u/Warm-Delivery1418

For context, I live in a well established 750 single family home HOA.

A couple months ago I submitted an ARC mod request, which was ultimately denied. I just received a $25 invoice from First Service, our management company. I don’t recall seeing anything about this change come through, but that’s not unusual for my HOA. We have a lot of changes that never see the light of day until they do.

It’s absolutely bonkers to me that they’re hitting us with fees for performing a core function of the HOA. Additionally, the ARC mod committee is a small group of volunteers in the community so I’m unsure what justification they even have for assessing a fee (outside of the already paid dues for, you know, management).

Has active else dealt with this dead ass stupid absurdity? There’s a board meeting next week and I’m going to be my usual charming self.

Hopefully it's okay to post this here, but I figured there would be a wealth of information with you guys/gals who have probably used tons of different products.

I'm looking for something that probably fits into the micro-scrubber category for home use, specifically weekly (or so) cleanings of my 1,000 square foot unsealed concrete basement floor. I have done the whole shop vac, bucket dump/scrub, wet vac thing and it's getting tiresome.

I am now looking for something to scrub/extract in one step. I'm mostly dealing with dust and general household grime, but lately I have had bigger messes due to clover mites swarming my basement in the summer so I want something that can really get in there and give it a proper wet scrub.

I have looked at the Clarke MA10 as a contender, given the price point and warranty. I have also looked at the Tennant CS5, but the limited warranty and higher cost seems counterintuitive given its abilities. As I don't have experience using these or other similar products, are either of these a good solution or is there something else I should be looking at? Thanks in advance!

I live in a 750-home single-family HOA run by a 4-person board and a management company. Like everyone else, I read the CCRs before building and agreed to the rules.

Over the past 7 years, the board and 5-member architectural modification committee has taken advantage of homeowner apathy and started reshaping the neighborhood around their personal preferences. A number of us have tried to get on the board/committee, but they play a shell game, rotating members around.

Last year was a big wake-up call. The HOA treasurer pushed an exclusive Spectrum fiber deal that would’ve forced every homeowner into a $70/month TV/internet package through our dues. We currently pay $60/month, which covers trash and monument maintenance. The effort almost slipped through unnoticed until a few of us learned that the management company stood to make $350 per home. That raised some serious questions about who these efforts were actually benefiting.

Now my issue: I’ve been denied twice trying to install a small, 8-foot windmill in my backyard. The first denial, which occurred 2 years ago was cited as “too tall,” with a suggestion I could do 6 feet instead to hold with guidelines. I pushed back, asked for documentation, and pointed out dozens of structures in the neighborhood, including play sets, trampolines, sport courts which exceed 10 feet. I received no meaningful response and the denial was upheld.

I tried again this week and was denied again. Then, conveniently, the board updates the rules to explicitly ban windmills altogether. No community vote, no real transparency, just a small group making decisions as they go.

Today, I decided to test enforcement consistency. I did a compliance walk and documented dozens of violations that have existed for years, then sent them to the management company. I’ve done this before too, which resulted in a large shed getting removed because of the no-shed rule. That guy was understandably pissed, but we're all in this together, right?

At this point, it’s not about the windmill anymore. It’s about selective enforcement, rule-making on the fly, and a board that counts on nobody paying attention.

So yeah, I’m poking the hornet’s nest. If they want strict compliance, they can have it across the board and deal with people who might be angry enough to vote them out.