There’s a lot of stories about not joining a HOA – Don’t buy a house that’s in a HOA, or if your neighbourhood wants to start a HOA, don’t join it. But a lot of people believe that a house leaving a HOA is impossible, as the HOA membership self-perpetuates as part of the sale: if you buy a house within a HOA, you agree to the HOA’s jurisdiction, and you agree to make anybody who buys the house from you also sign up to the HOA.
However, my friend is doing (or attempting to do) the impossible, and that is removing a house from the HOA’s jurisdiction.
My friend inherited a house from her father, who recently just passed away. She’d decided to move out of her apartment, and live in the house, seeing as it’s not much further away from her workplace. She didn’t know that a HOA was in the area, and received an unexpected visit from the HOA’s president. Here’s how the conversation went down, as she told me:
President: Hello, how are you? I’m sorry for your loss, your father was a great neighbour and member of this community.
Friend: Thank you.
President: I’ve come by to welcome you to the neighbourhood, and leave behind a copy of the HOA’s rules and regulations. Our meeting times are blah blah blah
…It was all very polite stuff, and my friend remembers her dad not having TOO much trouble with the HOA for most of his time there. However, he had been griping more and more about them up until his death, and it just so happens, the new HOA president was one of those slimeballs that would be very polite to you as a first impression, but enjoyed nitpicking for the smallest breaches of rules and talking over everybody at local meetings. My friend wanted to avoid that at all costs, so she began to study the HOA literature-
…and then she realized. She never joined the HOA when she inherited the house. The HOA (and most HOAs, I assume) have clauses for property changing hands via a sale, but not the inheritance of property. A HOA couldn’t PREVENT you from taking ownership of a house, if you refused to join it, could it?
Well, that’s what my friend has attempted to do. As of writing this story, she’s been in the house for just over a month, and has stated her intention to not join the HOA directly to the president. The president initially laughed in her face, and stated that she had already joined. But, a few days later, he returned with paperwork and two flunkies alongside, insisting she sign and that her father had a lein on the house due to some minor infraction. She told the president that she would simply pay the fine and remain out of the HOA, but the president stated that the HOA’s regulations prevented him from giving non-members an accounting file (even though the president’s position is that she is already a member of the HOA) so if she would just please sign on the dotted line and not read too much…
She promptly threw them out, and contacted a lawyer, who agrees with her interpretation of events – a HOA cannot force somebody who inherited land within its jurisdiction to join the HOA. If they sell, of course, if they put the house in the name of their kids to avoid inheritance tax, of course, because these are things the house’s new owner consents to. But if you inherit a house in a HOA? It’s your choice. This story is still ongoing, but right now, it seems as if my friend has finally managed to pull a property out of the grasp of a HOA.
And the only thing it took, was human sacrifice.