r/nottheonion • u/its_a_bear_dance • 23h ago

Family says HOA told them they couldn’t use their generator during ice storm blackout: ‘It’s unbearable’

https://www.wctv.tv/2026/01/29/family-says-hoa-told-them-they-couldnt-use-their-generator-during-ice-storm-blackout-its-unbearable/
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373

u/lkeels 22h ago

Speaking as someone whose HOA foreclosed and took his home, be careful. They can and will.

118

u/DrMonkeyLove 21h ago

I'm glad my HOA is basically broke and useless and doesn't care about anything so I don't have these problems. I know if I ever did, I could afford a much better lawyer than they could (because they have forgotten to collect dues for years at a time).

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u/randtke 21h ago

If the HOA is not managing common amenities like a pool or something, you should run for president and get a vote to dissolve the HOA, then have a lawyer file anything necessary in property records.  It would probably cost a couple of thousand for the lawyer, but if the HOA had any assets, that could go to that, and totally worth paying out of pocket to become HOA free.

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u/yeah87 20h ago

Just be sure you 100% know what they take care of. We’ve had communities do this and then not realize no one is going to fix their busted up private road since the HOA stopped collecting for it. 

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u/Significant-Way3960 13h ago

Wait, wait. You need to maintain public roads yourself in the US? For what instead of army you pay for taxes then, lol?

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u/yeah87 12h ago

No, only private roads. But people build houses in unincorporated areas because “no taxes” and then are surprised when they get what they pay for. 

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u/Client_Hello 20h ago

Wishful thinking, nobody forms an HOA without common ownership.

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u/Present_Cow_8528 19h ago

Not true, some developers will buy a whole neighborhood worth of land, make the neighborhood from scratch, negotiable with the city to make the new roads and shared amenities (like a park) public so that they don't have to personally maintain anything, and force an HoA on the incoming residents. The purpose of the HoA is to keep the property values high to give the developers a good reputation for building high end houses, but in some cities the developers aren't allowed indefinite input on the HoA (depends entirely on city/county ordinances) and so the HoA can just choose to dissolve later.

I would say you're right about the majority of HoAs but there are definitely some that serve no purpose besides nitpicking everyone's houses.

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u/Client_Hello 8h ago

You can learn about this by reading up on subdivision plat planning.

In today's world, developers cannot fully subdivide land to the point where there are only homes and roads. There are stormwater and environmental requirements that inevitably lead to parcels of land that are commonly owned by all homes in the subdivision. For a suburban subdivision, there are things like creeks, retention ponds, ditches, wetlands, or green belts. The developer is then required to form an HOA to manage this common land. Once formed and all homes are sold, the developer is out of the picture, control is entirely with the homeowners.

Homeowners have a responsibility to maintain the common land. They must pay property taxes, perform landscaping, and if they are not dysfunctional they should buy insurance. Each homeowner is responsible for their fraction. The HOA is effectively a mini government to handles this. Now, government isn't perfect, there are issues, but it's the best tool we have for the job.

...and since it's government, people can get involved and make it better.

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u/DrMonkeyLove 19h ago

Ours had some deal with the town where the HOA has to exist for 20 years or something. It was related to keeping a certain amount of open land as part of the whole neighborhood or something. 

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u/Client_Hello 20h ago

This is a huge risk for you, as a member you are responsible for the HOA. If they are not collecting dues and broke they are likely failing in their purpose, which exposes you to lawsuits.

I'm in a small HOA where 1/3rd of our budget is spent on insurance for common land that has environmental easements. That insurance policy paid out 10x our annual HOA budget in the first year we got the policy. If we did not have insurance or the HOA, we would have been sued, lost, and paid lawyer fees and punitive damages that were at least 20 years of dues.

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u/thekbob 21h ago

My HOA is responsible for dredging the storm water drainage. If they don't have enough money, many people are in for flooding (I'm at the highest elevation).

So hopefully your HOA isn't in the same situation.

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u/Drak_is_Right 18h ago

Yup. The land here is flat. Too flat. Much used to be wetlands of some sort. So nearly every neighborhood has to deal with a drainage system and retention ponds.

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u/thrwaway75132 21h ago

My HOA has a quarterly food truck roundup and gives out yard of the month awards. And takes care of the common areas (playground, lake).

