Quote :

"A Hillsborough County homeowners' association now faces thousands of dollars in legal fees after losing a lawsuit against one of their residents. The board of directors representing The Eagles, a deed restricted community in Odessa, was trying to keep A.J. Vizzi from parking his Ford pickup truck in his home's driveway. HOA rules state all trucks must be parked in a garage. But Vizzi claims when he moved into his home in 1997, he checked with developers and was told trucks were okay. He was also provided with a set of deed restrictions which were apparently different than the current guidelines. The HOA waited until 2001 to file a complaint and, finally, filled the lawsuit in December of 2006. A Hillsborough County Judge on Friday ruled in favor of Vizzi, calling the homeowners' association parking restrictions unreasonable. An attorney representing the Vizzi family says the HOA will be required by statute to pay for legal fees already topping $100,000. Those fees will likely have to be paid by residents of the community through an assessment."

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=96159&provider=top

12/16/2008 1:37:26 PM

Quote :

"An attorney representing the Vizzi family says the HOA will be required by statute to pay for legal fees already topping $100,000. Those fees will likely have to be paid by residents of the community through an assessment.""

yikes.

12/16/2008 1:38:32 PM

More like residents of the HOA pwnt. I'd be fucking pissed if I was hit with an assessment for this nonsense

12/16/2008 1:39:42 PM

so will he have to help pay for his own awarded legal fees as a resident?

12/16/2008 1:40:23 PM

So he basically just fucked over all of his neighbors by causing their HOA dues to go up to pay off the settlement, when all he had to do was park his fucking truck in the garage.

12/16/2008 1:40:57 PM

perhaps they'll all agree to break the HOA then

12/16/2008 1:41:16 PM

or perhaps they will slash his tires and pour bleach on his lawn

12/16/2008 1:41:47 PM

Don't the HOA have to vote to do all that. So the residents could have stopped it all by actually attending meetings?

12/16/2008 1:41:59 PM

^pretty much

12/16/2008 1:42:18 PM

So he basically just fucked over all of his neighbors by causing their HOA dues to go up to pay off the settlement, when all he had to do was park his fucking truck in the garage.

12/16/2008 1:42:29 PM

Quote :

"when all he had to do was park his fucking truck in the garage"

More like, the HOA just caused all of the neighborhood's fees to go up because they had to get bitchy over a truck in a private driveway that they had no legal standing over.

12/16/2008 1:42:30 PM

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 1:45 PM. Reason : ]

12/16/2008 1:42:40 PM

Quote :

"So he basically just fucked over all of his neighbors by causing their HOA dues to go up to pay off the settlement, when all he had to do was park his fucking truck in the garage."

you people are ridiculous

12/16/2008 1:45:03 PM

It's not like they were trying to get him to change the color of his house, or to remove shrubs and shit. It was just parking in the fucking garage. He could have just parked in the fucking garage instead of being a bitch about it.

12/16/2008 1:45:19 PM

you do realize the HOA sued him--not the other way round?

12/16/2008 1:46:16 PM

^^^^that shit was fuckin' hilarous

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 1:46 PM. Reason : ^^]

12/16/2008 1:46:17 PM

i agree with parksnrec on this - hoa are a bunch of bitches that don't need to be as powerful as they are - all they do is hire the lawn care guys and schedule trash pickup

12/16/2008 1:47:10 PM

^^what's the story? The picture makes me giggle a little but I have no clue what it's about.

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 1:48 PM. Reason : e]

12/16/2008 1:47:19 PM

Quote :

"He could have just parked in the fucking garage instead of being a bitch about it."

Maybe his other car is an MG, and if you don't park an MG in a garage it'll rust out in ten seconds.

12/16/2008 1:48:18 PM

Quote :

"The HOA waited until 2001 to file a complaint and, finally, filed the lawsuit in December of 2006."

Jesus H. Christ

12/16/2008 1:48:21 PM

I agree that HOA's are bullshit. But like I said, it's not like they were asking him to make a huge sacrifice. By him being stubborn and wanting to "fight the power" and prove his point, he ended up fucking over his neighbors over something silly.

