IMO, their argument is that hoa’s are classiest and elitest, with a soupçon of authoritarianism mixed in. Who pass off subjective desires as objective facts. Whose history is so entrenched in the postwar suburban segregation that institutional racism is probably baked into the DNA, whether or not any of the members are racist themselves. That they are the enemy of diversity; all are welcome as long as you do everything the “right” way!
But maybe I got it wrong.
This Colorado HOA foreclosed and evicted a 70 year old woman with disabilities for not realizing that her automatic payments to the HOA had stopped
That is really awful. Indefensible. Ruining people’s lives over a couple thousand dollars. We can put a lien on a house for unpaid dues but I don’t think we can foreclose on it. It has to be paid if you want to sell it, but we have never done that Part of the problem in those cases is state law that allows such things.
For those that didn’t read these links, the gist of this one is that she missed/skipped an annual $700 payment to the HOA. After fees that made it’s way up to around $10,000. All of which she paid, but still had her house foreclosed on by the HOA. The HOA took their free house sold it to someone for a dollar who then sold it at (I assume) fair market value. A lot of people made a lot of money. The homeowner paid 10k AND lost the house she owned free and clear.
But this is about making sure her grass isn’t too tall and her house isn’t painted neon green, right?
I still don’t understand why these are legal. To be clear, I have no problem with people voluntarily joining them. That’s up to you. I don’t understand why you can be forced to join them. I understand there’s a clause when you buy a house in one that whoever you sell the house to is required to join and that’s likely how they maintain their membership. But no matter how much you think people like them, I’ll bet if the courts said it’s no long legal to require future buyers to be part of HOAs, within 10 years or so, must HOAs would be gone.
We’ve lived in neighborhoods with and without HOAs - currently without, and it’s great. The last one with an HOA was full of petty tyrants who did property inspections and interpreted the covenants to suit themselves. I was so glad to sell that place!
My daughter and SIL just bought a place in a community that has multiple HOAs. The different “neighborhoods” have been built over the last 40 years or so, and continue to be built - there’s construction today that includes condos, townhouses, and single homes. Each little section has its own HOA with its own rules, plus anyone has the right to buy into the community pool.
Daughter’s section is one of the older ones and the fees are very small - essentially they cover trash pickup and maintenance of the common areas around the mailbox stations. The rules include exterior house colors, no fences allowed, and no removal of live trees without permission. It seems to be a minimally invasive organization - I did recommend they attend a few meetings for their own peace of mind.
I have to say, every time I see the GEICO commercial with Cynthia, I want to throw things at the screen! 
I wouldn’t buy a home with a HOA.
I’m sure there are good HOA’s with reasonable rules that are run by good people. But, a home is a long term investment. The people running a HOA today probably won’t be there 12 years from now. I wouldn’t want to risk being under the thumb of a bad HOA.
It should be acknowledged that people can make life hell for their neighbors without needing an HOA, as the following story about a guy who put in a wildflower garden in his front yard illustrates. Ruined the whole street, it did. 
"In the midst of all this controversy, Mr. Kenney was brought to the Kenmore Village Court and convicted of creating conditions hazardous to health,'' and fined $50 a day for every day the flowers remained standing. According to the court transcript, expert testimony’’ indicated that the ``yard could be hazardous and harmful in that insects, rodents, and mice, and moles and rats could occupy the area and that dampness created by the overgrowth could be a breeding ground for many things undesirable.‘’
We had a neighbor down the block in Ohio who was pathological about lawn mowing. He was out there every three days at least, obsessively manicuring his turf (he was a psychiatrist, so maybe he was exorcising internal demons).
The idea idea that weeds in a lawn threaten neighbors’ turf with invasion is doubtful, seeing the prevalence of herbicide use on “neat” lawns, and the continual incursion of weed seeds from afar by wind and birds. If you keep a weedy lawn mown, weeds don’t have a chance to go to seed.
This is false in a strict sense. The HOA covenants are attached to the property. It doesn’t require agreement or consent by the buyer and seller. When you purchase property subject to an HOA, you as the buyer have to sign an acknowledgement that the property is subject to HOA covenants, rules, etc. You are given a copy of said rules, so that you can make an informed decision.
The last two homes I have purchased have been subject to HOA requirements. Those have not been about restricting certain races or ethnicities from purchasing. There may be a correlation between the market value $/square foot for homes in HOA governed properties as opposed to areas that are not HOA governed, which may impact affordability, but the increased price IMHO is attributed to more maintained properties in the area.