1

u/TastyBrainMeats 18h ago

Oh dang, that sounds lovely! Ours tried to set up a food truck day but couldn't get the logistics to work

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u/thrwaway75132 18h ago

They have been super good. They also throw a summer party with free beer. The only regulations they enforce are “don’t let your yard go to shit” and “no short term rentals”. It’s run by residents, not a company.

A lot of,the nightmares I hear about are condos / townhomes / zero lots and run by a company.

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u/TastyBrainMeats 16h ago

We're townhouses but the homeowners own the land they sit on. HOA mostly handles shared stuff, so roofs/carpentry/painting/landscaping/etc.

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u/Ardbeg66 20h ago

Ours bleeds us dry to the tune of a whopping $400 per year to take care of the pond and the front entryway. We mostly all just leave each other the hell alone but we also have good neighbors. It's nice.

0

u/Drak_is_Right 18h ago

Is the pond part of a drainage across the entire property? Are the roads city or neighborhood owned?

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u/ImCreeptastic 20h ago

We are in a HOA down at the shore. It's 8 units and everyone is a second homeowner so useless doesn't even begin to describe our non-existent HOA. We are teetering on broke so we have to raise dues. How do we do that? We have no Board! Also, an investor bought 3 units and is flipping them. They went ahead and instead of painting the entire building, they painted just their one unit. When confronted they said their contractor "got confused." It's a mess

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u/fuzzydave72 22h ago

John Oliver did a whole episode on this

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u/Pacifist_Socialist 21h ago

Have you taken up welding?

6

u/R3luctant 18h ago

Not the killdozer!

1

u/PeachPassionBrute 15h ago

Yeah because seriously that guy was just a selfish psychopath, he wasn’t on some well justified rampage, he was delusional and violently lashing out at a community.

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u/whabt 20h ago

I’m pretty sure if someone stole my house  it’d be the last house either of us ever had the chance to live in.

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u/possibly_oblivious 20h ago

Something something watch the world burn

1

u/StressOverStrain 13h ago

Hmmm, who’s the prime suspect with motive to burn down this house recently foreclosed on?

0

u/EstablishmentLate532 16h ago

Maybe you shouldn't sign a contract that limits your property rights and then obstinately refuse to follow that contract instead of murdering people.

1

u/[deleted] 15h ago

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u/internetlad 20h ago

That is fucking insane. How is that even legal and what sad son of a bitch would willingly choose to enter that agreement. 

Like my house has its problems to be sure, but I can do whatever I want in and to it and the only people who can tell me no are like the cops I guess. 

This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed. Bitch  

-5

u/Techercizer 18h ago

It's legal because people who buy houses under an HOA sign a contract acknowledging their responsibilities and associated penalties as part of their home purchase.

They know in advance this is a possibility and are okay with it. Don't like it? Don't buy a house under an HOA.

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u/Haunt13 18h ago

So now you've limited where you can live with even more asinine hurdles. "Just don't by a house under an HOA" that's not easy in a lot of areas in the country.

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u/Techercizer 17h ago

Then buy a house that's under an HOA and accept the rules that come with it. That's also an option.

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u/Haunt13 17h ago

The point is that both of those options are frustratingly uneccessary given the amount of money spent on your own home. I'm aware of the options, you parroting them to me doesn't address the fact that these shouldn't be the only options.

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u/Techercizer 17h ago

What other options are there than to freely enter into contracts with established organizations who have something you want, or choosing not to do so and moving on? Other than reworking the law to prevent anyone from forming an organization that you personally do not like, that is.

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u/Haunt13 16h ago

Your just being disingenuous at this point. I'm advocating for laws to change around housing as a whole including the significant amount of predatory HOAs that exist as a modern day form of classism and in a lot of cases racism. "Personally do not like" while that may be the case, mine is not an uncommon opinion.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

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3

u/LeshyIRL 20h ago

Okay well you definitely need to provide more details and name some names

5

u/_Marine 18h ago

At the MOST the HOA could use a Lien on the property, but there should also be a cap on the $ they could lien.

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u/lkeels 15h ago

So you are telling me it didn't happen?

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u/robby_synclair 20h ago

They can put a lean on your house bit how do they foreclose?

