Urbannomad

Huh, what did I miss??? I know that is why the thread was started... that's why I gave a my 2 cents on the question?? Granted the issue of combining for the homestead exemption was already answered. I was speaking more to the original poster's concern of being able to easily split the lot back out in the future when they wanted to sell it. I apologize in advance if I misunderstood your comment.

You will probably want to combine (merge) both lots as one account with hcad to get the homestead exemption on the entire thing. Both lots will still exist, the only thing that changes is the legal description of your hcad account will include two lots instead of one. However, when/if you want to sell the lot just let hcad know you want to split out the lot and they will separate it back to it's own account... no big deal.

If you are still interested here is a link to the city's "CODE OF ORDINANCES." Pretty boring stuff but you can use the search to find what you want. http://library7.municode.com/default-test/home.htm?infobase=10123&doc_action=whatsnew Bottom line though... you, like me, will still have to pay the ticket. Though technically my wife parked the car so it's her ticket, even if I did tell her the sign said it was okay to park there.

It's not a crime when it's something I do! Just giving you a hard time

No offense, but I'm glad to hear they are starting to ticket for blocking sidewalks in the heights. It's hard enough to try and walk on our patchwork sidewalks without cars blocking them as well! I'd have to research the actual ordinance, but yes it's very common to get a ticket for blocking the sidewalk in Houston or any other city for that matter. It's more common in Montrose and the more "urban" areas of Houston, but glad to hear it's being enforced in the Heights as well. I'm sure you would be ticketed for blocking your own driveway as well, because I "think" there has to be a buffer distance to all curb cuts, not just intersections. Plus how would parking enforcement know it was your car? You would probably be pretty upset if it was someone else doing it and like them to get ticketed/towed? Quick search of the city's website (not the ordinance but has some basic info): "Sidewalks are for pedestrian use: City of Houston Code prohibits parking a vehicle on any portion of the sidewalk at any time. Many driveways in Houston include the sidewalk, considered the public right-of-way. Avoid a citation for this violation by leaving the sidewalk portion of your driveway clear." http://www.houstontx.gov/parking/parkingtips.htm fyi... My neighbor got a parking ticket in front of his house ('No Parking' signs posted) so they are actually enforcing all the parking rules in the Heights now so be careful. The sign has been there for years, but they never ticketed until now. Probably because the streets are starting to get crowded. I'll be right there with you paying the $65 parking ticket I got in Montrose this weekend.

I really like what they've done... can't wait to see it once the whole thing is finished!

House fire at 15th and Beall in Shady Acres: 5AM 10-21-09. edit: actually a garage sitting on a vacant lot on the NE corner is on fire.

I live very near these and you couldn't pay me to buy one of them. Even our builder was shocked that a builder could/would use that wood and the city would let them. He had even been in talks with the city to get them torn down, but that was a long, complicated process obviously. Maybe someone could make a technical argument otherwise, I don't know, but if you have a frame and floor that has set out exposed the elements for more than one year (closer to 2 if I remember correctly) with no roof or wrap there will likely be some effect on the wood. Bottom line, there is too much new construction to buy this junk. And this is coming from someone who lives nearby that doesn't want to see a vacant, unmaintained home next door, but doesn't want to see some unknowning person get stuck with this headache either.

I agree. It makes me laugh that people want to keep the small strip of grass between the ditch and road beautiful. It's a ditch.... get over yourself!

The city does have a limit on the amount of linear feet of ditch you can cover... otherwise, the ditches would obviously be useless for drainage. Our neighbors just got cited for violating this and the city made them dig up their culvert and put it back as open ditch. However, like most COH ordinances this one seems to be sporadically enforced as evidenced from a quick drive around the neighborhood.

Yes and no is the correct answer. If you look up any of the older properties on Washington Ave around the Heights Blvd area, than YES, this part of Washington is included in the original plat of the Heights. All you have to do is go to hcad's site or the county block pages to look at the original plat for verification... here is Star Pizza which is in the heights: http://books.tax.hctx.net/v021/AE1997_21-22_0068.jpg http://hcad.org/records/details.asp?crypt=...bld=1&tab=2 This of course is just technically and historically accurate, but most people would no longer consider this area the heights since I-10 cuts through it and has created different feeling neighborhoods on both sides. And most of Washington was probably not part of the Heights originally. As for the taxes. There is no difference. The taxing jurisdictions and rates are the same regardless of what neighborhood you are in (Shady Acres vs Heights vs Rice Miliatry, etc). The only difference being if you live in an area with a special management district that can levy taxes or an HOA, but an HOA isn't exactly a tax and can vary regardless of neighborhoods. When people say that taxes are higher in "X" neighborhood all they are really saying is that the appraised values are higher because the actual tax rates are the same... only the values change. Of course if you are comparing homes in different cities, school districts, MUDs, etc then there will be a difference in rates. When people ask me, I say I live in the Heights. Unless they are familiar with the area and then I'll drop Shady Acres. Otherwise, people just think Shady Acres is a trailer park. Sort of like how most people "from" Houston have never ever lived in Houston... it's just easier when talking with people not familiar with the area.

