Consumer Alert: Homeowners' Associations

When you're looking for a new home, here's something to keep in mind: many communities and almost all condos have Homeowner’s Associations. These are groups of people who live in the community and have been elected to make sure the rules of the Board are followed by all homeowners in the community.

While there may be benefits to being "governed" by such an organization, there are many criticisms. For example, here are some things they can dictate:

• what you can have in your yard
• what color you can paint your house
• if you can have decorations on the roof or not
• and many other things.

In addition, they will charge you a monthly maintenance fee. You have no choice but to live by their rules and to pay their fee if you want to live in that community. If you do not, they may fine you heavily or force you to lose your home!

Make sure before you buy, READ THE FINE PRINT to find out just how strict the association is, and how much the monthly payments are. You cannot finance these, and they are not included in your monthly mortgage payment. So beware.

Most people don’t have any problems, but there have been cases in which my clients had to buy another house because they could not stand all the rigid rules of the association.

Food for thought.