Me, personally, I don't have a problem going to source to vent what I feel is a nuisance.  I also think long and hard and go through conflicting feelings of confrontation before doing so. 

I have been known to do the following.......Barking dog incident...3 am, couldn't take it any longer.  I went to the culprits house, knocked very loudly, when they answered. I asked   WHAT????Don't you hear it, cause I do and he's not in my yard.

Loud Music....Again, knocked on the door very loudly and let them know that I understand they enjoy their music, but the thump on my walls are driving me insane and I doubt that anyone else enjoys the same taste of music they do.

Loud Sex on a very Squeeky Bed....Went upstairs and politely let the female know that her bedroom romps acts as an amplifier in my room and I'm having a hard time sleeping throughout all the squeeking.

I also worked as an apartment manager....Dog Crap.  I mowed the lawns for this company.  Have you ever run over dog crap with your lawn mower?  As the manager, I knew where everyone's dog did their business.  Again, knock on the door and I'd ask them if they could please go pick up their dog business before I mowed.

Again, apartment manager......tenant cleaned out her litter box by throwing it over the balcony, I cleaned it up and put it on her front porch.

I'm no longer an apartment manager, thank God.  However, I am in a managerial position.  I get people all the time wanting me to speak to someone else "anonymously".  Sometimes it works, however for the most part...when I do the anonymous thing, I get a whole different story from the person I am speaking to.  So my remedy, get the two together and let's talk it out.  Usually these people make sure that their complaint is serious before they make a complaint to me.  

Am I a b&*(), maybe so, but anonymous complainers drive me up the wall.  Cmon, if you have a problem, be civil and work it out. 

I am a big fan of confrontation.  Nothing ever gets solved through grumbling to yourself and everyone BUT the person you have a problem with.  And, if you don't try and actually SOLVE a problem, I don't believe you have a right to complain about it.  My two cents.

I agree. people should try to work things out in person, in a civilized way, rather than being some anonymous complainer. And I really don't much care for people who groan, mumble, hiss and hrrrrumph under their breath and behind your back but act all sweet to your face.

The biggest problem I have had in my neighborhood is kids/teens/young adults teasing my dog. I know they are doing it because he doesn't go outside with me. They threw sticks or rocks at the fence, or yelled at him to make him bark, then yelled because he as barking.  I found a calm, "please don't tease the dog" startled them into stopping, except for one family, who I finally had to open the gate and go face-to-face with. I think we're the only family who hangs out in the yard with our dog anymore. 

I know someone who actually had a neighbor that would sneak in their yard at night to look for "violations" to report...how freakin pathetic...the bvpd isn't much better, from what I hear.

Thanks for all your comments and keep 'em coming. I too, am a big fan of having a civil conversation, however, because of all the rules up here, people try to use the CCRs  and the police officers to make complaints instead of first communicating, It drives me nuts! I have to tell you that allot of the complaints are really, really petty, too. If it's a legitimate issue,I always try to think about my neighbor, and talk about it.

I think it's time that the local residents  take some personal responsibility, quit nit-picking, and communicate. We are living in the age of the TV, the computer, and now the text message. I have also noticed an increase in text messages even in my work because it's a safer way to avoid a real conversation.

Here is just quick sampling of what I have heard in BV:

Someone calls the police because she smells cigarette smoke in her garage. Great use of taxpayer money, don't you think?

Someone calls the police because they walk on some else's property and they are confronted with a dog. Duh? They proceed to kick at the dog, and make a big deal, and later complain to the association. Rather than talking to the owner, and hello, walking on the other side of the street perhaps and not onto the person's property in the first place.

Someone complained because a neighbor was working on their own car, in their own driveway, and they didn't like the way the car looked while it was being worked on.

Someone complained because their tenant had a washed, clean and registered car in their driveway, that was a third car, and it just wasn't being moved or driven. Duh, it was a third car.

Someone complained because their neighbor left a trash can out on their own driveway overnight.

Someone complained because they saw a dog tied to a tree on private property during the day. (They dog had water, and was out for fresh air, and the owner goes to great pains to exercise their dog, early in the morning, and make them home made dog food, and bring them in at night).

Someone complained because manure was being spread on a lot ( and it wasn't the complainers lot). They didn't like the way it looked, never mind that the person spreading the manure was also pulling out yellow star thistle on that lot, mowing for fire safety, and removing downed tree limbs for safety and fire prevention, all to the complainer's benefit.

Hmm.. I could probably go on, but I am sure you have some good ones of your own....

