Flock cameras aside, I would never buy a home that’s part of an HOA. There have been too many stories over the last 10 years of these terrible people abusing their power, up-to and including stealing people’s home out from under them. That neighborhood is unlivable.
Something like 35% of all homes in the US are governed by HOAs and roughly 2/3 of all new developments are adopting HOAs.
Reason number 4629 why I’ll never be immigrating to the US. “Land of the free” my ass.
I’ve recently just understood what a HOA is. As a Canadian I thought they were “Unincorporated Municipalities” or there’s also “Rate Payers Associations” which is like a proto-town where there’s a group providing town-like services amongst themselves. Which to me is some sick ass anarchist shit. But an HOA is just letting your neigbours tell you what to do? That’s lame.
I don’t have an HOA but my property operates under deed restrictions that limit property owners in meaningful ways, establishing usage of the wells, easements, number of structures and so forth.
One of my neighbors repeatedly referred to herself as “the head of the HOA” and I told her she needed to stop saying that because we don’t have one. I didn’t say as much but I would hire an attorney to send a C&D if she were to keep that up.
HOA’s! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of municipalities, Dude, at least it’s a system of governance!
at least it’s a system of governance!
Local governments are subject to monitored elections and the bill of rights.
HOAs are neither. Their elections can easily be cheated, and they’re under no legal obligation to respect the civil rights of their members.
Well, the quote I butchered was meant to denigrate HOA’s and say that municipalities were indeed a form of governance whereas HOA’s are a form of tyranny. So I’m not sure what point your making, but high five!
My neighborhood is deed restricted but most of the rules are just how to be a good neighbor. Trash cans can only be out from this time to this time. Your grass can’t be over grown. Personally, I like the structure and I like living on a street where everyone agrees we want our immediate environment to look and feel nice. I’ve never heard of anything ever having to be enforced because everyone just does it, and when someone doesn’t, it usually just means they need to be checked on.
The grass thing would frustrate me as someone anti lawn and want to engage in more sustainable alternative methods of maintaining a yard. I also dislike rules on how you can paint your house.
You also have to keep in mind that whoever enforces this stuff can easily go from “neighbors checking in” to “neighborhood nutjob brings a ruler on walks to issue fines” with some changes in neighbors
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you’d both be morons in that situation
But an HOA is just letting your neigbours tell you what to do? That’s lame.
Sure, but there’s a chance they could become the ones fucking their neighbors over for cheap thrills! That makes it okay! /s
HOAs vary a lot. In my city, every new development has one as a condition of getting permits from the city. That’s mainly because cars and their infrastructure are stupidly expensive, the city just can’t afford to maintain it all without raising property taxes. I have friends who live in an HOA neighborhood, and basically they just pay an extra monthly bill to cover snow removal, maintenance of common areas, and such. For them, it’s nothing like the horror stories of HOAs that can take your house if your mailbox is the wrong color. It is just a group providing services that the city can’t afford anymore.
So they aren’t a proto-city like an unassumed municipality, they are like a posto-city where late stage capitalism goes to retire and find a new revenu stream.
Some of them, yeah.
the city just can’t afford to maintain it all without raising property taxes
So, instead, everybody gets to pay HOA fees. I guess as long as you don’t call it a ‘tax’ people will go along with it.
kinda funny though in that the city only exists to do that stuff so why not get rid of it and have the county run all the little developer cities.
It is free, but that privilege doesn’t come for free.
As long as you have enough money and don’t step on the toes of other people who have money, you can seemingly get away with everything.
“With freedom and justice for all who can afford it.”
More like land of free to be asses.
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Don’t let the internet scare you. The USA is still amazing. I’m an immigrant myself and I could’ve never asked for a better place.
What are you comparing it to?
This is like the dumbest shit I have ever heard. You are no authority of anything. Why should anyone care what you think? Lots of people are immigrants. We have kids in cages and you are a insane person. You sound like a cop or a human who has lost its instinct to survive. Yeah the grass is greener but that is just because it is made of plastic.
Ok
HOAs or something of similar form exist in a lot of places. They require residents to be involved though. Anybody who lives in an HOA or similar and doesn’t participate (go to meetings, read their bylaws etc.) contributes to the organization being abused.
