Since this is a private road... does the owner of the road: Assume the landscaping contracts (I highly doubt a place like this is doing their own landscaping)
Maintenance for the road itself? Is it on some kind of schedule set forth by the HOA?
What about the utilities like the sewer/water lines... since it's a private road wonder who has ownership in the road itself.
Bet that wealthy HOA could replace the gas or electric or water lines.....wouldn't the new owner be on the hook for replacing the road?
I've noticed that here it's very common that whoever replaces the utilities ends up doing the restoration work and depending on the city ordinance they could end up re doing the entire street. SF has very strict rules for this but it gets weird because it's a private street. I would guess that the residents are liable to the street, the hoa would be to the public street. I'd guess that the owner of this street would take on the responsibility for that because they now own the road. My guess would be that if anything happened it'd be done/managed by local utility company and then billed back to the HOA who'd pass it on to the owner of the road.
Since this is a private road... does the owner of the road: Assume the landscaping contracts (I highly doubt a place like this is doing their own landscaping)
Maintenance for the road itself? Is it on some kind of schedule set forth by the HOA?
What about the utilities like the sewer/water lines... since it's a private road wonder who has ownership in the road itself.
Bet that wealthy HOA could replace the gas or electric or water lines.....wouldn't the new owner be on the hook for replacing the road?
I've noticed that here it's very common that whoever replaces the utilities ends up doing the restoration work and depending on the city ordinance they could end up re doing the entire street. SF has very strict rules for this but it gets weird because it's a private street. I would guess that the residents are liable to the street, the hoa would be to the public street. I'd guess that the owner of this street would take on the responsibility for that because they now own the road. My guess would be that if anything happened it'd be done/managed by local utility company and then billed back to the HOA who'd pass it on to the owner of the road.
I would be curious to know the actual law on this kind of thing.
Why would the HOA be responsible for road repairs (honest question, I dont know the answer)? wouldn't the new street owner have responsibility for keeping the road maintained?
The other thing si if that subdivision had some influence, couldnt they get the city to condemn the road via eminent domain?
The author clearly had a bias. And passed off some things as facts that may be true in California but I know for a fact arent true in Texas.
As an example All HOA meetings in Texas as subject to the open meetings act (I may not have the name quite right but I am positive on the point.) Every HOA meeting must be published ahead of time and individual owners must be allowed to attend. There are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part things are fairly public with Texas HOA's.
I guess I dont get any glee out of seeing this situation. I am positive the national response would be outrage if the street lost was in a lower socioeconomic neighborhood.
Well the street in question is in CA... so Texas HOA isn't really applicable. This HOA is fairly private, I tried to google for more info but I can't find a whole lot...
Apparently it's come out that this is the second time this HOA has lost this property. They lost it to the state sometime in the 80s, got it back, and apparently stopped paying taxes on it shortly after.
@Matt K. The first problem I see with this article is that it is not a "public" asset. It was a private asset and whatever "Private" entity that was responsible for paying the taxes didn't do it. While some people I am sure see it as tragic that people lost their street or lose their home, and it can be....almost every tax authority I can think of also needs the funds.... our school districts, our counties, our hospitals, all of the entities that have the foreclosure right or taxing right need that money, count on that money, and never seem to have enough. To me it is not responsible if they don't make their best efforts to collect the taxes due. We can of course start the huge debate on taxes and their authority, but that part has already been decided ....and their rights to try to collect those taxes are have also been decided.
I've been wondering about this for a while and I just came across an HOA road today that has a tax lien for sale. Does anyone have experience foreclosing on a lien like this? This particular road I am looking at is the only road in a gated community with 15 homes.
Well potentially you can do it, but I would say be prepared to spend a lot of time and effort and potentially money try to defend this action as the folks in San Francisco did. End the end, the whole deal got undone. They probably got their money back, but not their attorney fees potentially. So lots of time, effort, money only to get back to zero and end of negative.
Also think about your exit strategy.....who do you sell this to? Do you sell it back to the HOA? Does some other investor want that headache? Are you going to try to charge the HOA/residents rent? Are any of them attorneys who can defend or pursue lawsuits for free or have a family member who will do it for free?
I think there are probably better properties with less headaches and risks to go after. It all sounds like fun and games until it isn't.
I also think the same thing about homes with big mortgages. Everyone will tell you that mortgages get wiped out at the foreclosure sale, and potentially that is correct....but do you really think a big bank is going down without a fight on a $200-$300-$400-$500K mortgage they lost at tax lien/deed sale. They have on staff lawyers that will likely make your life miserable.