My current home is in a mountainous area, where there is substantial common area for hiking, wildlife, etc. There are about 800 homes in our development, with lots averaging from 1/2 acre to 3 acres. The majority of the rules of the HOA are related to requiring approval from an architectural committee before making changes to the exterior of your home, adding structures around your home, lighting etc. This is so that your home more or less blends in with the natural surroundings, and so if your neighbor decided to paint his house lime green and bright yellow, and install flood lights all around, that there would be recourse from the neighbors if they didn’t like it.
If you decided that you weren’t going to change your paint choice, then you would be fined by the HOA with penalties if you didn’t correct it. Said fines and penalties would be attached as a lien against your property and you would need to settle that lien before you could sell it.
Yep. The HOA is going to be bound by the same type of rules and laws that apply to the boards and shareholders of any business.
They are required to have an annual meeting once in year to elect or affirm the board members. These meeting usually provide an opportunity for discussion although ordinary business decisions are not subject to a membership vote - just a board vote. There are exceptions, my HOA covenants list certain decisions that would require a membership vote. But those are generally really major decisions. If we wanted to sell the clubhouse to a shopping center developer we would need a membership vote, we don’t need one to make you mow your lawn.
However, the general business model is “membership elects the board, the board makes and enforces the rules”. If you don’t like it, you can vote out the board and install people you like.
I’ve served continuously on HOA boards and similar organizations for 17 years. Most of that service was on a New York City coop board, the rest was on a suburban HOA.
By far, the biggest problem we have is a lack of interest. Corporate rules require a quorum in order to conduct a binding vote, meaning that you need to get more than half the membership to your annual meeting ( either in person or via proxy) in order to conduct business. Otherwise, the annual meeting consists of the members that cared to show up airing their grievances and making suggestions, after which the current board will be reconfirmed via acclamation. Any vacancies to the board that occur between annual meetings can be filled by a vote of board members.
The boards I served on worked on this model for years. I wasn’t elected to any of these boards, I was always appointed between meetings. I have attended a total of 17 annual meetings as a board member and I’ve seen a quorum at the annual meeting exactly twice.
Unfortunately this is all too typical and you need a whole bunch of pissed-off owners to achieve a quorum. And you need a whole bunch of pissed-off homeowners with the skill and will to organize in order to overthrow the board. It’s really difficult. I’ve seen pissed off homeowners with the will and manpower to overthrow a board screw it up because they didn’t fully understand the strategies they needed to implement, especially if the board uses a cumulative voting system.
In the absence of that, your board is going to keep on doing whatever they do- whether it’s the bare minimum required by law or acting as landscaping control stormtroopers. And it’s really hard to unseat them. But you can.
When I moved from the city to the suburban neighborhood, I attended the annual meeting. Out of the 328 homeowners at that time ( it’s more now, they are still building), about a dozen showed up. No quorum. I hung around after for a little while, introduced myself and offered to help out.
I was appointed to a vacancy on the spot, because the board can appoint people to vacancies between annual meetings. And the annual meeting had concluded 5 minutes before, so we were between meetings.
It’s really not a great system, but it’s the one we have and I’d rather be on the inside.
Here’s the thing though; it’s more than likely not the HOA keeping the property values high by requiring that everyone paint their houses one of six approved Sherwin-Williams colors, or having certain kinds of backyard lawn furniture, or whatever. It’s more than likely market forces, of which petty nonsense that HOAs engage in is a tiny, tiny part. More important is usually the existing home values/neighborhood condition, along with how desirable the area is in terms of schools, proximity to workplaces, crime levels, and other stuff like that. My neighborhood is not an HOA neighborhood, and nor is my entire area of town, and the property values are still pretty high, and the neighborhoods are nice, because people with some $$ have long wanted to live around here, because the schools are good, the neighborhoods are nice, it’s not far from downtown or the other workplace areas, and it’s convenient to a lot of other stuff.
Put another way, if your area’s property values are going to shit, an HOA isn’t going to change that, and if they’re high, the HOA didn’t cause it either.
So I’m a firm NO on HOAs. Reading bullshit like this just firms it up for me. FWIW, he was the CEO of my company at the time, which made a billion dollars in revenue each year, and his pickup was plenty nice. Maybe not an Escalade, but certainly not some clapped out beater either.
Certainly there are a lot of variables to home prices. If the house is in a desirable area, then market forces will have a big effect on house prices. But if your house is on a generic street of a generic subdivision surrounded by other generic subdivisions, then the local home and neighborhood conditions can make a big difference in home values and how quickly the house will sell. An unsightly house will make nearby houses less desirable and can pull prices down over time. Most people don’t want to live near a house with a dead lawn, peeling paint, cars being repaired in the street, etc. Given the choice, they’ll pick the generic house in a more attractive area.
