I hope no one here was the prick

[-The Glove-]

Being a Hawks fan I'm helping him put that flag up. With it being on the property line, it saves me money on buying my own flag.

 

[hawker84]

Personally i don't see the big deal if it's just during the games, but whatever, some people just aren't happy unless they're complaining about something...

 

[Yakimaniac]

You couldn't pay me to live in a neighborhood with a HOA...

Some shmuck telling me what I can and can't do to my own property, if it's not illegal?

Hit the bricks, kid...

 

[Jazzhawk]

So the guy filed with the HOA without even speaking to his own next door neighbor about the issue? That statement is verry telling about the guys character.

Did any of you read the article?

"His next door neighbor, Michael Kinzer, said Carlson puts the flagpole on the property line in front of the two homes.
"I think he's over the top. It's a nuisance," said Kinzer, who added that he hasn't spoken to Carlson about the flags.
Kinzer stressed that he did not complain to the homeowners association and doesn't know who might have done so.
He said he'd have no problem with the flags if Carlson were to mount the pole on the far side of his driveway, away from the property line.
"I'm a Seahawks fan, too," Kinzer said."

Thank you Tex.... my fault, I thought people would read it. But ya, my guess is he IS the one that said something. Regardless, it's what, 20 days a YEAR? Come on man.

 

[AVL]

Put fences on the property line. Keep the pole in front of you (or your house).

 

[ClumsyLurk]

Put fences on the property line. Keep the pole in front of you (or your house).

You gotta beg the HOA for permission first. They'd probably tell him it has to be yay tall and a certian color; only to come back and say it needs to be shorter and a different color.

 

[OrFan]

You couldn't pay me to live in a neighborhood with a HOA...

Some shmuck telling me what I can and can't do to my own property, if it's not illegal?

Hit the bricks, kid...

Exactly. How is it a nuisance? Is it blocking his driveway? Is it physically in his way in any fashion? No? Then shut up and deal with it, loser.

 

[mikeak]

"On other days, Carlson, a 48-year-old commercial fisherman, has flown an American flag in front of his home between Snohomish and Mill Creek."

So if I read that right every single day he puts a flag on the property line right by the street. So backing up you have to try to look around the flag and looking out the window it is probably right there in your view.

Yes I would be annoyed about it as well. If it was a few hours every Sunday that would be one thing but from this article it may be every day and he switches it out.

Yes I would have talked to him about it if it annoyed me. Yes I have been annoyed about things and not reported it so not sure why everyone assumes it is that neighbor. Yes living with HOA rules is annoying as heck but for starts put the flag on your own property

 

[LawlessHawk]

Come on now... don't rain on our pitchfork parade!!

 

[Inspector]

We bought our house back on 2003. If I had known what it would be like back then I would have run as fast as I could from being in an association. At first it was fine. New neighborhood and we were the first people in it. For a couple years it wasn't too bad. Then houses began to turn over. People from out of state moved in and took control.

We are in a working class neighborhood. Some think it's an exclusive country club.

We pay over $400 a year. The neighbor bought his house 3-4 years ago and has never payed a penny. He parks junker cars in the street. Normally I wouldn't care too much about that but when my son stayed with us for a short time, the association threatened to have his Comcast work truck towed. Yet the rusty oil dripper still sits out front.

I could go on and on about the neighbor and his 49r clothes, his intimidation attempts with many of the neighbors, and his strutting around like a 45 year old gangster while trying to look in people houses, but the bottom line is that we pay money for rules that seem to apply only to some people.

Someone in one of these threads about this story said that HOA's are great for preserving property values. I wouldn't say that it always does. In fact, we put our house on the market once back in 2007. Never got an offer. We asked the agent if there were any negative comments about the house. He said he only heard positive comments, People loved our house, but some of the people that were initially interested backed out when they learned that it was an association neighborhood.

When they sell you the house it all is presented as being so reasonable. Turns out that a lot of things in the rules can be twisted different ways if the wrong people get power. Then there is the risk of having a jerk or bad renters move in. We've seen both.

Looking forward to the day the housing market finally turns around and we can move to a place with privacy and and more property. I'll hang whatever flag suits my fancy.

 

[Blitzer88]

Thats just stupid.