12/16/2008 1:48:41 PM

Quote :

"what's the story? The picture makes me giggle a little but I have no clue what it's about."

hoa went crazy towing, booted the guys car, so he just rolled it into the garage with the dollies and closed the door

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 1:49 PM. Reason : 

12/16/2008 1:49:00 PM

Quote :

"I agree that HOA's are bullshit. But like I said, it's not like they were asking him to make a huge sacrifice. By him being stubborn and wanting to "fight the power" and prove his point, he ended up fucking over his neighbors over something silly."

his neighbors all signed the agreement

12/16/2008 1:50:04 PM

Quote :

"Maybe his other car is an MG, and if you don't park an MG in a garage it'll rust out in ten seconds."

Car covers are relatively inexpensive from what I remember, especially if you have the money to afford an MG.

^ exactly, and they all followed the rules. He didn't, now they have to pay for it.

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 1:51 PM. Reason : a]

12/16/2008 1:50:55 PM

Quote :

"By him being stubborn and wanting to "fight the power" and prove his point, he ended up fucking over his neighbors over something silly."

Aren't HOAs run by residents? If not run, they can be heavily shaped by involvement by residents, yes?

Tough shit.

GG for truck dude.

12/16/2008 1:51:02 PM

Quote :

"Car covers are relatively inexpensive from what I remember, especially if you have the money to afford an MG."

1. MG's aren't expensive.
2. A car cover isn't going to protect a British piece of shit from anything.

12/16/2008 1:52:59 PM

Although, looking at this from the other side, it was pretty lame of the HOA to sue over something so trivial.

12/16/2008 1:53:14 PM

Quote :

"exactly, and they all followed the rules. He didn't, now they have to pay for it."

my point was that they are supposed to be involved

they all signed the agreement and they all should actually take the time to see what is happening. the residents could have stopped this years ago and paid nothing by allowing him to park his truck where he needed to park it

12/16/2008 1:54:33 PM

i've never understood why someone would voluntarily buy a house somewhere that places these excessive restrictions on what they can do with thier own property.

12/16/2008 1:55:58 PM

Quote :

"By him being stubborn and wanting to "fight the power" and prove his point, he ended up fucking over his neighbors over something silly"

Seriously? There's nothing about fighting the power here. He asked if he could have his truck, he was told he could and was deeded the land without any restrictions on his truck and where it needs to be parked. If it was so silly then the HOA shouldn't have made so much of a deal out of it.

I drive a truck and I would be inconvenienced if I had to park it in a garage every night. Hypothetical #1: If the driveway only had room for one vehicle and they owned two, then someone would have to move the car out of the driveway every night and every morning because he had to park in the garage. #2 If he had a large truck it may have not fit into the garage and he would have to keep the door open or he wouldn't have any room inside his garage for other things.

12/16/2008 1:56:17 PM

If you read the 11 page judge's order you'd see that the reason why the guy won was because the rule was that commercial trucks had to be parked in the garage. The guy also claims that the HOA leaders or whatever were illegally elected without the residents actually getting to vote or something, but the court can't do anything because the HOA laws or whatever make him have to petition the "Department of Business and Professional Regulation Division of Florida Condiminiums."

12/16/2008 1:59:02 PM

Quote :

"i've never understood why someone would voluntarily buy a house somewhere that places these excessive restrictions on what they can do with thier own property."

because it is worth thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars in property value

my parents live next to a guy that put a trailer home in his back yard for a workroom

well it turns out that is against the hoa

well it turns out that the hoa covenant was never transferred to the residents, the statue of limitations is up, and the party that developed the neighborhood is dead

so they are stuck

i lovingly refer to the place as the country garden motel (the subdivision is called country club gardens)

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 1:59 PM. Reason : 

12/16/2008 1:59:06 PM

I remember a few years ago these 2 guys that had a dot com company sold it and made several million dollars. They were in their mid-20's. They bought a house in Irving Park, the rich section of Greensboro. Christmas time rolled around and they put out some colored Christmas lights. The next day, the HOA put a note on their door demanding the lights come down.

