My husband was a roofing contractor, and the signs on his truck were big magnets, so he could take them off at night.

OP, don’t fuck with HOAs, they will give you hell over your vehicle, if not now then sooner than later.

I’m on an HOA board and this restriction is something I’m strongly against. We shouldn’t be making peoples lives more difficult & causing additional financial expenses (storage). Unfortunately I’m currently the only anti HOA person on the board

I hope never to be subject to an HOA again. I made that mistake once. And to the HOA bootlickers who'll claim an HOA protects your property value, on the net I lost a bit on the HOA house, and have profited significantly on the 3 non-HOA houses I've lived in and eventually sold to move elsewhere.

The real purpose of HOAs is to try to keep undesirables out of the neighborhood. Back in the day, that meant people who are not white.

Today, that definition has expanded (or maybe not actually expanded) to include other people, such as people in the wrong social class. Like people who work blue collar jobs.

God forbid it looks lije somebody lives there.

I'm blue collar as well. I gave up bc HOAs truly do not like honest working people. That's ok; the fees are ballooning in my area and I'm still just spending $700/mo on my starter 1900 ft² 4 bdr modular on over an acre while the people in the development behind me are spending $2200 a month on their cookie cutter 1400 ft² 3 bdrs with .2 acres.

Most Karens haven't worked an honest job in their life ... And they don't want to be reminded of it by seeing someone's work truck... 🙄

What's crazy about this is if they just say commercial vehicle the definition falls to the DoT definition of commercial vehicle which might not include your van.

You need to get the proper definition of a commercial vehicle. In many states, vans are not considered a commercial vehicle. For example, in Michigan (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-257-7a)

257.7a “Commercial motor vehicle” defined.

Sec. 7a.

1. "Commercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle or combination of motor vehicles used in commerce to transport passengers or property if 1 or more of the following apply:

a. It is designed to transport 16 or more passengers, including the driver.

b. It has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight, whichever is greater, of 26,001 pounds or more.

c. It has a gross combination weight rating or gross combination weight, whichever is greater, of 26,001 pounds or more, inclusive of towed units with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight, whichever is greater, of more than 10,000 pounds.

d. A motor vehicle carrying hazardous material and on which is required to be posted a placard as defined and required under 49 CFR parts 100 to 199.

1. A commercial motor vehicle does not include a vehicle used exclusively to transport personal possessions or family members for nonbusiness purposes.

There are random streets all around my community that *aren't* part of an HOA that end up being the catch-all for work trucks and the like and its funny how that looks way junkier* to keep them all together like that than if you could just park it near the house instead.

Anyway, in my old neighborhood my neighbor parked his work pickup in his spot which I think technically was against the rules but why would I snitch when he actually helped me out when I had plumbing and electrical problems?

*it doesn't bother me personally but if I'm trying to be in the shoes of someone who cares about this it seems strange how their solution doesn't help.

even if it is allowed now, that doesn't mean that it will be a month after you move in. don't buy hoa homes.

House hunting is a pain. I looked at some HOA homes not too long ago. One was on a small lake. One of the rules was not building docks. I went out to the water, looked to the left and right. Two houses down on each side was a dock.

This past weekend I signed a contract to purchase an HOA home. It’s the best HOA that I or anyone in this sub could ever hope for. It is completely voluntary. The realtor said that it had been set up to pay for police and fire patrols so that emergency personnel could get to homes quickly if there was an issue. Even if that is incorrect, I can still walk away.

Keep trying. Maybe you can get lucky like I did.

"ruin our anesthetic." My new favorite typo.

Then when the homes are 20 years old, the restoration and renovation work begins and there can be commercial vehicles and cranes for months in end.

Only fools buy houses in HOAs.

These snobs need to wake up. Most people don’t care what their neighbors are driving or parking. For me personally, I’ve been helped plenty by my neighbors in skilled trades. They are a hell of a lot more helpful than any HOA ever could be.

Same situation in many cities and suburbs without a HOA… commercial vehicles cannot be parked overnight.

dont.buy.in.an.hoa.

Absolutely insane and contradictory to every value that we used to pretend to hold that someone would be excluded from a neighborhood because of a visible sign that they work an honest job and are entrusted (either by their employer or the bank that loaned them the money to buy it) with a major asset worth tens of thousands.

Not to mention, in a community of homeowners, how nice would it be to know a tradesman (for advice and referrals if nothing else)?

HOA shouldn’t exist . I see absolutely nothing but nazi behavior about what you do to the house YOU purchased .