 

[mikeak]

We bought our house back on 2003. If I had known what it would be like back then I would have run as fast as I could from being in an association. At first it was fine. New neighborhood and we were the first people in it. For a couple years it wasn't too bad. Then houses began to turn over. People from out of state moved in and took control.

We are in a working class neighborhood. Some think it's an exclusive country club.

We pay over $400 a year. The neighbor bought his house 3-4 years ago and has never payed a penny. He parks junker cars in the street. Normally I wouldn't care too much about that but when my son stayed with us for a short time, the association threatened to have his Comcast work truck towed. Yet the rusty oil dripper still sits out front.

I could go on and on about the neighbor and his 49r clothes, his intimidation attempts with many of the neighbors, and his strutting around like a 45 year old gangster while trying to look in people houses, but the bottom line is that we pay money for rules that seem to apply only to some people.

Someone in one of these threads about this story said that HOA's are great for preserving property values. I wouldn't say that it always does. In fact, we put our house on the market once back in 2007. Never got an offer. We asked the agent if there were any negative comments about the house. He said he only heard positive comments, People loved our house, but some of the people that were initially interested backed out when they learned that it was an association neighborhood.

When they sell you the house it all is presented as being so reasonable. Turns out that a lot of things in the rules can be twisted different ways if the wrong people get power. Then there is the risk of having a jerk or bad renters move in. We've seen both.

Looking forward to the day the housing market finally turns around and we can move to a place with privacy and and more property. I'll hang whatever flag suits my fancy.

Well not to be rude but this is stupid by 1) your HOA and 2) you and the people living next door. Make the HOA enforce the rules and you can by almost any HOA rules I have seen go as far as forcing him out of his house. Call the HOA daily to ask why the tow-truck hasn't been there etc. There are ways to do this legally

I don't really like my HOA either but the rules are in place and can be enforced with the right pressure

 

[hawk45]

why doesn't the guy just move it off the property line so his neighbor doesn't have a leg to stand on?

Just because we all love the Seahawks doesnt mean that others do. I wouldnt fly a flag on my property line that forces my neighbor to have to look at it each time he looks out his front window.

Move the flag over to the middle of your property and I bet nobody complains, and I bet the HOA doesnt step in.

Yeah, I personally would be okay with the flag on the property line, but when such an easy solution is available (moving flag to the middle of your property) there's zero reason not to pursue it. If the guy with the flag is the type of guy to piss off his neighbors rather than just taking a pretty painless way out...well...there are enough real battles to fight. Is this really the hill to die on?

 

[Inspector]

Yeah that was rude calling people you don't know stupid, but hey, I'm not offended because I only gave you part of the story. Neighbors have called the police and had the truck towed. Two days later it's back. This has happened several times. The last time the caller was told that if the tabs are good they won't tow it again. So far the tabs are good.

We've all asked if a lien has been put on his house and the association sidesteps or doesn't respond. We know he doesn't pay because when the more established residents still controlled the board, we were made aware of it by the president, but they hadn't taken action yet. The new board apparently doesn't think it's our business.

I'm assuming there is a lien, but that's only an assumption since the HOA will not comment thus far. I do know he frequently brags that he'll never pay.

I'm not mentioning the multiple physical threats (park in front of my house and I'll beat your ---) and intimidation that have occurred, or the numerous cases of police involvement regarding that individual. If I was running the show I'd be trying to get rid of him for that alone. Pushing a woman for parking on a public street???


Make the HOA enforce the rules... Yeah, it falls on deaf ears, read paragraph 2. No problem at their end of the street so they don't seem to concerned.... I'm a guy that knows to get a point across. It doesn't do any good when there is no willingness to listen.

More history.. The builder set us up with a management company to run the HOA back in 03. Within a year we were duped out of some money (8K for mailing costs and they didn't send a letter to any of us for example) and several problems came up that they just didn't attempt to fix, like a sprinkler system in the park that ran around the clock..... It took several weeks to get someone on the phone for that and I personally left three messages. The system is in a steel lock box and the management company held the key. We paid a high water bill. We were paying through the nose for lanscaping services that were not provided. We had grass in the park at one point that was almost 2 feet tall. I mowed it myself.

We fired that company and hired another. Unbeknownst to most of us it was operated by a friend of a homeowner that "found the company" for us. 20K disappeared out of the HOA savings account. We asked for an itemized statement and we got 20K of miscellaneous expenses. We fired them and voted to elect our own management team. Of course the guy that recommended them had moved already.