I wonder how many HOAs are really a problem for residents. I would assume that we don’t hear about the associations that are just chugging along taking care of common areas whereas we hear about the outrageous behaviors because they’re so outrageous. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a positive story about an HOA.
My sister owns a condo in Virginia Beach. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, there are three major military bases nearby and my sister estimates that nearly 1/3-1/2 of the condos had someone who was either a current or former member of the armed forces and there were always a lot of flags on display. Someone in the HOA didn’t like that and they tried enforcing the rules saying they couldn’t display those flags to a bunch of sailors, airmen, soldiers, and marines.
I can still remember the first time I heard about a conflict between homeowners and an HOA back in 1987-88 when I moved to Texas. The summer had been particularly hot & dry and several roofs had been set ablaze. One of the HOAs in Plano required that all homes have wood shingles and one of the residents went ahead and got some other shingle he felt would be safer. The HOA wasn’t happy and it actually made the news.
On the flip side, when I lived in Little Rock the city did a piss poor job of enforcing their municipal codes and the neighbors across the street from me were horrible people. Their house looked like garbage, they consistently allowed trash to accumulate and blow in the yards of neighbors, and they had a basketball hoop set up allowing them to play in the street disrupting traffic and causing them to constantly ding parked cars.
My first instinct would be to say, no, I wish the house I inherited wasn’t in an HOA neighborhood - but if I think about it a minute that would be incorrect.
Because while an HOA wouldn’t be on my wish list, HOA amenities are. Access to a nice swimming pool is important to me and I can’t afford my own. A private club would cost considerably more than my HOA dues and would probably be much less convenient. And I like the little park and pond that sits across from my house and I like that it’s maintained. One thing I’ve learned from being on this HOA is that pond and lake maintenance is way trickier and more expensive than pool maintenance. And I like that there is a clubhouse I can rent for $75 bucks if I want to have a pool party.
It’s a trade-off, but I like my amenities.
I think we had a quorum maybe four times in ten years. 
Once was to vote to have everyone subscribe to cable TV for a ridiculously low cost per household (passed). One was to have a special assessment (paid off over five years) to match city funds to put in new street lighting and replace the sub-base material and asphalt on the streets (passed). Another was when the president with an agenda wanted to cut down a bunch of trees in the public spaces, which was clearly against the covenants. The green spaces are a huge draw in that neighborhood and are what gives it character. She got shouted down good and proper.
Have you ever tried to get rid of creeping charlie? I spent years with that and finally gave in and called a lawn company to spray it. It took them about two years to get rid of it.
The funny thing, was, people would compliment my ‘grass’ and ask me how I got it so green. I’d show them that it’s like 50% ivy, so they were just seeing that, not actual grass.
I got it mostly eradicated about 10 years ago, but even now, if I smell mint when I’m cutting the grass, I have to spray it before it takes over again.
So how is your HOA going to fix this? Is it going to provide additional funds to that homeowner, so they have the time to maintain their property to your satisfaction? 
I’ve got clover in my yard (along with a lot of other things, including some actual grass). If it stays green and you can’t tell that it isn’t grass while driving by, I really don’t see the problem. And the clover stays green better than the grass, so I like it (as do the bunny’s).
Seems like the best of both worlds. The fees are going to common purposes and no one’s getting hassled.
It’s not like HOA fees go to enforcing that people mow their lawns. That’s just what busybody neighbors do. HOA fees go to things like maintenance of common areas. The HOA my house is in has pretty small fees because we have few amenities. No pool or clubhouse or tennis courts. They just have to pay someone to come in and clear brush from green space and mow a few lawns. And maybe to plow the roads in winter? Not sure if the city does that or the HOA does.
There’s no reason that an HOA has to do things like make people mow their lawns or paint their house a certain color or hassle people about their cars. It could just be a neighborhood organization that collects $200 a year to maintain the neighborhood pool.
Growing up, our subdivision had a really nice pair of pools- one relatively shallow peanut-shaped one, and a half-olympic sized lane pool that was from 3-12 feet deep.
It was paid for out of the neighborhood association dues, but that’s essentially all the neighborhood association was for- upkeep of the pools, the poolhouse/community building, and the hiring of lifeguards. There wasn’t any requirement that you be part of the association if you lived in our neighborhood; you just couldn’t use the pools unless you were. And they had no oversight on our paint colors, backyard towers, landscaping/yard, etc… that was all city code enforcement.
One good thing about HOAs is that it tends to filter people based on whether they want the neighborhood to be expressive or consistent. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either way, but lots of disagreements happen when the two kinds of people are living side-by-side. The people who want to live in a neighborhood with well-manicured lawns and consistent paint schemes can pick HOA neighborhoods, and the people who want total creativity over their house can live in non-HOA neighborhoods.