Our HOA is BIG MAD about this. They went off on a whole little thing about how they can still put in limits and how the bylaws were done with the previous company and something something lawyer. Also, someone said "what if everyone had their clothes out all the time?" and I said "That would show that we are all very energy-conscious." When I asked directly "am I going to get a violation for a clothesline" they said yes and I would just contact them about it.
The first name on that there bill is my state rep, and I cannot wait to let his office know about their noncompliance. I also have no idea how I'm going to hang a clothesline within the HOA restrictions about not attaching anything to my house, but I'm sure as shit going to figure it out.
I have looked into getting solar installed on the house and had a great conversation with a salesman.
First, I live in an area too far out to get solar installed (the closest installer is 3 hours away), so there's that. Maybe in a couple of years?
Secondly, he asked how long I was planning on staying in the home. What he told me was when you sign a contract for solar panels (often a 10-15 year contract) and you decide to move, YOU are still on the hook to pay off the solar panels, not the new owner. So you want to make sure you're planning on staying long enough to pay them off or can work out something with the new buyer.
I've been here for 20+ years and don't plan to move, but I may never get them! :(
I just got a whole new roof via a Baltimore County outfit called City Works, and I was just too ill to think of asking if they'd spring for solar panels while they were at it.
Isn't it the norm for solar panels to be considered added value to a building, just like any other quality home improvement? So just raise the selling price when selling and use that extra money to pay off the solar contract. Or is this one of those horrible payment plans you're not allowed to pay all at once? Don't get those, they suck.
Yes, they do, absolutely. And you can get rebates or tax credits that will cut your costs, for a couple of more years, IF you don't live in a state like Oklahoma, where you have to pay the electric company $80 a month "to use their transmission lines" to sell electricity back to the company. Ridiculous, I know.
Installation costs are still high, and the salesman told me with my electricity usage, the panels would pay for themselves in 15 years. For homes with high electricity costs, it pays for itself much faster.
Solar farms are a common site here in the UK. Sheep like to graze underneath them and I believe there are now plans to increase the spacing between the rows, so that tractors can get between them and crops can be grown.
Doesn't stop the NIMBYs putting up signs against new solar farms though.
"Sure, carbon emissions will destroy all life on planet Earth if we don't take serious measures to reduce them, but having people install things that *I* consider 'unsightly' somewhere I might have to occasionally look at them is just GOING TOO FAR!!!!!"
In an apartment building, not huge, so no HOA to worry about and I can honestly tell the scam callers (if I pick up, that is), No. I am not the owner.
But the local high school is getting their second parking lot photovoltaic array this summer! When the first one went up a few years ago, my mo sarcastically asked, Do the little darlings need shade for their cars? And I go to be nerdy (and slightly snotty) in my answer extolling the progress her old HS was making.
It saddens me that the whole Bobbie Dooley canon isn’t available online somewhere. Phil Hendrie, while a bit of a right-winger himself, is one of those rare intentionally funny conservatives.
As the chairman of a COA’s (Condo Owner’s Association) Architectural Review Committee I spend a great deal of time dealing with a lot of issues. If anyone campaigns for my job, they don’t need to as I will gladly turn it over to the poor jerk who wants to put up with the problems. That’s another story.
I would welcome legislation in my state (MD) such as Michigan’s regarding solar panels, EV connections, heat pumps, etc. and have often joked about stretching clotheslines across the yards. I like sun-dried clothing. But we live in an apartment and such things as solar panels, EV connects, and clotheslines present serious difficulties. I would support legislation that would make such things possible for our 100-plus apartments These changes will have to happen eventually as apartment developments are sprouting up like dandelions. We also have condo cottages, and they will be much easier to add the solar, EV hookups, and even clotheslines, but their owners harder to convince to take those steps, or at least some of them. And in a condo situation where owners do not own the roof over their heads, the question of who pays for installation and repairs of the solar panels is a big one, requiring major changes in the community legal documents.
Don’t castigate (or castrate) all HOA/COA volunteers. Some of us are just as interested in cutting carbon emissions and utilizing strategies for making this planet as habitable as possible for as long as possible. BTW, I love induction cooking.
you can make the point that as newer development will have these things installed, it should be seen as an investment that will contribute to maintain the value of your real estate and will get your current owners a better deal if they should sell.
Make me president and give me a Democratic Congress and I'll make sure the next climate bill includes EV and Solar solutions for apartments, condos, or other multifamily housing.
Heck, do that for Joe Biden or Kamala and I'll start a letter-writing campaign!
Great things happen with the Democratic trifecta. The useless political media used to harp on California for running huge deficits, they replaced the Governator with a Democrat and now they run huge surpluses. So many great reforms happened here in Virginia under the Democratic trifecta then we got Glenn Youngkin and he vetoes everything good. Republicans ruin everything.