I think RedScare has the right idea. HCAD has the maps and GIS shapefile for all of the subdivisions in Harris County. However, so many new small subdivisions have been platted in the Heights area that it can get confusing, but it's still there. Or just search for an address at HCAD's site and it will tell you the subdivision, unless it has been re-platted by a developer... in which case just choose an address a few doors down.

I guess it depends on what you are comparing it against; but I would say the Heights, at least the area I live in, is definitely "more liberal."

That's how shade on 19th street gets around the dry issue. Not sure why other places don't do the same. Maybe it's a headache to get the ok to do even that??

We live in the 100 year plain in Shady Acres and haven't had any problems, other than street flooding after Ike that went down in less than an hour after the rain stopped. Unfortunately it depends on so many factors that it's hard to make a generalization about an area as large as most of the neighborhood. I just recommend not being directly next to the creek that cuts N/S through the neighborhood and avoid the floodWAY! I'll put in a plug for some the homes for sale around us on/near Beall St south of 19th as a good place to check out as well w/o flooding problems. An upside to being in the 100 year plain is that the COH requires the living area of all new construction to be elevated above the base flood elevation... it's not a guarantee, but since HOUSTON floods, often without regard to floodplain models, it can help mitigate much of the flooding. And the additional insurance is cheap if you are elevated, and you'd probably want it anyway no matter where you were. Good luck!

I think that depends on 2 things really: 1) How far west are you talking... west of Durham, west of Ella, etc? 2) The biggest thing is how well the the drainage and grade of the lot and surrounding lots is. I live near 1100 W 18th, and the morning after Ike 18th St flooded pretty good because the creek got backed up with debris. There was a small amount of water that made it to the bottom of our bottom step but not up to our piers. Since we are on piers & beams the water was no where near close to making it into our house. Our garage is in back, on a slab, and water didn't make it that high. Some cars parked on 18th did get flooded though. During a normal, heavy rain it's no problem where are. However, I know some of the higher streets (above 20th) do flood during heavy rains because some of the older lots have not "upgraded" or "regraded?" their ditches like new construction. The best thing I think is to talk with neighbors that have been there a while, and if you can, drive around during/after a heavy rain.

Searched on google and if you go to http://harris.tx.scanamerica.us/modules.php?name=FeedArchive and start listening on the 05/27/2009 feed at ~ 9:39.22 you can listen to the chase. It goes on for quite a while, in and out through the next couple of feeds. Started as a Chevy Impala not stopping for a cop and then ended with a foot chase in Shady A. I never heard them say what they did, but probably just stupid and didn't want to pull over for one reason or another. I see the ghetto bird all the time and have to agree with RedScare, probably nothing as big as a murder.

All I know is that it began as a"high speed chase down 18th" and devolved from there. Not sure why exactly the chase began in the first place. Last I had heard they caught one guy but are still looking for the other. Unfortunately, if it didn't involve a murder or something else crazy we'll probably never know. This is at least the 3rd time in 2 years I've seen this happen in our neighborhood and I've yet to ever hear any back story.

Thanks rbarz and everyone else. What took me almost two full days of researching and asking questions to figure out was answered in just a few replies at HAIF! I spoke with a real estate attorney at work today, and his opinion was the same as those here... we do not have any hoa and it would be very difficult to establish one. Thanks again everyone for your help!

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I have looked at all my paper work from closing and I also did a search on courthousedirect.com to see what all had been filed. All I found were the warranty deeds where the developer sold the homes, an easement deed granting easements to the utilities companies, and last and possible most importantly a document labeled "Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions." However this document is only 3 pages long, with one 1 page of definitions broken down into 4 very brief sections. The other two pages being a page with the legal description of the subdivision and then a page of signatures. The only mention of an HOA is in Section 4, it states, "...common Area to be maintained by Home Owners Association." And that is the only mention. It does not go into any detail about how/when the HOA is established, the bylaws, etc. Basically none of the stuff I would assume a legal document would need to establish a true HOA. Hopefully I can get to bottom of this HOA thing, but it seems pretty murky with everyone I've talked to. Silly me assumed that you would agree to/sign something at closing to pretty much locked you into an HOA in a black and white manner... "this is the HOA and here is how it will work." Thanks again for the great replies!

