Home Owners Association
Our neighborhood in New York consisted of 41 houses. Oddly enough, the neighborhood in Virginia also consists of 41 houses.
The New York location was established in the 1940s. It was a converted farm and orchard. The Virginia neighborhood was located on one side of a lake (reservoir) and was totally wooded.
Both have a Property Owners Association with a heavy binder of rules and regulations. Most of the print dealt with legal issues and was unreadable. The rest dealt with the maintenance of the dwelling and the size and condition of the property. During the years in New York, we had emergency meetings about weeds growing too high where the road met the individual property. There were no sidewalks, and therefore lots of complaints about please not cleaning up after their dogs. We had an annual square dance, and discussions on how to fund it. Once or twice, something important came up. I had a brief stint as the President of the association. I had to go in front of the board of Nassau County. I was petrified. It was a short tenure.
In Virginia, we moved into a new community. What made us different from other communities was the fact that you chose your builder. The house plan had to fit within the rules governing set backs and distance between dwellings. There was a minimum square footage as well. The rules and regulations still filled a huge binder, but these rules were continuously altered as problems arose.
I was vice president and had a spot on the architectural committee.
Both jobs were irritating and thankless. Everybody who moved into the community had to sign that they understood the rules and regulations.
No matter what, in either place, people did what they wanted and the hell with the rules. Whether it be about dogs, fences or infringing on another’s property, there is always trouble. I don’t understand why a property dispute, when you are talking about a few inches one way or another, causes such a ruckus.
In New York, the people who lived directly across the street from us had trouble with the people on their left. The properties were perpendicular to each other. One neighbor wanted to refinish their cement driveway. When completed, the new driveway was a couple of inches over the property line. In question was a tiny corner in the back of the other house. They fought over it, they went to court over it, and in the end, the people who lost filled plastic bags of dog shit and then filled the neighbor's driveway with them. Really?
Here, in Virginia, we had a bruhaha over campaign signs. One person put out a sign and a flag calling for rights for all people. A neighbor down the street caused so much trouble over it, saying every time he did his neighborhood walk, he was offended by the sign. We already had a rule that no campaign signs could be displayed until 60 days before an election, but this was different. It supported no campaign. The neighbor carried on. Just to keep the peace, they removed the sign. The complaining neighbor erected a cross on his front lawn, stating, “One Nation Under God.” How he doesn’t see he is guilty of the same thing the other one did? His justification is his cross is a symbol of his religion, and he has freedom of religion. So much for his idea of “loving thy neighbor.”
