Buying a home in Seattle or anywhere else in Washington state that is governed by a homeowners association (HOA) means evaluating more than the home itself. HOA rules, dues, upkeep standards, and board decisions can all affect your monthly costs, how you use the property, future resale risk, and your day-to-day living experience.
Before you buy, it helps to understand the most common HOA problems and where they tend to show up. This article outlines several issues Washington buyers may want to watch for so they can review HOA documents carefully and make a more informed purchase decision.
When you are looking to purchase a home, you might hear a lot about something called a homeowners association, often shortened to HOA. While there are benefits of having an HOA in a living community, these benefits also have their drawbacks.
There are a few common headaches that people often experience when they move into a community that has an HOA. Anticipating these problems ahead of time can help everyone prepare for what they might encounter.
Whether you are living in a condo or in a neighborhood, the HOA is supposed to maintain the community common areas. This can include lawns, landscaping, hallways, pools, gyms, and other shared amenities.
Sometimes the issue is not a major repair problem, but a pattern of weak day-to-day upkeep. Trash may not be cleared promptly, landscaping may look neglected, or storm cleanup may be slow. When routine maintenance slips, the neighborhood can start to look run-down, which may affect both your enjoyment of the property and how the community is perceived by future buyers.
Without a doubt, parking issues are among the most common problems that you might encounter with your HOA. When someone is driving through town, traffic and parking issues are handled by the police.
In the neighborhood, the HOA is typically responsible. The bylaws of the homeowners association might even give them the right to fine people. Make sure you read the agreement with the HOA carefully. You need to know the laws as well as your rights.
If your HOA gives you a hard time about which service provider you choose for your cable or satellite, you should know that they do not have the right to force you to take your antennas or satellite dish down. This is true even if the HOA feels as though they negatively impact the aesthetics of the complex.
On the other hand, if you use an antenna, there are still some HOA rules that can control its location. Make sure that you check your HOAs rules carefully.
Another common issue when it comes to HOAs are pets. If you have a dog, cat, or any other pet, you will certainly want to find out what types of rules that your HOA enforces in its regulations.
Most HOAs don’t strictly ban pets entirely, but what they may do is have certain rules in effect that restrict the types or size of pets allowed. For instance, they may have a rule that states that no dogs over 60 pounds are allowed, or perhaps they may restrict the number of pets per unit to two. They may also have restrictions in terms of certain breeds of dogs that are and aren’t allowed.
The HOA may also have rules that govern how your pets are to be taken care of so that they are not a nuisance and that the complex is not destroyed by animals. Common pet issues usually involve things such as noise, violations of leash laws, and pet waste that is not cleaned up.
As long as you comply with the HOAs rules, you should have no issues. But if you have more than the allowed number of pets, or have a breed that the HOA does not allow, you could be facing some issues.
Some HOAs have restrictions in their regulations that disallow residents from hanging their clothes out to dry. Whether it’s a community with detached homes or townhouses with yards, or a condo building with balconies, hanging clothing on clotheslines outside may not be permitted.
For Washington buyers, this is something to verify directly in the HOA rules before you purchase. Washington does not have a specific clothesline-protection law, and a reported 2013 bill on the issue did not pass. Washington law does protect solar energy systems from HOA prohibitions, and some commentators have argued that this could potentially extend to solar-drying devices like clotheslines, but that interpretation has not been clearly codified or tested for clotheslines. In practical terms, exterior-use restrictions like this should be treated as a rule-review item during your HOA due diligence.
Beyond routine upkeep, some HOAs fall behind on larger repairs in shared areas such as elevators, lobbies, parking lots, roofs, fitness rooms, or other amenities. These are bigger-ticket issues that may linger for months if the association is not budgeting properly or is slow to act.
When deferred repairs pile up, owners may deal with inconvenience now and higher costs later. If the HOA is not keeping up its end of the bargain, this could negatively affect your enjoyment of your home. It can also be a sign to look more closely at how the association is managed.
In this case, you and other owners would have to approach the HOA board members to address these issues. If nothing is done after this discussion, you may have to take further steps in the form of legal action to get the HOA to tend to the property.
Being able to communicate with the HOA is important, especially if there are issues that need to be addressed and dealt with. But some HOAs don’t have adequate lines of communication. They may be tough to get a hold of or simply don’t respond to queries, which can be a real nuisance for those living in an HOA.
Many times, those who are elected to be on the HOA board may make decisions that owners don’t agree with. This could include any number of things, such as disagreements on which cable or security services should be brought in. Ultimately, homeowners may be forced to file disputes, especially when it comes to who or what capital expenses are being spent on.
Sometimes there are HOA board members who do not behave in the best interests of the homeowners and the overall community. They may be involved in theft of funds, or may pull scams that allow them to pocket money that is not owed to them. For instance, it’s not uncommon for board members to hire service providers that they know, only to pay them an inflated price for their services, with part of those funds going into the pockets of the board member responsible for hiring them.
One of the most annoying issues that homeowners in an HOA face are random fines. This tends to happen when a resident does something that the HOA is not fond of. When this happens, a notice of rule violation may be given to the resident.
However, many times there are no rules that outlaw certain behaviors or activities. Instead, HOA board members may just randomly issue a fine without there actually be a by-law against the behavior. HOA board members cannot issue fines if it is not stipulated in the rulebook.
Some of the other issues that you might encounter with your local homeowners’ association involve pets, holiday decorations, and other random fines. You should read up on the bylaws ahead of time so you know what lies ahead. While not every HOA in Seattle creates problems, others can be a real headache.
As always, your local real estate agent can answer specific HOA-related questions on any community in the area.
If you are in the market for a new home or interested in refinancing your current property, be sure to consult with your trusted home mortgage professional to discuss financing options.
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Common HOA problems include poor routine maintenance, parking disputes, antenna restrictions, pet rules, limits on hanging clothing outside to dry, deferred repairs, poor communication, disagreements with the board, misconduct by board members, and unwarranted fines.
It can be, but buyers should look closely at the tradeoffs. An HOA may help maintain shared spaces and community standards, but it can also add dues, rules, and governance issues that affect daily life, monthly costs, and resale risk.
Buyers should carefully review the HOA rules, bylaws, dues, upkeep responsibilities, and board-related documents. It is also wise to look at how the association handles maintenance, communication, restrictions, and decision-making before closing.
An HOA board cannot properly issue fines for conduct that is not covered by the governing rules. Buyers and owners should read the rulebook carefully to understand what is actually prohibited and whether the association has authority to fine.
Warning signs can include poor communication, delayed maintenance, ongoing disputes with owners, questionable spending decisions, and conduct that appears self-serving rather than focused on the community’s interests.
Frequent issues include parking disputes, pet weight or breed restrictions, limits on the number of pets, leash and waste violations, and exterior-use rules such as restrictions on hanging clothing outside or limits on where antennas may be placed.
These restrictions are typically addressed in the HOA’s governing documents, which buyers should review before purchasing. Checking the rules in advance helps avoid surprises about pets, parking, balconies, yards, antennas, and other property-use limits.
An HOA may have some rules about placement, but it cannot simply force an owner to remove an antenna or satellite dish just because it dislikes the appearance. Buyers should still review the specific community rules about location and installation.
A useful sign is whether the association is keeping up with both routine maintenance and larger shared-area repairs. If major repairs are being delayed or amenities are being neglected, buyers may want to look more closely at the HOA’s budgeting and management.
A buyer should slow down and review the HOA documents carefully, pay attention to maintenance patterns, restrictions, fines, and board decisions, and ask direct questions before moving forward. If concerns remain, it may be wise to get more guidance from a real estate professional or legal professional.
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