MY husband and I are also all for abolishing the HOA. How do you go about doing this? Does this have to be voted on? That would go back to getting enough votes to do so.

My question is how do pay for upkeep in the park, pool and landscaping? My husband, Scot, mentioned turning over the park and pool to the City. I do not know if that is feasible.

Natty- I was not arguing the financials of previous years on my earlier post. I was just saying that the account I was given at the metting was more reasonable.

First, we have to get Lennar out of the picture considering that they hold more votes than us and wouldn't dream of losing more cashflow.

Second, we would probably have to get that 75% vote from ALL homeowners (not just 75% at a meeting quorum) to vote to abolish the HOA. That's going to be a pretty tall order, but I believe that anything is possible.

As far as the pool and park, I doubt the city would want to take control of it and would leave us with the option of making it into a slab of concrete, which wouldn't hurt my feelings. Of course others seem to like the pool. My family's never used it since grandma has a pretty sweet pool at her house ten minutes away.

I know when I was looking at buying our house we were told about the multiple playscapes, the pool, basketball courts, hike and bike trails, soccer and baseball fields, volleyball courts...and it all sounded like a great deal for the 300 (in 2003) dollars a year. The next year, our fees went up to 360 with none of the amenities listed above.

It seems like we pay 200 grand to have them mow the entries and plant some flowers a couple times a year.

I am sure most homeowners would love to save 360 a year and would willingly sign a petition (cast their vote) to abolish the HOA considering the city has the same ordinances the hoa has and can take care of things more efficiently than the hoa with out re-distributing the cost to those of us that are able and willing to pay the fee's. The economy is in such a state that we need to tighten our belts if we ever dream of making it through this unscathed. I don't think spending 360 a year for a bunch of head aches from the hoa and the constant nagging some of us do to the hoa people is worth it at all. I say we either fill in the pool, or ask for donations to maintain it. The donations of course would come from the people who use the pool. It doesn't cost that much a year to maintain it with chemicals ect. Seems to me that we can get a couple of neighborhood kids to mow the common area for a lot cheaper and I am sure they would pick up the trash from the drainage ditches for a couple of dollars more. This neighborhood could run so much smoother and without as much animosity if we came together as neighbors to take care of our own. For those that abandon their houses for whatever reason they have, the city can be called on to mow the yards and bill the owners of those homes. For what we are paying on a yearly basis, I don't see the value. Our basketball court isn't even a full size court and our "baseball" field is nothing more than a soggy swamp area that also doubles as the main drainage ditch the others feed into. This is the time to get rid of the hoa and all the headaches that it causes.