Instead of taking the lights down, they added about 20,000 more. And they put a big sign on the roof that read "The Griswold's of Irving Park". Every night they would sit out in the front lawn in Santa Claus outfits. After it hit the local news, there was a line of cars driving in front of their house every night to see it. CLASSIC.

12/16/2008 1:59:50 PM

^^ Anyone who worries about a work building in a backyard is a miserable person.

Now if the thing's falling apart and has three dogs tied to it at all times, that's one thing.

But there's nothing inherently wrong with using a prefab building for that purpose. You can bitch about property values all you want, but anyone who'd say that your house is worth less because the neighbor has a prefab building in their backyard isn't someone I'd bother talking to anyway.

12/16/2008 2:03:56 PM

i'd be pissed off at the board and the guy - everyone's dues will go up significantly probably

12/16/2008 2:04:42 PM

I remember seeing this in the news a while back. If it is the same case then the guy had an F-350 Dually for his work( construction IIRC) and it would not fit into his cracker box HOA plagued garage.

12/16/2008 2:05:00 PM

ahaha

that's beautiful

12/16/2008 2:05:16 PM

Quote :

"It's not like they were trying to get him to change the color of his house, or to remove shrubs and shit. It was just parking in the fucking garage. He could have just parked in the fucking garage instead of being a bitch about it."

With all do respect, you have to be fucking kidding me. I have a truck and I can't park it in my driveway that I pay for? GTFO, LOL. I will never live in a house under the auspices of a HOA and oppose any that ever try to manifest in a neighborhood where I live.

12/16/2008 2:05:47 PM

Quote :

"Anyone who worries about a work building in a backyard is a miserable person. Now if the thing's falling apart and has three dogs tied to it at all times, that's one thing. But there's nothing inherently wrong with using a prefab building for that purpose. You can bitch about property values all you want, but anyone who'd say that your house is worth less because the neighbor has a prefab building in their backyard isn't someone I'd bother talking to anyway."

lol

well it costs you tens of thousands dollars in property values because it looks like shit, get back to me with how you feel then ok

12/16/2008 2:05:57 PM

Fuck HOAs, they are the kings of unreasonable.


p.s. that episode of the x-files with the neighborhood golem and Mulder's flamingos was priceless.

12/16/2008 2:08:37 PM

^^usually if its that egregious, existing laws/building codes will cover it...I just don't see how anyone can be happy with yet another set of rules to follow...and usually over the top rules at that.

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 2:08 PM. Reason : .]

12/16/2008 2:08:39 PM

im not a fan, but i can see both sides of the issue

and the rules for my parents are only a page and a half

i dont see that as unreasonable, but this was put together is the early 90's before they moved to the neighborhood

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 2:11 PM. Reason : 

12/16/2008 2:09:43 PM

I'm with the truck owner on this. No one has the right to tell you what kind of car you can own and that you HAVE to park it in your garage. He may want to setup a shop in his garage and not use it for parking. fuck the hoa

12/16/2008 2:15:24 PM

Quote :

"well it costs you tens of thousands dollars in property values because it looks like shit, get back to me with how you feel then "

lower values = lower taxes

saweet

12/16/2008 2:15:45 PM

Quote :

"well it costs you tens of thousands dollars in property values because it looks like shit, get back to me with how you feel then ok"

a trailer set-up in a neighbors yard is not going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in property values.

a ford pick-up in a driveway is not going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in property values

12/16/2008 2:15:54 PM

^

12/16/2008 2:17:32 PM

HOA's are nothing but shitholes. They rarely do anything worthwhile

12/16/2008 2:17:41 PM

Who cares really about any of this. If you have enough money none of this shit will matter, and if you don't then oh well its just a bridge to cross if you ever come to it.

12/16/2008 2:18:37 PM

Quote :

"a trailer set-up in a neighbors yard is not going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in property values."

i would love to post pictures so you can see what a shit hole it is, i just dont have any

i would say 10% loss on the house just from the neighbor, once the house is worth more than $100k, you are in the tens of thousands range

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 2:19 PM. Reason : 

12/16/2008 2:18:49 PM

You didn't say it was a shithole.

12/16/2008 2:19:33 PM