In regards to the Veteran who supposedly was forced to sell his home because of HoA fines over a silly flag in a flower pot

Politics
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I am posting this HERE, because this same topic has been posted at least six times by the Hannity news bot. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, please fix that thing already. :smile:

Cry me a river, Mr. Veteran.

YOU made the decision to buy into an HoA. You read the fine print and the rules and chose to buy into the HoA. Or you didn’t read the rules and bought into the HoA anyway, which would make you a total moron.

I am sure you were warned before the first fine was levied. You persisted in your conduct. The first fine was levied, yet you persisted. The daily fines kept on coming yet you persisted.

In all this, it was your personal choice.

You chose to buy into an HoA.

When you chose to buy into the HoA, you AGREED to all its rules. ALL of them.

You chose to violate a rule.

You chose to persist in violating a rule.

I despise HoA’s with a passion. But I absolutely side with the HoA here. The HoA is 100% in the right and the Veteran is 100% in the wrong. Whatever happens to the Veteran is the consequence of decisions he freely chose to make.

I recently closed on 35+ acres of land in North Carolina. While dealing with the seller, I discovered covenants on the land I objected to. I negotiated a clause in the sales contract that would void the contract if I could not get the covenants removed, which requires court action. I was successful in getting the covenants removed and successfully closed the sale. I took the legal steps necessary to ensure I would have the maximum freedom to do whatever the **** I like on and with my property.

The Veteran did the opposite. He bought into a situation where his freedom of property was severely limited and then complains when he pays the price for breaking the rules.

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Always compared my HOA to communist China, however I get it.

The rules are rules. You have to get permission for everything in my community, they let me slide with my satellite Dish, but normally we can’t have a dish in the yard, it must be attached to the roof(something I was totally against). You can’t see my dish from the street so that’s the only reason they let me slide. Other than that, got to obey the rules. Folks who want a deck, don’t go out there in get a wooden deck. Our HOA will tell you to tear it down or they will fine you and if you don’t pay, put a lien on your house. Flagpoles, not allowed. You better put new mulch down every year. DO not fire up the grill in your driveway, you will get fined. Kinda suck for those who don’t have a patio or a deck.

We have a thick booklet of what you can or cannot do. With this guy, I bet he refused to read guide. Hell, I did the same thing, thankfully my wife did. LOL!

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@Safiel

Someday, someplace, you will be dragged away because of some very very fine print of something you signed. The commissars will be saying to you what you say to the vet.

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Doubtful.

In any event, when you buy into an HoA, common sense tells you that a bunch of rules come with it.

And he could have stopped at anytime. He was fined and then kept on doing it.

There is the major difference.

He was TOLD he was in violation, yet he persisted in violating the rules. Had he stopped, the fines would have stopped.

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I should note that Federal law requires that HoAs permit the installation of satellite dishes. While they can regulate location, they cannot regulate in such a way as to prevent you from receiving satellite service.

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The HOA specifically changed the rules to target him and then misapplied his dues payments in order to foreclose on his home.

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I bought my first house 9 months ago. When I started my search the first two listing that came up were beautiful and relatively cheap pricewise, then I looked at the details. Turns out they were both in HOAs, I immediately clicked the back button. No way I’m paying for someone to tell me what I can do with my property.

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I like my HOA. I always wonder about people who have a hard time getting along with one. Keep your house up, don’t paint it some terrible color, keep your yard maintained, keep cars on blocks out of the yard, no problems. I suppose if you want to graft a VW Microbus body onto your roof as an observation post or are just generally anti social you’re going to have problems with an HOA.

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His offense was flying a small American Flag.

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If people want to live in a HoA and like neatly manicured neighborhood lifestyle, more power to them.

Just not my cup of tea.

I like to put a butterfly garden here, a vegetable garden there and flowers wherever. I have poultry on the property and have been known to slaughter a steer on site. An HoA probably wouldn’t feel the love if I did that. :smile:

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Yeah… I get it. His misguided love for that damn flag.

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Veterans should be allowed to disregard rules they don’t like.

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@Safiel

I agree with everything you said except “silly” flag.

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I’m with Safiel. Except for the slaughtering.

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It really does suck. I wish I had been smarter. I repainted my shudders and it turned into a 9 month battle with the hoa.

I’d like to put in a railing for my disabled friend who visits but they say the disabled person would have to be living in the house.

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I love our HOA. Well, our old HOA. I built a big house over the last year and closed on our it last month. Sold our old house. I never once had to worry about people in the neighborhood screwing their properties up and dragging our value down. They even sent letters if your mailbox didn’t look great.

Made a large chunk of change.

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Murphree was once again charged $100 a day for the flag and the HOA took the money he was fined out of his HOA fee pay, which he was not aware of.

“So, the monthly homeowner’s fees weren’t being paid,” Sarris said, “That’s how they were able to get a lien on the property.”

I don’t know anything about HoAs…do you get paperwork that shows you’ve paid your fees or not? Could he possibly not be aware of what they were doing until they actually placed a lien on his home?

He’s not hurting for money, though. Got a new big house and eight flags flying. Must not be in an HoA this time.

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No they didn’t.

That is just something he claims they did.

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How else did they get a lien on his property?

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It is specifically stated in the documents that he signed that dues can and will be applied tas payment of fines accrued for being in notified non-compliance.

He may have forgotten to read those documents, or to reread them.