HOAs are most frequently[citation needed] found in the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and the Philippines,[3] and to some extent in other countries, such as New Zealand, Israel, Mauritius, South Africa, most of the countries of the European Union, such as Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Sweden, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and some of the Latin American countries, such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
go to meetings
And fuck you if you’ve got a job, right?
That’s why all these HOAs are run by retirees with too much time on their hands.
Seems like the typical Americans apathy towards electing their representation in government applies other areas too.
I’m in Canada. As it says further down that Wikipedia article, HOAs for detached homes are very rare. Condo boards exist, but mostly by necessity if sharing a building.
Strata’s in Canada and HOAs in the US largely serve the same purpose with the biggest difference being financial interest in common property.
HOA are not in Canada.
Closest we have is strata when an apartment or condo is owned by all the owners having a share.
You have yearly vote for who sits on council, and bylaws can be changed by voting. The Strata does not have to approve your purchase into the unit like HOAs do to restrict the type of person who can own.
Both stratas and HOAs can have bylaws that allow them to approve buyers. The most significant difference between an HOA and a Strata Corp. is that in Strata’s the owners have a financial interest in the common property.
Looks like only financial approval (to ensure you can afford strata fees), and occupant count approval (like not a 10 person family in a 1 bedroom apartment) but Canada doesnt allow discriminatory buyer approval like HOAs in the states…strata just can’t say no because no.
And rental bylaw got squashed with COVID
HOAs in the US are governed by the Fair Housing Act and can’t just say “no because no”.
The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, sex. Since 1988, the act protects people with disabilitiesand families with children. Pregnant women are also protected from illegal discrimination because they have been given familial status with their unborn child being the other family member.
You might be confusing deed covenants with HOAs.
I have heard many municipalities only allow new construction as planned communities because they don’t want to do the trash and local roads and simplifies connections water/sewer wise and they require water run off management and such.
The municipalities know the suburbs are a Ponzi scheme and don’t want to be left holding the bag. Single-family homes on large lots simply don’t generate enough tax revenue to pay for the infrastructure they use.
I’d imagine it varies greatly by municipality but I’ve known of a number of new developments where I am where the local laws required developers to establish and manage an HOA while they build.
The developer hands it over to the property owners to run after a determined amount of time.
I bought a home built in the 90s that technically had an HOA because the town required one when the subdivision was built. The HOA was defunct until 2010 or so when someone wanted to add an addition to their house. They put in for permission from the town. Town said “did the HOA approve it?” Homeowner went “HOA? Oh, I guess we should have one of those.” After that, the HOA existed to rubber stamp home additions and send out email reminders to get your septic tank pumped. No fuss, no fees.
Current home is a condo with a shared roof. HOA is much more hands on and my biggest complaint is they suck at communicating expectations. Like, I’m fine following rules. I’m autistic, it’s kind of my thing. Just tell me what they are before you yell at me for breaking them. (note: I’m easy to yell at because I have a history of abuse, yelling is more a tone of voice than a volume thing.)
On the other hand, anything outside my walls isn’t my problem and it’s way cheaper than renting was. And I go to the monthly meetings.
Just tell me what they are before you yell at me for breaking them.
This is perfectly reasonable, as well as warning requirements and remediation time before any penalties apply.
I would never buy a house in an HOA if the state it’s in doesn’t have disclosure laws like mine. Where we live you get the CC&Rs, bylaws, articles of incorporation, rules and regulations, recent meeting minutes, the current budget and reserve study, the assessment schedule, any special assessments, pending litigation, and an estoppel certificate from the management company prior to purchase.
Time to go live on the other 65%.
I’ll live in a goddamn cardboard box before I live in an HOA house.
Daily reminder that one of the most famous serial killers stopped killing after he became president of an HOA because he got just as much satisfaction from it as he did torturing people to death.
Can’t remember if it was Dahmer or the BTK killer but the point is still there
Was he president of an HOA? I thought he was just a very annoying municipal compliance officer. I can see how people would cross those streams, given both roles are built for assholes who want to measure your grass height with a ruler and check your house paint against a swatch.
