In all fairness, there are occasional good HOAs. We had one in the (very small, which is probably why it wasn’t run by jackbooted thugs) townhouse community we lived in outside DC for several years. All outside maintenance was done for us, including the area inside our postage-stamp-sized back yard; snow was plowed and sidewalks shoveled up to our front door, often before we left for work in the morning; and while we were there, all the reserve funds maxed out, so they started refunding half of the quarterly fee payment to every owner who was current on their dues. It was a refreshing change from all the horror stories I’d heard, but I suspect it was a true rarity.
These Homeowners’ Associations sound like the housing co-operative’s Mutated Evil Twin.
I grew up in a co-op. The townhouse complex was owned by a corporation whose shareholders were the tenants. Every month my parents and the other paid ‘rent’ (it was called something else) that went to pay the mortgage (fifty-year government mortgage!) and the maintenance costs (hiring contractors to cut the grass, plow the roads, fix the drains, one year the place got replacement windows, etc). There was an incentive to keep costs down by doing it ourselves–I mowed a lot of grass in high school, for instance.
There were some restrictions laid on the co-op regarding appearances, but that was by the town government. Any additional policies would be decided by democratic vote of the co-op members.
Various residents served on the board of directors of the co-op. One year my mom was the president, for instance. I don’t know the details of what this involved.
How is the Homeowners’ Association different? How are they organised? Are they democratic in nature?
I don’t understand the OP. It sounds to me like they’re trying to make the fuckers who fuck things up for everyone else pay for their own fuckedupedness. What’s wrong with that? And what’s it got to do with the USSR?