Go Retire Psychiatrist

This is a post about the quirks of Home Owners Associations (HOAs) which I have ranted about before. I’m still going to do that now despite the fact we moved into an HOA a couple of years ago.

A few months ago, I started taking regular walks for exercise in our neighborhood for exercise. The side I walked on was a trail that I thought belonged to the city. There were all kinds of vegetation overgrowing the trail.

The worst part was a big tree that grew way over the trail. I got a little neurotic about it and started to worry it might fall down on me while I was walking under it. It would have done more than just knock my hat off.

So, I contacted the city through a web-based contact form to inquire about getting a crew out to clear away the vegetation. At first, I got short shrift with a peremptory two-word retort saying “No violation.”

What I tried to do next was find out who else I could talk to about it. A day or so later, I got a voice mail from another city employee who evidently thought it through and said she’d get the forestry management team on it.

The very next day, a crew was out clearing away brush from the trail—but they were on the other side of the street opposite from the trail I called about. I checked back later in the day and my side of the street had not been touched.

I called the lady who got the crew out and told her that the forestry crew had neglected to clear both sides of the street. That’s when I got a reminder that my side belonged to the HOA and was therefore not under city jurisdiction. The opposite side the city crew worked on was part of the city park system.

The lady notified the builder who was ultimately responsible for my side and he called the private company that mows lawns for a separate part of the HOA (condos). They came out a couple of days later and made short work of the jungle on my side of the street, including taking out the tree. It’s now much easier to walk on.

The only thing I wonder now is whether the HOA leadership might levy an extra fee to the HOA members for the service. I say that because that side of the street had obviously not been groomed for a number of years, given the size of that tree.

The city asked for my review of how their service went on this issue. I made sure they knew who had been most helpful.