Honestly I don’t remember but like you said it’s along the same vein
Edit: Just looked it up and you are correct. It was the BTK killer.
My HOA seems to be one of the best options - $300/year and zero rules about bins being x inches from the house, paint restrictions, etc. The money goes towards the subdivision pool and that’s it.
But I’m worried that the two trustees (who are in their 70s) will kick it and someone less hands off will take over.
Oh sweet summer child.
Nobody thinks THEIR HOA can turn to shit, but all it takes is maybe five people to take over and fuck it entirely. I moved into a one of these shitbag neighborhoods because it was the only thing available at the time that fit the budget and met the other criteria. Buying during late covid was a mess. I’ve spent a LOT of time pouring over the legal documents, charters, etc and pulling as many docs out of the county recorder’s website as I could find. The pastiche of state and local laws that interleave into HOAs is a confusing mess at best. In the case of mine, the board members got something through that changed the voting requirements for dissolution of the HOA from 60% to 95%. No, they did not hold a vote to do it, they just did it via the procedures laid out in the founding documents. I’ve NEVER witness or been invited to any voting activities, yet we have a new board president somehow. It’s the same group of ten white boomers that just trade back and forth. Right now, the only thing that’s holding them down is that they pissed away all the money so they have little to nothing left to engage in any sort of legal battles with homeowners. However, they did just raise the fees (again, no voting that I am aware of) so that may change.
Your HOA may be benign now, but all it takes are a handful of assholes to fuck up the whole thing and create misery in the process. A few boomer busybodies, maybe one lawyer and you’re fucked.
Also, many of these things will “sell” the management to a 3rd party that will run them like a slumlord. They will send people out to generate infractions and fines that they get to keep. Grass too long, fine. Mailbox not right, another fine. Garbage out too early/late, that’s a fine. Most of the money goes to the management company, the board trustees will put the rest into the HOA funds, but there is almost zero oversight for what happens to the money.
HOAs are bullshit I would love to burn mine down; I’m half tempted to start a legal battle with mine just because I know that they dont’ have a lot of money and I might be able to bully them into something, but I’d never get rid of it. Plus it would be an expensive gamble.
Would it hurt to sound less condescending?
No, that post is factual.
Yep. Doesn’t matter if this HOA is ‘one of the good ones’. It can become a horror show at any time whenever the leadership changes.
Mine failed to file the correct paperwork with the state and lost all their enforcement power over land they don’t directly own.
But it’s FOR THE GREATER GOOD.
More like the gated good
Your point is not invalid, but in this case I was referencing Hot Fuzz.
thegreatergoood
… before you could say ‘gypsy scum’ we were knee deep in dog muck, thieving kids and crusty jugglers!
The Greater Good.
“for the entire history of HOAs” fixed that for you
One of the most basic people I know lives in one and when I asked him why, he just said the properly values are high. He not the most creative person and doesn’t really care about politics or anything really, so it works for him.
You say that until you live next to someone who literally parks multiple vehicles in their front yard, blasts loud music all day (and most of the night), has dogs running loose, and then starts building a second house on the edge of your property.
Many Americans are selfish, stupid people who will do whatever they want until someone stops them. We all know calling the cops is useless and often just escalates the assholery. I’d rather deal with an HOA run by geriatrics than a pissed off trashy person who has endless access to gasoline.
Most municipalities have ordinances for noise and leash requirements. I doubt you even bothered to call the cops on them
Ordinances and laws don’t matter in many places. Until his pitbull bit a kid walking in the street, the cops AND animal control never came out once despite multiple complaints. Cops don’t care and animal control had other problems (wildlife in the nearby nature preserve). My eife wouldn’t take our dog out because we’d get swarmed.
I don’t know why your first assumption is that this is all somehow my fault.
music would be a problem but I won’t complain about the cars in their front yard if they don’t complain about the giant garden in mine. Besides, maybe they’d let me borrow their jack stand or help me change my rotors.
I appreciate that you want to see the potential positives, but it’s just not realistic. If it’s a cool person, like the kind that would help you out, they’re probably not the same person who acts so obnoxiously and rudely.
