RANTING

So I live in an HOA which is expected when you live in a town home.  Across the street is a separate HOA for the regular home owners.  See the original contractor had us as ONE HOA then the $$ got the better of him & he split it giving a road to Bateman (regular home owners) the ENTIRE road even though both HOAs use the road.

Bateman apparently has a rule that there is to be NO parking on said road.  Well on the BATEMAN side of the road there is a sign that has so much writing no one is even going to read it, however it does say not parking on the road.  Well when we moved in we thought it was THEIR side of the road since there is no signs on OUR side of the road.  Well then we got a paper on our car saying NO PARKING on the road.  Fine we stopped, & we got a notice saying that if we parked on the road we would be towed.  Well a neighbor got towed & so I called my HOA people to find out if they had the RIGHT to do that.  I was told that yes they did in fact have the right because they OWNED the road.  I was livid!!  So the HOA said to go around and have everyone e-mail him & he would have a meeting with their HOA.

So I went around with another gal in the town homes & you should have heard the stories.  People moving in the parents aren't there just a 16 year old girl & she's told to move the UHAUL or it will be towed.  Grap a BOX & help!!  What a welcome to the neighborhood.  Another family moving in got their vehicle TOWED along with the trailer.  Then instead of the paper notices saying don't park on the road they started placing stickers on windshields which are very DIFFICULT to remove saying don't park or we'll tow.

So we had said meeting & the HOA president of Bateman agreed to allow visitor parking for 2 hours we even talked about putting in visitor parking.  Not only that but he said he'd NO LONGER place stickers on windshields or any other area of the car.  See OUR parking is a JOKE anyway.  My "visitor parking" is behind my home on Jace Lane.  So how do you tell your visitors to find your house "Park on Jace Lane walk back to 1550, head south to Sandalwood Dr & we are 1582."  That is half a block heaven forbid if you grandparents want to visit! What about when you have blessings or other family functions?  There are only 4 visitor stalls.  Bateman has DRIVEWAYS!!  They have VISITOR parking right across the street from their homes!!  It works great for them, but what about US?!

A year later I'm thinking we're making progress, so we went to a funeral today & didn't think about telling our sister to move her vehicle.  We were gone an HOUR and a HALF at the MOST & we come home to a LOVELY GREEN sticker.  WHAT?!?!?!  We're digressing?!  What happened?!

I guess the hardest part is that I live in America & I don't have the right to park on a road that I use EVERYDAY!  Not only me for nearly 40 other homeowners.  Technically if Bateman wanted they could refuse to allow us to DRIVE on THEIR road.  How is that fair/legal?!  I feel like in order for my voice to be heard I have to BEG other Bateman HOA members to be the voice for me!!  I don't want over night parking & when we talked to the president we agreed we'd enforce that so WHY CAN'T WE WORK TOGETHER LIKE AMERICANS?!?!?!  So thank you Bateman HOA for allowing me to DRIVE ON YOUR ROAD!!!  I'd hate to think of walking clear from 1550 with groceries & 2 children.

My advice to you, if you live in a regular home DON'T live in an HOA (that's just stupid) if you live in a Town House & end up in my situation YOUR SCREWED!!  How would you know about this prior to buying the home?!?!  How are we going to be able to SELL our homes if this continues?  GUESS WHAT BATEMAN?!  If we CAN'T sell we'll RENT & I'm pretty sure that if you live by apartments where the tenants don't care about what it looks like pretty sure you're home values are going to drop even MORE.

SIGH sorry everyone, but I had to get that off my chest.  DON'T BUY A TOWN HOME IN SANDALWOOD COVE!!! A train is better than this!!