Hopefully, someone can help me out here. It's kind of a long question because I have to set it all up for you but here goes. I live in a new development of 15 homes in Shady Acres, single-family but kind of townhome-ish. If you've driven around the Heights you problem know what I am talking about. My house and four others face the street and we share a private driveway in the back with 5 other homes that face other homes opposite them. We technically are in a subdivision because the developer had to file a plat to subdivide the old lot into multiple new ones, but we have no playgrounds, open-space, signs, etc just a typical new development around the heights. My question is since we have never paid any dues to an HOA, nor have we ever met to elect officers, or received any documentation at closing about what the HOA can and can't do etc, do we technically still have an HOA since we are officially a "subdivision?" I ask because we have the shared driveway and some homeowners want to install a security gate and others do not. However, the ones that want to do it have threatened to resurrect an HOA they say the developer started and is president of to force everyone to pay for it. I understand a developer doing something like this as a technicality to control the area while he is building, but if we have never done anything as an HOA or collected dues is it possible for these homeowners to now "activate" and enforce this HOA? Is it even a true HOA? Again, this is in the city not the suburbs so it's not a subdivision in the traditional sense where there are common facilities, open space, signage, etc to maintain; I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but basically the city does everything for us and we individually maintain everything within our fences. I'm mostly curious because I did not receive anything about the HOA and it responsibilities, fees, etc at closing and up until now it has never come up as an issue. So can they just do that or would there have to be some kind of vote among the homeowners, and if so, would it be a majority or consensus vote at this point? If anyone can help me out with this ,or point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

I go to that Bally's and it's not bad. Actually I really like it. It's a no frills gym, but then it isn't outrageously expensive either.

I doubt it's the city taking initiative on its own to try and fix a problem... let's face it, that's just not how Houston works. More likely, is that the residents petitioned the city to have this work completed through the neighborhood street reconstruction program: http://documents.publicworks.houstontx.gov...nsr-program.htm However, given the fact that it takes on average at least 7 years from the approval of an application to the start of construction (according to the COH website) the current residents may very well NOT be the same ones who petitioned to have the work done in the first place.

While that may be true in a literal since, I don't think it's exactly right. For instance if you don't agree with what comes out of an informal then you are scheduled for a formal hearing that is not bound by anything that occured in the informal. However, if you fail to appear or show up late for the formal then you forfeit your protest. That said, I believe in the informal the appraiser is just trying to justify the value and is open to lowering it, but not looking to raise it, so I do not know how likely, if at all, the whole raised value scenario would be. Though I know people do (rarely) protest to have their value raised so who knows? Bottom line is I wouldn't sweat it. The trick is if they lower it in the informal do you settle with that, or do you roll the dice and try to get the ARB to lower it even more? Even then though, I would imagine the ARB rarely decides to raise a value that the appraiser has lowered in an informal but I have no experience with that so I couldn't say for sure.

- I don't know about the Heights as a whole, but that was an area that did see some of the increases; however, many people in the Heights area saw reductions as well (myself included). It really all depends on the home. Also if someone was at a really low, capped value then they are probably still being raised toward the market value. Which is probably pretty common with some of the older homes on large lots in the heights. - HCAD does mass appraisal so they will not come visit and appraisal your property in that since. They will provide you with the data (sales) they used to arrive at your value before your protest date. Then the burden of proof is on you to show that there are lower, more comparable sales, or you are appraised unequally compared to the comps, or that there are factors that negatively influence your value that does not affect the comps (mold, foundation, bad roof, traffic, backs commercial, etc) - In rare cases HCAD could determine your value should be higher, but in an informal hearing you can just reject the value and leave it where it is. However, if you appeal your value to the ARB their decision is binding regardless of that they do with your value (up or down). - You don't have to be current on your permits; but if you had improvements done without getting a permit, then it's likely HCAD never knew about them, and therefore did not include them in your value. So if you did something big like a remodel or added a pool, then your value could go up as a result when they find out. - HCAD will not come to your house, you will need to bring pictures and other related documentation to your protest hearing.