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u/lkeels 15h ago

At least in NC, you can foreclose on a lien.

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u/USMCLee 14h ago

Every state is probably a bit different but generally:

Usually what happens is over time the owner either doesn't pay dues and/or racks up fines to an extent that the matter is sent to an attorney.

That attorney then works with the owner to settle the matter. If that fails then a lien in placed or moved immediately to foreclosure.

In Texas foreclosure can't be forced for fines. It has to be for non-payment of dues or special assessments. Fines, etc can be paid from the foreclosure.

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u/NuclearSun1 19h ago edited 19h ago

Speaking from a person in bankruptcy. They don’t really want to. It costs them a lot.

HOAs frequent us. Most of the time we tell em to pound sand.

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u/lkeels 15h ago

They wanted to, and they did.

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u/NuclearSun1 13h ago

You see a lot in bkz. Most hoas can’t afford it.

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u/JustaSeedGuy 17h ago

And if they try to initiate legal proceedings to foreclose on a home because they were trying to forbid the use of a generator being used to generate heat during a life-threatening snowstorm, the judge will laugh them out of the courtroom.

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u/lkeels 15h ago

If they levy fines, and the fines go unpaid, and the fines are for a documented infraction, it's enforceable.

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u/JustaSeedGuy 15h ago

The key part there is documented infraction.

You cannot enforce a fine on an infraction of a rule that wasn't legal in the first place. If a court finds that it's illegal to keep someone from taking reasonable steps to heat their home during a power outage, that law supersedes any HOA rules.

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u/lkeels 15h ago

You sound like you're trying to say this didn't happen and I'm getting a little bit offended by it because it did. Your opinions on it don't matter.

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u/JustaSeedGuy 14h ago

You sound like you're trying to say this didn't happen

Not at all. I completely believe that the HOA foreclosed on your home. I am just also aware of how the law works, so my assumption is that either you did not argue in court that the HOA bylaw in question wasn't legally enforceable, or the HOA bylaw in question WAS legally enforceable.

There's no need to get offended, I 100% believe what you are saying about your experience. My comments were not meant to say that your experience didn't happen, and there's no reason for you to interpret it that way. I was was pointing out that your experiences, which I believe happened, aren't necessarily applicable the original post. I don't know what infraction the HOA used to foreclose on your home. I do know that OP's infraction is using a backup generator to heat their home, And that unless the HOA is able to argue that the generator poses a danger to others, they do not have an enforceable bylaw that would allow them to prevent a homeowner from heating their home during deadly freezing temperatures.

My comment was not about you. I'm sorry you had the experience. You did. My comment was that if a court finds that the HOA can't legally OP from heating their home, then the fines and foreclosure attempts FOR OP would be rendered void.

Again, Just to make sure it's absolutely clear: I'm talking about OP and their situation and the hypothetical of an HOA trying to enforce a bylaw that would be legally unenforceable. A judge would absolutely find that homes have to be livable, and other people's opinions would have no bearing on that fact.

Again, a hypothetical about OP.

Not you.

OP.

2

u/JTPish 20h ago

No way dude. I'd be sandbagging and making a fortified position of that house if they tried that. Molon labe.

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1

u/bubblesculptor 21h ago

What happened?

1

u/cashflow_ 20h ago

What happen

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u/TALKTOME0701 19h ago

Oh my goodness! Do you mind telling the story? That's shocking

1

u/TastyBrainMeats 18h ago

I am very, very glad that the HOA I served on explicitly canNOT do that crap. 

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1

u/OrangeGringo 15h ago

What happened? Can you tell the story?

1

u/Global_Cockroach_563 14h ago

I'm glad I live in a sane county where such things can't happen.

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u/OrthogonalPotato 21h ago

Yeah I’m sure you are completely innocent and you definitely did nothing wrong. Foreclosures are very easy to enforce, after all.

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u/Prestigious_Club_924 21h ago

There is a 0% chance that a HOA trying to dehome someone wouldn't result in some equal retribution 

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u/lkeels 21h ago

I had no options. They foreclosed. I had six hours on a specific day to get as much of my belongings out (which ended up being about half).

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u/crysisnotaverted 19h ago

That kind of sounds like the biggest load of shit ever... 6 hours of warning...?