Back in the 90s I fought with my HOA over a mini satellite dish, which was new tech at the time. The law changed in time for me to prevail. Fresh off that victory, I picked a fight about my gas grill. They tried to tell me the insurance wouldn't cover it. I had an upstairs condo, so I could almost see the concern. The insurance agent was a friend of mine, so I got him to research it for me. Beat them on that, too.
Fuck Ted Cruz, and fuck HOAs is what I'm getting at.
I actually had a Granada! I think it was a 72 though. As to HOAs, we owned a condo once and the officers, all volunteers, campaigned vigorously for the job. Once ensconced, however, the minute you called them out on their BS their answer was always well I am volunteer if you think you could do better just try to wrest this plum position away from me. After about six months I just gave up, sent in my money, and stayed away...Also resolved never to be part of an HOA again...
Mine must’ve been a 75 or 76 in that case. I only paid a few hundred dollars for it because it had a bent frame which as it turned out could not be repaired.
I can understand, I guess, having rules that people maintain their landscaping in an orderly fashion, not have rusting vehicles up on blocks in the driveway, that sort of thing. OK, I don't *really* understand it, but I can accept that some people want to live in neighbourhoods like that.
But why care about solar panels? They're not like dandelions, they won't be blowing solar seeds all over the neighbours' lawns. It makes no sense to me.
In my Colorado days(87-04), I retrofitted a solar clothes dryer on my long deck. Yea, some call it a clothes line, and it dried clothes quietly and efficiently.
My retired father joined his HOA board and the President of the board was demanding that a homeowner rip out their drought tolerant landscaping and replace it with grass, because the current version perpetuated the climate change lie. She said her husband was serving in Iraq and she was alone raising her kids, didn’t have the money to do a second landscaping job. He wouldn’t back down. The board made him resogn
Our HOA is BIG MAD about this. They went off on a whole little thing about how they can still put in limits and how the bylaws were done with the previous company and something something lawyer. Also, someone said "what if everyone had their clothes out all the time?" and I said "That would show that we are all very energy-conscious." When I asked directly "am I going to get a violation for a clothesline" they said yes and I would just contact them about it.
The first name on that there bill is my state rep, and I cannot wait to let his office know about their noncompliance. I also have no idea how I'm going to hang a clothesline within the HOA restrictions about not attaching anything to my house, but I'm sure as shit going to figure it out.
The SCOTUS will find a way to invalidate this law. Something about the 2d amendment, probably, or maybe the 3d.
I have looked into getting solar installed on the house and had a great conversation with a salesman.
First, I live in an area too far out to get solar installed (the closest installer is 3 hours away), so there's that. Maybe in a couple of years?
Secondly, he asked how long I was planning on staying in the home. What he told me was when you sign a contract for solar panels (often a 10-15 year contract) and you decide to move, YOU are still on the hook to pay off the solar panels, not the new owner. So you want to make sure you're planning on staying long enough to pay them off or can work out something with the new buyer.
I've been here for 20+ years and don't plan to move, but I may never get them! :(
My contract stipulates that the loan is sold when the house is. It doesn't travel with me. Blue Raven is the provider.
Thanks, I'm going to look into it a bit further!
I just got a whole new roof via a Baltimore County outfit called City Works, and I was just too ill to think of asking if they'd spring for solar panels while they were at it.
Isn't it the norm for solar panels to be considered added value to a building, just like any other quality home improvement? So just raise the selling price when selling and use that extra money to pay off the solar contract. Or is this one of those horrible payment plans you're not allowed to pay all at once? Don't get those, they suck.
Yes, they do, absolutely. And you can get rebates or tax credits that will cut your costs, for a couple of more years, IF you don't live in a state like Oklahoma, where you have to pay the electric company $80 a month "to use their transmission lines" to sell electricity back to the company. Ridiculous, I know.
Installation costs are still high, and the salesman told me with my electricity usage, the panels would pay for themselves in 15 years. For homes with high electricity costs, it pays for itself much faster.
Ahhhh, Grenada! Ford's 'big nothing'! Good times
sorry..Granada..It's as silly as a 'No Va'
Solar farms are a common site here in the UK. Sheep like to graze underneath them and I believe there are now plans to increase the spacing between the rows, so that tractors can get between them and crops can be grown.
Doesn't stop the NIMBYs putting up signs against new solar farms though.
"Sure, carbon emissions will destroy all life on planet Earth if we don't take serious measures to reduce them, but having people install things that *I* consider 'unsightly' somewhere I might have to occasionally look at them is just GOING TOO FAR!!!!!"
We built a house last year. So glad we live in a country where HOAs do not exist.
We don't have solar yet, but plan to add it in the near future. The house was designed specifically with solar in mind.
In an apartment building, not huge, so no HOA to worry about and I can honestly tell the scam callers (if I pick up, that is), No. I am not the owner.
But the local high school is getting their second parking lot photovoltaic array this summer! When the first one went up a few years ago, my mo sarcastically asked, Do the little darlings need shade for their cars? And I go to be nerdy (and slightly snotty) in my answer extolling the progress her old HS was making.
