Banned is maybe too far, but why should we as a country allow people to have petty power over meaningless things their neighbors do? Could we ban HOAs from being included in house sales, and every time it's sold the new owners have to opt in?
For the most part, I'm wondering about this in the context of single family homes since for homes like condos, you could make the case that HOAs are useful for shared things like roofs and whatnot. Maybe limit mandatory HOA involvement to things like what's truly necessary and shared and not how tall your grass is?
Disclaimer: I'm very anti-HOA. But I do think the case could be made for them in high-density housing like apartment buildings and condos.
Single family homes, though, no. When I was house shopping, I removed any that were part of an HOA from my search. I'm not saying there are no "good" HOAs, but I've heard too many horror stories, and good HOAs can become bad HOAs over time, and your only recourse is to move. No thanks.
I don't think they should be banned, per se, they definitely need reigned in as far as what they can mandate and an opt-out mechanism. I'm not sure how the latter would work if there's things like street maintenance, etc that's part of it, but I'm sure some solution could be found.
Wouldn't things like street maintenance be handled by the city? If they aren't currently and HOAs got banned, it seems like cities could step in and take over without much fuss.
The maintenance costs are why cities make this deal with developers. The city will green light the development provided an HOA is present so their responsibility is kept at a minimum.
The HOA of today isn’t an idea born of people saying they want to govern themselves. It’s from government yelling “less regulation” and pushing their residents into an adrift situation where it’s the only option.
The ethos from the gated community is there, somehow, but that’s the grift. The HOA is only there, in most cases, to remove cost and responsibility from the municipality.
Yup. Even plowing is an HOA task in some places. It’s all a privatization scam and the HOA residents are the marks.
smew or field plowing?
Smew, but also snow.
This is why HOAs are allowed to exist in the first place.
They tell the city, "hey, you've got this huge plot of land that can be developed for residential housing, but it looks like you can't afford to develop it (roads, water pipes, power, etc). Instead of developing and selling it bit by bit, you can sell the land to us, and we'll take care of everything, and just cut you your check!"
HOAs pass the municipal buck from the government to the HOA. Since the HOA (in most cases) owns the infrastructure for the community, there isn't a good way to allow individuals to opt out.
In theory but they do a shit job of it.
Neighborhood associations also exist and are usually much better than HOAs. I would be happy if mine was in charge of the streets instead of the city. But not my HOA, they suck.
I was thinking like gated community type areas which are treated more like private property. And in that example, I meant more like if one house opted out of the HOA, but the HOA was still there, then they'd be using the roads without contributing to maintenance.
But yeah, assuming the HOA dissolved, I would imagine the city or county would take over.
yeah I live in an apartment type condo and its a necessity.
When I lived in a single-family house, there was technically an HOA formed when the development was, well, developed. Everyone forgot about it until someone wanted to build on an addition to their home. They asked the town for building permission, town said "what'd the HOA say?" and the homeowners went "oh, shoot", and formed a quick entity to rubber-stamp plans. No dues or anything.
The only other thing they did was send out annual reminders to have your septic system pumped please (we had communal drainage fields but per-house septic tanks).
I'm good with that sort of HOA for single-family homes.
That's cool it was easy-peasy, but would also have been a prime opportunity to dissolve the HOA (which, I believe, the HOA can do itself).
No, because the town required a HOA in order to approve plans. It was part of the charter for the community and the town did not want to take on the (admittedly trivial) responsibilities it had outsourced to the HOA.
I think I wouldn't mind an HOA if the dues they collected were used to fund things like maintenance and upkeep of houses to the standards they set, but as far as I can tell all they really do is take your money to tell you your lawn's too weedy and your fence is the wrong color.
They only exist because everyone in this fucked up country treats housing as an investment vehicle first and a shelter second.
That was basically their original intention until they got perverted to only care about protecting their property values like you said. There are still some "good" HOAs that are basically just that, but you don't hear much about them. Still, any good HOA can become a bad one at any time, so I just avoid them like the plague.
I don’t think HOA’s should be banned, but I don’t think they should have any real legal power around them. Like they should be able to give fines and such, but those fines should not be legally enforceable or affect your credit. So that if the HOA tries to apply something heinous in your neighbourhood you can opt out without much action or repercussion as long as you don’t give a fuck if you’re removed from the HOA.
If the fines are not enforceable, then they are only a suggestion. Thus defeating the entire point of the HOA.
Not taking a side on that, but that is the end result.
Yes. I am fine with that. Because I hate HOA’s.
You chose not to live in an HOA. Why do you think it's OK to force others that want to live in an HOA from doing so?
There's tons of horror stories out there, but that's also because "I live in an HOA and I like it" isn't really a story that get written and shared on the internet. It's boring.
I'd never live in one. No one is telling me what color my house is or where I can put a fence. But I also know plenty of people who do live in HOA's and like it.