Well, that’s a false equivalency if I ever saw one.
And OP I’m responding too isn’t making a sweeping generalization? It’s not a false equivalency to compare an actual experience without an HOA to someone’s made-up generalization about HOAs. The fact that people so blindly repeat this broken line of thinking proves that most people have never actually dealt with an HOA. Sure, there are bad ones, but not every single one.
It’s a circlejerk of uninformed people who just want to hate on something they really know nothing about.
My hoa has this. Wish I knew before I moved in. My car got vandalized, and the offender was their friend. They decided to protect him and not give out the recording. Also sent out email with disclaimer: cameras are not for our safety or security. What are they for then?!?! Stalking us?!?
That’s an instant “sue and subpoena the footage”
Sue who? I don’t know the guy. And I have no proof. All i have is a bad photo of him near my car.
You don’t sue the guy, you sue the hoa and/or the person who told you they weren’t going to give you evidence.
The ones who have the recording, genius
Ha, good luck with that. Suing hoa is like shooting yourself in the foot. Gotta sell and move out before doing that, and by now they already deleted the recording. So it will lead nowhere. Nothing i can prove.
At that point, get into amateur radio and put a tower up. They legally can’t stop you
People think tree law stories are wild but amateur radio antenna stores are on another level. If you want to see an HOA get stuck tangling with the feds, get an amateur radio license and put up a radio tower.
Start doing crimes. When they use the cameras you show them the email about how cameras aren’t for safety.
Youll go down, but itll feel like justice.
You aren’t expected to do the legwork. That’s what an attorney is for.
You need to run to be your HOA president.
I need to be popular in this “high school” (building) to even have a chance of getting any hoa board member position.
When I was house-shopping, I refused to look at any house that was in an HOA.
Some HOA’s are literally just to pay for the maintenance of a shared private drive, which IMO is reasonable. So, we explicitly refused to make any offers or consider any homes in HOA’s which didn’t let us see their charter. Interestingly enough, that was all of them… makes you think.
Where I’m from, the board has to make all documentation and meeting minutes available to people considering purchasing.
And it’s a damn good thing they do, I’ve had friends discover some pretty expensive things that were lurking in the wings for future costs, like mold abatement and foundation problems.
What you don’t want to pay a surcharge every month for the privilege to fund a micro government focused on harassing its constituents?
Ya fuck HOAs
This is my number one requirement.
Depends on the HOA. Some are basically microdictatorships, some are just actually a group of homeowners trying to make sure their neighborhood doesn’t fall apart. Several of the houses down the road that don’t have HOAs have broken furniture and smashed cars in their front yards. Imagine trying to sell your home living next to that.
We pay about $500 a year to our HOA, and that gives us access to a neighborhood playground/yearly events/etc. Only time we had to reach out was to build a fence and it was just verifying we were in the guidelines for type of fence allowed and not encroaching neighbors.
Just remember that the board and rules can change over time. What seems reasonable now may not be what you’ll be dealing with next year.
guidelines for type of fence allowed
Huge red flag. There’s a giant spectrum between “no trash in the front yard please” and “guidelines for type of fence allowed”
also ring cameras are spying too. i see them still installed in most houses.
Is there a link or something about this?
Just go take a walk in a couple of residential areas. You’ll see them fairly quickly.
I love these US centric responses. There is a world outside of the USA. I have never seen such a thing.
Ring video doorbells do exist in Europe, but they’re not very common. Apparently they are very common in the US, and they record video of things it sees. I think the legitimate use-case is to record if your packages (that are left by the door) are tampered with or stolen.
Here’s an article: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/amazon-ring-cashes-techno-authoritarianism-and-mass-surveillance
Would be cool if this flock debacle dragged the rest of the CCTV industry down with it…
Zero chance. There are good reasons to have cameras, it’s the centralized database that is truly dystopian.
Bah even private cameras are dystopian (unless you go through the rigamarole of self-hosting, and maybe have a “remote site backups” agreement with a friend/family member).
I shudder to think how many hours of home security video Bezos has access to. I wonder how quickly the worlds largest AI datacenter can comb through all of them and identify the ones with naked or partially-clothed children, and, ahem…set them aside.