Yes, yes, yes, cars need shade. Has your mo never gotten into car in the summer? Those things get crazy hot!
Some HOA presidents are fascists Like Bobbie Dooley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJzshIb6TfA
Good God.
It saddens me that the whole Bobbie Dooley canon isn’t available online somewhere. Phil Hendrie, while a bit of a right-winger himself, is one of those rare intentionally funny conservatives.
Thanks for good news, Doc!
As the chairman of a COA’s (Condo Owner’s Association) Architectural Review Committee I spend a great deal of time dealing with a lot of issues. If anyone campaigns for my job, they don’t need to as I will gladly turn it over to the poor jerk who wants to put up with the problems. That’s another story.
I would welcome legislation in my state (MD) such as Michigan’s regarding solar panels, EV connections, heat pumps, etc. and have often joked about stretching clotheslines across the yards. I like sun-dried clothing. But we live in an apartment and such things as solar panels, EV connects, and clotheslines present serious difficulties. I would support legislation that would make such things possible for our 100-plus apartments These changes will have to happen eventually as apartment developments are sprouting up like dandelions. We also have condo cottages, and they will be much easier to add the solar, EV hookups, and even clotheslines, but their owners harder to convince to take those steps, or at least some of them. And in a condo situation where owners do not own the roof over their heads, the question of who pays for installation and repairs of the solar panels is a big one, requiring major changes in the community legal documents.
Don’t castigate (or castrate) all HOA/COA volunteers. Some of us are just as interested in cutting carbon emissions and utilizing strategies for making this planet as habitable as possible for as long as possible. BTW, I love induction cooking.
you can make the point that as newer development will have these things installed, it should be seen as an investment that will contribute to maintain the value of your real estate and will get your current owners a better deal if they should sell.
Make me president and give me a Democratic Congress and I'll make sure the next climate bill includes EV and Solar solutions for apartments, condos, or other multifamily housing.
Heck, do that for Joe Biden or Kamala and I'll start a letter-writing campaign!
Check out Powernest if you want fancy apartment power.
https://youtu.be/OkRqVBpO2BQ?si=wH_gXh7w0f58ZEAu (about halfway into the vid)
Great things happen with the Democratic trifecta. The useless political media used to harp on California for running huge deficits, they replaced the Governator with a Democrat and now they run huge surpluses. So many great reforms happened here in Virginia under the Democratic trifecta then we got Glenn Youngkin and he vetoes everything good. Republicans ruin everything.
Back in the 90s I fought with my HOA over a mini satellite dish, which was new tech at the time. The law changed in time for me to prevail. Fresh off that victory, I picked a fight about my gas grill. They tried to tell me the insurance wouldn't cover it. I had an upstairs condo, so I could almost see the concern. The insurance agent was a friend of mine, so I got him to research it for me. Beat them on that, too.
Fuck Ted Cruz, and fuck HOAs is what I'm getting at.
I actually had a Granada! I think it was a 72 though. As to HOAs, we owned a condo once and the officers, all volunteers, campaigned vigorously for the job. Once ensconced, however, the minute you called them out on their BS their answer was always well I am volunteer if you think you could do better just try to wrest this plum position away from me. After about six months I just gave up, sent in my money, and stayed away...Also resolved never to be part of an HOA again...
The Ford Granada was manufactured for 7 years starting in 1975. In America at least.
The brand name may have been used in other years in non-USA markets.
Mine must’ve been a 75 or 76 in that case. I only paid a few hundred dollars for it because it had a bent frame which as it turned out could not be repaired.
Ta, Dok. A kick in the family joules is poetry!
What is the point of the HOAs not allowing solar?
I can understand, I guess, having rules that people maintain their landscaping in an orderly fashion, not have rusting vehicles up on blocks in the driveway, that sort of thing. OK, I don't *really* understand it, but I can accept that some people want to live in neighbourhoods like that.
But why care about solar panels? They're not like dandelions, they won't be blowing solar seeds all over the neighbours' lawns. It makes no sense to me.
In my Colorado days(87-04), I retrofitted a solar clothes dryer on my long deck. Yea, some call it a clothes line, and it dried clothes quietly and efficiently.
Mandarins with nothing better to do than harass their neighbors.
What is the point of the HOAs n̵o̵t̵ ̵a̵l̵l̵o̵w̵i̵n̵g̵ ̵s̵o̵l̵a̵r̵?̵
It's mostly about the dead cars/appliances in the front yard, as OP suggests.
My retired father joined his HOA board and the President of the board was demanding that a homeowner rip out their drought tolerant landscaping and replace it with grass, because the current version perpetuated the climate change lie. She said her husband was serving in Iraq and she was alone raising her kids, didn’t have the money to do a second landscaping job. He wouldn’t back down. The board made him resogn