It was right about then that the city came in and told us the mountain ash trees that were planted in the parking strip by the builder were illegal in our town! They started fining the HOA, not the builder, and we had no cash for legal defense or to go after the builder. Luckily after being fined for several months, we found someone that donated 50 fruit trees. Pears anyone? Sap on the cars now.... Good thing I park in the garage per the rules....

I'm not mentioning the first president after we took it over and his landscaping scam.

We go to meetings and our comments and ideas have nearly always fallen on deaf ears. As has been said before, the people that take over are pompous and power hungry. The only good ideas are theirs.

You can say what you want about HOA's, but my experience is recorded above and it's been a pain. Just talking about it now will probably have me up late trying to sleep. With all of these problems and a new board from out of town (most of the neighborhood is transplanted from out of state now so they have the votes) you may be able to see why I want out.

I keep a top notch lawn and have never heard a complaint. I don't need to pay money for some jerk to tell me my lawn looks nice in a letter, I keep it nice for myself, not for him or the HOA. I quit being graded in 1982 and at this age being graded and A+ and paying for the postage gripes me.

At one point we tried to do away with our HOA but found out that part of our dues were going to another neighborhood to pay for access to our homes. It was a deal with the builder that none of us were aware of. Turns out we pay more for their HOA than they do. Their dues went down because of it. To dismantle our association takes their approval.. We have 50 votes, they have 175. Did I mention that a King County Judge lived their in the beginning?

Never again. Our HOA is a complete and utter disaster and has generated more fraud than Wall Street. I've given them over 5k now and for what? To be told people didn't want to buy my house because of the association..... Yeah HOA's are awesome. I have many relatives in other neighborhoods in the northwest. Not one of them has an HOA. Our neighborhood doesn't look any better than theirs and their property values are the same. The notion that it adds serious value is a myth. Just look at the MLS listings and compare prices between HOA homes and non HOA homes.

I'd rather have a neighbor an acre away with junker cars full of blackberry bushes than give my money away to power hungry ego freaks and have a bad neighbor 20 feet away.

 

[CaptainSkybeard]

I once lived in an HOA right next to the HOA president. She tried to get me fined 100 dollars every time I had a car parked in the street overnight. My driveway could only hold 2 cars, no garage. Any visitors that spent the night had to park in the street. I feel this guys pains.

 

[Inspector]

I once lived in an HOA right next to the HOA president. She tried to get me fined 100 dollars every time I had a car parked in the street overnight. My driveway could only hold 2 cars, no garage. Any visitors that spent the night had to park in the street. I feel this guys pains.

You used to live in my neighborhood?

Listen, some HOA's may work out. Ours certainly has been mostly a nightmare. I just won't gamble on it next time.

 

[hawker84]

I'll never live in a HOA neighborhood. Nobody's telling me what i can and can't do on my own property when i'm the one payin the bills.

 

[v1rotv2]

I have no sympathy for this guy. He freely and willfully signed up to be governed by his neighbors. Regardless if he was the only one at the time he had to have known that others would follow and he would have to abide by whatever rules that were laid down. And not knowing what he can or can not do is all on him.

 

[hawk45]

Yeah...that HOA sounds like a disaster, and my money is on most HOAs being that way. You have human beings running these things with some self-interest...heck, just getting along with neighbors without an HOA is tricky. The idea of an HOA is to take the pain out of dealing with neighbors because everyone agrees ahead of time on things like mowing the lawn, fences, noise, etc. but if you get someone in charge who doesn't care or isn't affected you're paying for nothing because you're still dealing with it on your own.

I live in a condo so I deal with a condo association and thank my starts that the people who run it are really reasonable and cool, because it's not difficult to imagine how bad that can go.

It's like the tenant/landlord thing. Yeah owning rental property can be great, but you spend most of your time praying that your tenant/landlord isn't a huge douche because it really wrecks your life if they are.

 

[Rose City Hawk]

Wife and I just purchased a place and we specifically targeted areas that didn't have an HOA. No way I could deal with that garbage, somebody would be going to jail.

That being said, I can understand why somebody would take issue with it being on the line or blocking somebody's view, just fly that thing off your porch and it's all good.