You already see AI flagging innocent, private photos as CSAM…even “baby in the bath” that literally every parent has taken…and sometimes even calling the authorities. I’m absolutely certain that if their AI is flagging them, it’s also…ahem…archiving them…for “further review” (with a bottle of lotion). And I’m also certain there are plenty of very fortunate perverts at mid-levels with access to it, who landed their dream-job.
Let’s not forget that said “good reasons” are all but absent in real scenarios. 🤮
private cameras make tons of sense for liability protection, but there is no reason to let the pigs access it without a warrant or you directly benefiting.
Yeah you want a camera to be able to identify who robbed you, but not one that allows the cops to see your coke filled backyard orgy. The only way to have that is to have full control of the cameras and recordings
My HOA has them and advertises them as a way to keep the neighborhood safer. Most people buy it. I hope the tide turns on these though and that more stories like this continue to show they can affect bottom lines.
I have this theory that visibly disabled security devices harm the public perception of safety more than no devices being there in the first place.
Yeah, I’m still all for flockjacks and flock stumps though.
Don’t forget the 3D-printable Flock Sock —to protect the dear cameras from harmful radiation, of course.
Also for your balls. It’s well known that flock radiation shrinks your balls.
The fact that your HOA is surveiling your house and its residents is disgusting enough to at least meet with an attorney, IMHO. 🖖🏼
Regardless of whether flock cameras are deployed or not, I can’t figure out why anyone would be looking to buy into an HOA community.
Lack of options
I’d rather live in a tent.
No matter how “good” HOA may seem… It will go to shit and and you will get fucked. It’s not if, it is when.
You may get lucky for a few years, but eventually like Russian roulette, you will lose big.
You absolutely would not rather live in a tent. Living in a tent really sucks.
You’re missing the hyperbolic but reasonable point.
No, I got the point, it just really bothers me to trivialize sleeping in a tent. It’s really hard and no you would not choose sleeping in a tent over an HOA. That’s what anybody chooses an HOA. Because homelessness, which sucks, is the only other choice for some people.
I just spent a weekend camping in a tent, and it would suck. And absolutely would I rather live in a tent. Then throw my lives savings away in a HOA scam…
Pennsic?
Pennsic was fun! Probably still is! I haven’t been in twenty years, oops.
Well, you’re gonna get arrested and they’re going to steal your tent. Not in that order though. Have fun I guess.
Thafuq? You’re assuming a lot abt them here, and all from a single comment?
Also, FWIW, that is not the only outcome. As someone who’s spent a couple years houseless, I can attest that those areas most frequented by drug traffic or nearest rich neighborhoods/commerce centers are the ones the police are paid to harass.
you still have to put that tent somewhere you’re allowed to be
My friend bought a house in a good neighborhood with “good HOA”. Half a year later they went on vacation and while they were away, hoa people entered his yard with a key that they apparently have without informing him, and cut down a beautiful cherry blossom tree in his yard, then sent him a bill for a removal, with the explaination that the tree had “incorrect leaf density”.
Your friend should have sued the fuck out of them. If that tree was more than a few years old they could have been looking at 6 figures in damages
HOAs have some crazy legal standings and abilities. IANAL but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was technically legal according to their rules, and they are protected
I will never live in an HOA.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that was technically legal according to their rules
I highly doubt those rules can override actual laws, even if they’re in fine print you technically signed. I just don’t see a bullet point “we can secretly make a key to your property and remove something from it without any notice” holding up.
IDK, depending on how it’s written and how messed up it is, I think they can make it so when you sign and buy the house, you’re only renting out leasing the land underneath it. Therefore they’re not cutting down your tree, they’re cutting down their tree. Something like that 🤷♂️
What is HOA?
the importance of ‘freedom’ is central to the american experience. but, nobody in this country can mind their own fucking business, and every single person has some grand idea about how everyone else should live and then wants to go out of their way to make their insane fantasy a concrete reality.
the HOA is one such expression. in this case, it’s when a bunch of upper middle class karens create a neighborhood government to tell you what you can or can’t do with your property.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association
Basically a power hungry mini government that controls everything about your house
You should be allowed to shoot at flock cameras with a pellet gun if you’re standing on your property while doing it. If you can hit the lens from there, it was infringing on your privacy on your property.