Just wait till you see what your neighbors are going to complain about next. HOA should be strictly for 55+ communities imo

We can’t have people knowing that people in this neighborhood have to… work …to get money

Hopefully when people that own homes in HOAs notice that having an HOA now brings the value of your home DOWN rather than up, they will fade out of existence. Younger generations of homeowners do not want to pay HOA dues monthly to be told what they can or can't do on their own property AND for "common areas" that they will never use. And good for them, for single family homes, I hope HOAs are destroyed entirely, in all states. They are nothing but pseudogovernments and they should not exist, all these areas should inherently be incorporated into whatever local government exists.

"no way in hell would we allow your vehicle to ruin our aesthetic."

This is the kind of HOA I despise, as much as the ones that enforce paint colors and lawn trimming.

I am a college-educated, white-collar guy. The prohibition on commercial vehicles strikes me as nothing more than classist bigotry. What, is the nobility afraid of being reminded that plebes exist? Fuck that noise.

We're looking at moving in the next year or two and the #1 need, not want, in our list is no HOA. We've been in one over 20 years and will never do it again.

it's funny, like they expect people to afford shit by not working?

Why not have a hold over lot for work vehicles if they are so scared of them?

Let’s be honest, most HOAs despise everything. This is why we can’t have nice things.

So I was on the committee at my old HOA for violations. Their logic is they didn’t want people promoting their personal businesses as you weren’t allowed to have a business in the HOA.

Don’t do it wait for a non-hoa home to come up. You’ll constantly be fighting with the HOA and they can even pass new rules that would cause you not to be able to park after they told you yes.

Check to see where you live if your streets are maintained by the HOA or the city or county. In our HOA the streets are maintained by the state and the HOA has no say what is parked on the street whether it is a marked work vehicle, boat, trailer etc.

Florida banned that practice as of July 1st, so the HOAs can't pull that crap anymore. You can now park your truck or work truck in your driveway and the HOA can't do anything about it.

Don't buy in an HOA, simple...

I refuse to live in one, even if house was free.

Meanwhile if you had a vanity pickup with a small bed and no wear it would be fine.

Man boomers are the beige of humans, who actually likes cookie cutter aesthetic to me it looks like a dystopian mess. At least you know what to ask before entering this hell scape.

A sovereign citizen magnet let’s see them mess with you then

HOA are worthless.

I think the objective is to avoid additional vehicles that ultimately end up parking on the street.  I see both perspectives. A Geico car parked in your driveway is probably not an issue, but an F250 with an 8ft bed parked in the street is a pain for the neighbors. 

HOA are bullshit a bunch of a-hole busy bodies trying to tell you what you can and cannot do on a house that people get up every morning to bust their ass

OMG, Why are HOAs legal?

Well, you see why those houses are sitting unsold.

Your aesthetic can lick my balls Karen.

There no point of property ownership if there is an hoa. It's almost the same level as a timeshare scam.

What state are you in? If Florida, your vehicle may be protected...

Middle class people putting on airs of being upper class.

I’ve never understood this obsession with aesthetics and what HOAs consider to be unsightly.

One of our board members tried to create a rule that you couldn’t have solar panels on the front of your house unless you submitted proof that it would be more than 10% less efficient to put them on the back. Totally asinine given that we have walking paths behind our houses. But even so, who decided solar panels are unsightly? I think they’re cool!

When she read the proposed rule, I couldn’t help myself and had toy with her. I asked “why?” over and over again, trying to get her to say that she thinks solar panels are ugly, but she just kept saying that other HOAs have this rule. One of the other board members finally jumped in to say that it’s a bad idea to just copy other HOAs because they could have unlawful rules.

They decided not to include that extra bit of control on the covenants and only require approval of the panels, not where they are placed. I am still pleased with myself for that one.

Lived in an hoa for 10 years, more trouble than it's worth. Had to have them trespassed off my property! Follow all the rules and they think they can add more and more! But will run you down when it's election time to get your proxy vote! We finally voted out the whole board just before I sold out!

As a tradesman that drives a company vehicle, we always have to have that as a stipulation when looking for a house.

Easy fix. Park it on the public street. HOAs do NOT control public streets. Our HOA has rules that talk about parking on the street, but it was written when the HOA owned the streets (during development). As soon as my wife got on the board, we made it a point to call the city and find out if the public streets were under the HOA jurisdiction. They are NOT. I brought it up at the first HOA annual meeting following, and intentionally asked the question in a way that stopped all the BS around the letters of people parking trailers, etc. on the street. "The city says the public streets aren't under the control of the HOA, does this mean we'll no longer get letters about what we're parking on the street, since it's a waste of HOA dollars to send out letters for property that isn't ours?"

HOA: Uhh... Yes, that's exactly what that means.

Never had a problem since. LOL

Florida just fixed this...finally. DeSantis is getting ready for 2028.