One homeowner said they were stuck waiting on their HOA's bureaucracy when the pipes feeding their sprinklers broke.
"The sprinklers have been off for two weeks," they complained in a post on r/HOA. "The grass and plants are not looking good."
According to the Redditor, their community is made up of 1,000 single-family homes. Each of those households pays a $350 HOA fee monthly, which should cover top-quality maintenance and landscaping. However, the HOA appeared to be cutting corners.
"When I called the landscape/irrigation company — they blamed it on the HOA board," the original poster said. "They said the board has all the requests from the irrigation company to fix the breaks in main lines (the reason the water is off) — but that the board will not approve or deny the requests. They have them but have not decided on them."
What was worse was that this seemed normal for the HOA, which had ordered the bare minimum of care for the community's landscaping. "The person from the irrigation company told me that the contract only calls for a very part time person to 'wet test' one time a month, and do fixes very part time. Basically a very minimal contract," the original poster explained.
While leaking pipes might have been out of sight and out of mind for the HOA board, they created real problems. Any escaping water costs money and is terrible for water conservation. It's not the first time a thoughtless HOA has wasted water this way, either.
All the while, homeowners who aren't receiving water for their yards can't garden, which means they can't enjoy the health benefits or save money on produce.
The original poster was deeply frustrated. "Do we get reimbursed for the time the sprinklers were off?" they demanded.
Sadly, the answer was no. "You won't get reimbursed for anything," said one commenter. "Either extra money is going into the reserve fund or dues should be decreased."
"If it's important to you, I'd recommend attending the next meeting and talking to the board about it," said another user.
That advice offers a starting point, but the original poster can also take it further. HOAs have internal processes for changing their rules, so a dedicated resident could ensure this situation never happens again. To find out how, check out this guide.
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