Imagine, as a homedebtor, having to deal with podantic homeowner's associations such as these.
Great story from Salvador Hernandez and Cristina Bautista of the Orange County Register. Excellent photos by Bruce Chambers too.
Great story from Salvador Hernandez and Cristina Bautista of the Orange County Register. Excellent photos by Bruce Chambers too.
Just hard to believe, since most homedebtors in Orange County, California where Aliso Viejo is located:
a.) Don't have a basement (building codes regarding earthquakes prevent this), and
b.) Usually store all of their personal shit in their garage, which means,
c.) They are damn lucky if they can manage to park even one of their typically 2 family cars inside the garage 7 days a week.
Just take a drive around any Orange County community on a Saturday afternoon - Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, it doesn't matter.
Now notice all the garage doors wide open and check out all of the junk inside. Not everyone does this, but I'd be willing to wager that over 50% do use the garage as a storage location. Some people are down right neat freaks and are anti-packrat. The rest don't have a choice due to a complete lack of space - or lack money to pay for monthly mini-storage.
Maybe the homeowner's association would like to donate part of their monthly dues to financing more affordable, local personal storage units to it's members? Just an idea.
This kind of callousness and short-sighted thinking is what makes the OC Register story about the Henderson family in Aliso Viejo all the more sad. Is it too much to ask to go over to their house and talk to them? Does everything have to be drawn out into a legal quagmire? What about the neighbors? Could they offer some help?
Probably not, they don't have any room in their garage either.
Yeah, it's 75 degrees out and sunny every day of the week here in OC. But the hearts of some people around these parts are just stone cold.
Maybe the first of many negative dividends realized as a result of the housing downturn and unfulfilled expectations.
(Photos by Bruce Chambers of the OC Register)
1 comment:
the reason the neighborhood was so "beautiful" when the Hendersons decided to buy there was due to the Association and the covenants. We're having the same issues here in a TN subdivision where some residents disregard the rules. The Association is one of the reasons the neighborhood doesn't go to crap. Otherwise, people would do whatever they wanted to do. I used to live somewhere without covenants, and cars were parked anywhere even "junked" cars would line the streets. No thank you! That's why I moved to a neighborhood with covenants.
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