My DH and I have a little townhouse in another state. The HOA board has gone from weird to tyrannical petty despots.

Ex: New Rules & Regs...I can't park my car in my own carport as storage (gee, I PAID FOR THE TOWNHOUSE AND CARPORT, how do they expect me to drive my car and not store it there when I work out of state???) I had to "petition" to be able to park it there.

Ex: "new" Rules and Regs (which also say the Board has the right to add, change, amend, delete any Rules and Regs at any time) say that the INTERIOR of the units must be keep clean and sanitary at all times and the Board HAS THE RIGHT TO ENTER TO CHECK IT OUT. (Huh? Is it their business how our friend, who lives there, keeps house? He's really neat and clean!) Actually, I think I'd refuse entry and then tell them they are tresspassing, but still, what the heck gives them the right to do this???

Ex: All pets must be on leashes (BUT this doesn't include THEIR cats who poop in everyone's yard!!! Yes, I brought this up at a board meeting but was told "all pets" meant dogs and not their "kitties.")

Ex: any time you do something to your unit, interior or exterior, you must notify the board in writing (I put up storm doors so notified, replaced a window screen and did NOT notify, redid the bathroom floor and did NOT notify, put up a ceiling fan and did NOT notify--oooh, I'm in trouble, I guess!)

...and those examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Anyway, these people just got voted "in" in June, and are not likely to be ousted as the other owners really don't care to take on the job. During the monthly meetings during the summer, I'm the only owner besides the Board members to attend the meetings, so these folks pretty much have carte blanche!

My townhouse is an end unit, one story so no one is above me, and the shared wall to the side is the living room shared wall as opposed to sharing a bedroom common wall. It's pretty quiet and nice except for the HOA Board.

My dilemma:

I have the option to buy a new townhouse when it's finished being built (Phase 1 & 2 are completed, Phase 3 will begin soon)--same area, BUT the new townhouse would have someone above me as well as to the side of me. I don't know if the shared wall would be a common wall with bedroom on each side, or if the shared wall would be the living area of both townhomes as it is in my current townhome. I have NO idea of the rules and regs or the CCRs of the new place. The new townhouses would be larger and have a garage as well. Would I be going from the frying pan into the fire? Who knows!

I also have the option to purchase a house, but that would put me in debt for another 20 or 30 years, and would prevent me from early retirement (if I wanted to take early retirement). On the other hand, a house wouldn't have any association or board associated with it. Also, with a house, I'd have to do all the yard work and maintenance, so that's a negative. While I don't really want to take care of a yard for a house (and could NOT afford to hire someone if I'm making housepayments, and our friend who would live there isn't exactly a spring chicken for yardwork either), I wouldn't have to answer to anyone.

I guess I'm leaning toward the new townhouse just to get away from the Board that's there now.

Any suggestions? I'm only there for vacations and summer.

Thanks!

Smiles,

Sooz