedes portions of HOA rules (which it won’t since it will appear as an infringement in individual rights-think Kelo case), it will be virtually unenforceable. Exception would be to turn local water utilities, the police and fire into veritable water police.

Tim

2011-11-23T03:37:25.000Z

Water policing is actually pretty easy. The water utility knows how much water you’re using. The problem in my mind isn’t even that you could lose your house trying to obey city water laws. The issue is that ultimately even if neighborhoods want to make changes the way HOAs are setup is to make it as difficult and costly as possible.

Troy

2011-11-23T17:09:20.000Z

I have a better idea - just price water appropriately. make it so expensive that people start to consider how they utilize this precious resource

Tim

2011-11-23T21:45:24.000Z

I agree with that. But again, if they did that more than likely you’d tank the housing market because so many homeowners would be foreclosed on because they couldn’t afford their water bills and they couldn’t change the HOA CCRs.

Troy

2011-11-23T22:17:03.000Z

I wonder what % of TX homeowners are in HOAs.

Tim

2011-11-24T00:18:49.000Z

It’s somewhat hard to say, but pretty much all new housing since 2000 is in an HOA, so based on this 40-50% wouldn’t be a bad guess: http://www.dallasindicators.org/Housing/HighQualityHousing/Ageofthehousingstock/tabid/990/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Troy

2011-11-24T00:31:11.000Z

I find that hard to believe. I will ask my land use friends.