 

 

 

To be honest, my wife and I were a bit hesitant about moving into Bear Valley originally for no other reason than because of the HOA.  I don't believe anyone should be able to tell me what to do with my property unless it is to the obvious detriment of my neighbors -- certainly not for vanity or subjective reasons like I want to paint my house a color not  "approved" or work on my car in my driveway.  I  don't like the fact that there are easements for public horse trails through my property that look right into the windows of my house and that I have to pay to maintain horse stalls that I will never use (I don't have horses).  I resent the fact that I have to pay to maintain a golf course that I will never use (I don't play golf).  These sorts of amenities should be paid for exclusively by the people who make use of them. Charge a fee for use.  If they can't make enough to keep operating these things without charging everyone in the Valley unilaterally then its rather obvious that most people here are subsidizing them for the very few people that do use them and thats just not fair.  Especially when the HOA payments are due and they jump all over you to pay them promptly.  In any case, ultimately after looking hard at the HOA rules we decided there really wasn't anything in there that we would ever contest so we decided to move into the valley.
All that said, the one thing I DO like about the HOA is that the community is gated and keeps out the "riff raff" so to speak.  No one should technically be coming in here unless they are invited by someone who lives here.  I like having our own police department.  And I have to begrudgingly admit that the standards required for property owners does keep the valley looking beautiful, especially when applied to the developers that seem to be buying up and building every single open lot here.  They can't just chop down all the trees because they are "in the way", or gouge out the side of a hill  for example.

I absolutely do not mean to insult anyone who lives in Tehachapi proper and please don't take this as my being elitist, but you can see a HUGE difference between Bear Valley and Tehachapi -- and its very noticeable if you are new to and/or unfamiliar with the area.  That is ultimately what decided my wife and me to spend a little more to live here.  As people have pointed out in many blogs, Tehachapi proper just looks run down and the closer you get to town the more run down it looks.  We are far from "rich" but I feel a lot safer having my kids run around here and it was worth the stretch to buy a house here in my opinion.  I would think twice or more about letting them run around in or near town.  And mind you this is coming from a place with much of the typical Los Angeles area problems where we WERE afraid to let our kids run around outside. Especially with the notices from the schools about multiple attempts at abductions already this year, the shootings, etc.

As for people complaining, I can't say that I've had that experience (yet?).  It might be because we are fortunate enough to have acreage, and our neighbors do as well, so they are pretty far away.  The neighbors here all seem very considerate and the times we've heard loud music it was on Friday night or a weekend and never too late and certainly not so loud as to be annoying. No one has complained so far when I'm sure I'm hurting their ears with my horrible guitar playing. :)  In any case, we've only lived here a year so maybe I will have some stories like you list above at some point.  But I hope not!
So far for as much as the HOA affects us I think its, on the whole, a good thing.  Whether my opinion will stay the same in a few years, who knows?  I'll come back and update if I get a meddling neighbor or I have a clash with the HOA. ;)

Well my wife and I LOVE Bear Valley!  We are only part time residents right now and hope to retire here someday.  I don't mind paying for any of the amenities, I plan on using them all at some point.  I'm a hiker and I love all of the trails, and I hope to have a mule someday to do some trail riding.  I've used the shooting range on several occasions and love the fact that it isn't that crowded.  I've had my golf clubs in my garage for 2 years now but haven't even made it to the driving range yet, but I plan to!  I plan to use the exercise room at the Whiting Center when winter sets in.  The two beautiful lakes are rarely crowded, which is unheard of in any urban area!  And I recently bought an R/C airplane and helicopter which I fly at the model airpark.  It's just great here and I don't mind any of the rules, if we didn't like the rules we wouldn't have bought here!

Luckily we haven't had any problems with neighbors and any violations, and I hope we won't.  We're on pretty good terms with our neighbors and I know more people in BVS being a part time resident than where we live full time!  I like the slow pace and friendly folks.  But I must say, I am amazed at how many dogs can be heard barking in the evening.  It doesn't bother me because they aren't nearby, but I just don't understand how the owners aren't bothered by a dog barking in their yard for hours at a time!  Sometimes speeding is a problem too.  I had one lady pass me and another car at the same on Bear Valley Rd while we were doing the speed limit!  I guess she was in a hurry!  I just worry a little that as property values increase it tends to invite more snobby people.  I don't mean to offend anyone, but I've seen plenty of city type folk rushing around like they're in L.A.!  Why did they move here if they're in such a hurry!

I don't like petty complaints either, and always prefer communication.  BTW, speaking of (not so) petty complaints, it's my understanding that the whole restaurant debacle really didn't accomplish anything other than costing BVS property owners several hundred thousand dollars in legal and attorney's fees.  Especially since most of the motions of the litigant were thrown out of court.  Well, at least that's over and we have a nice restaurant again. 

A good blog Christine!  Hope to meet some of you someday!

As to the the appearance and safety of the area, I really don't think Tehachapi looks run down...until you go north of the railroad tracks lol...I think that it's quite hypocritical of people who move here and then turn around and complain about the crime or traffic or whatever, it's all the people moving in from lancaster, la, bakersfield, etc. that are causing the increase in "city" type problems.

I'd actually like to see the ECC be a bit more active. Why is it up to me to enforce ECC violations. If you decided to move to BVS, you knew the rules. I moved here because I don't want a junky house, cars parked everywhere on the street, and RV ruining my views. Unfortunately, I still see a lot of that in BVS. I think the ECC should patrol the area more, and enforce the CCRs that are in place. I think it is ridiculous that we are now being asked if we should fund an RV parking area near the dump, because people are parking their RV on their property and ruining the views of their neighbors. They knew the rules before they moved here with their RVs, but they chose to ignore them, and now I'm being asked to pay for this? If you don't like rules, don't move to BVS.

I would just like to address the "if you don't rules/HOA don't move here responses"....while I do agree that several of the rules are to our benefit, these rules were made by US and are for US and WE are the Association. We  have to power to address common decency and privacy issues and that is my goal of this blog. It is not my intention to talk trash at all. and when it gets to be intrusive (like the cameras in the dump), and people come on your property and take pictures, and send you nasty letters, would you not honestly prefer a phone call or that your neighbor communicate with you instead of being a coward? My whole point here is being able to stand behind your name and openly communicate. The complaints I listed above were from several sources.

Awsmom-By the way, my cars are not up on blocks, and my house is not pink, and I painted my outbuildings right away to match my house, and pretty much do what is required in the rules, so if you were referring to me, than you would be the one a**-uming. I'll give the benefit of the doubt anyway.  :)

With Regards to the RVs, I have watched the governing and the rules, and they are getting tighter and tighter everyday. It is my hypothesis that if and when that RV storage facility comes to pass, anyone who owns an RV will be required to store it there, it won't be optional, for long, and we will be once again generating fees to support a facility that not all of us have a need for. I think that people have to use common courtesy and if my neighbor said that mine was blocking their view, I would work something out, plant trees around it, or move it, or whatever I could do. But I would certainly have allot more respect for a neighbor if they had the ca-hones to engage in a conversation first.

 

When we moved to the area in 2001, I didn't want to move to BVS because of the "snobby" reputation the residents had in the area. But when we started looking for a house to buy, we just didn't find anything we liked as much as the houses in BVS. So, we bit the bullet & found the perfect house for us. Now that we've lived here for a few years, I must say that for the most part the public reputation BVS has is wrong. We've never had any big problems with our neighbors, we pretty much "live & let live".

As far as paying for amenities we don't use, this is the way I look at it. Even though we don't own horses & I can count on both hands the number of times my hubby has used the golf course (I don't golf at all), keeping the amenities going & useful adds to our property values. Look at what's happening to the old golf course in Golden Hills. I don't think that adds to property values there at all, and probably has held them back. Stallion Springs will also suffer if they can't get a handle on that golf course. There was also a wonderful chef at the lodge in SS when we moved here who brought a lot of prestige to the restaurant there, but they let that go to pot & I think hurt property values there, too.

Thats a good point about the amenities increasing the property values, oochild, I never thought of it that way.  My family makes use of a lot of the amenities, so I don't mind paying for them.  I just don't think its fair for people to have to pay for amenities that a relatively few people use in comparison to how many people are part of the HOA, if thats actually the case, with the things I mentioned.  It would be interesting if there was a poll to see who used what and how many people actually do make use of specific amenities.  If only 10% of the people here use the golf course, I don't see that the other 90% of the people should be paying for it.  The golf course, for example, only adds value to your home for people who like golf.  Those numbers are completely hypothetical of course. ;)

I do love it here and its honestly the best place I've ever lived. I don't see the snobbishness that people refer to either.  If you want snobbish you should have seen where we lived last.   Our neighbors there barely even said hello!  I do worry about the HOA rates rising (they went up over $100 before we lived here a few months!) and the rules becoming stricter and stricter.  I wasn't aware they have cameras at the dump now!  I'm going to feel paranoid every time I have to throw out my garbage. ;)

I live in BVS, and there is a definate give and take.  I like the fact that I dont have to look at grafitti or worry about my home being burgularized while I am at work.  I am a horse owner and play golf occasionally, so I use some of the amenities.   The Assn. dues are a small price to pay knowing that I dont have a run down crack house next door that is raided constantly by the police (Yes.. I did live in Lancaster 10 years ago).

I DO NOT like the fact that people can make complaints about your property to the ASSN. without any regards of the facts.  I have horses, with a neighbor that is less than happy that I have horses (In BVS, go figure).  I have had a barrage of "letters" in my file about the horses.  While I have adhered to the ASSN. rules, I was still "visited" by the ASSN. on a weekly basis for the first couple of monts in my new house.

By the way, if you have a file on you, you are by law entitled to review it. 

 I have heard similar horse complaints too (flies, smell, etc) , hello, it's an equestrian community! That's the reason I moved here in the first place.  Don't get me wrong, I love our environment and the nature, but I think the association has got to do and say something to discourage petty complaints. It just makes a great place not so great anymore.

 I calculated that our amenity fees have gone up by approximately 30% in the past 2 years.

Scott, I think the BVSA did a survey about who uses the amenities a while ago. You might call them to see if they have a report that they can send to members.