In the US you are legally allowed to record anything visible from public property. Meaning the flock cameras could be pointed directly at your house and it’d be legal.
I mean, they’d suddenly disappear somewhat frequently, but they’d be legal while there.
You can also claim other peoples property if it’s been left over 48 hours and is in public. Parking was a fucking nightmare and we would have have these contractor dumpsters that had a really bad habit of staying long past their permit length, well I guess I have a dumpster to either scrap or sell. There’s a form and a whole process, but make Flock claim every camera.
Hell no, the chances of getting fucked over for that are so high. Cut em off, bag em in a faraday bag before transportation, wait at least a day if no longer before opening the bag, then break em down into unidentifiable parts and dispose of what you don’t want.
But be careful to extract the up to 5 pounds of copper and 1.5 pounds of gold first
64gb of DDR5
Speaking of which, are street parked cars not property?
Depends but only licensed/registered ones I would guess, another neighbor got cars removed pretty regularly cause he was fixing them to sell but he would park them on the street but without tags
Upgrade that pellet gun to an AR15 and I 100% guarantee we can get conservatives on board.
Now I want to figure out what’s the maximum possible range a highly customized ‘pellet gun’ could shoot if you really engineer the hell out of increasing the range…
Gas powered rifles have stupid range. There’s a YT channel that shows them sniping pidgeons off a farm.
Apparently a big green laser does the job just well by cooking the sensor
Especially at night when the camera aperture is wide open.
It’s honestly not worth it though, as a laser that big could mess up yours or someone else’s eyes.
Won’t the circular saw be dangerous too, and noisy?
The municipalities are allowing it and the police are gobbling them up. As someone commented below, a fucking Ring camera is near identical to a Flock. In the near future, I’m certain Ring will also offer a camera, with options, that will read your ass.
They already do gait analysis. It’s not a leap to assume that Amazon can identify you from the motion of your ass as you walk.
They already do gait analysis
Are you sure? As far as I’ve seen that’s just pop sci-fi bullshit that has never been proven to work in the real world.
This is an interesting read: https://recfaces.com/articles/what-is-gait-recognition
You can do it at home with open-source software like OpenCV. The world’s largest companies that have been collecting and analyzing surveillance data for more than a decade are now desperate to find profitable use cases for their “AI”…
This paper makes it sound like it’s still basically guesswork. It’s a lot like lie detector tests. They don’t really work, but maybe they can be somewhat useful tools when combined with lots of other things?
I want to preface this with: I agree with you.
But the success of most things algorithm related are nowhere near 100%. Look at facial recognition, or even fingerprint recognition. There are false positives, to the point that innocent people have been convicted on them.
All tech has a margin of error, and it’s us idiots (meaning humans in general) that place an oversized trust in it.
There’s a difference between things that are based in sound science but aren’t 100% accurate, and things that are based on, at best, untested hypotheses.
I’d put gait analysis along with things like bite mark analysis, phrenology, etc. The appropriate level of trust in it is near zero percent. But, largely because it’s expensive, people convince themselves that something that expensive has to work. It’s similar to a lie detector test. They strap so many different things to you to measure your body, and have an expert in the machine who studies what’s happening. That leads people to believe that it has to work, at least a bit. But, there’s a reason why lie detector tests are generally not admissible in court. Even though they genuinely can tell… something, the potential for them to be misunderstood by the jury is too high for them to be allowed into evidence.
Police already arrest the wrong people, even when they have the name and address for a warrant. Even when the person doesn’t match the picture they are given, police lock 'em up anyway.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how accurate stuff like this is; it’ll just be another tool assholes, not just the police, use to justify being mean to people they don’t like.
They already integrate with Axon
https://www.axon.com/blog/building-safer-communities-together-axon-and-ring
Flock cameras make it look like there’s a lot of crime in the area
That’s because their presence alludes to anyone being a secret criminal, even your neighbors. 🤮 Watch out next for the armbands.
They’re already soft launching this with trans people’s ID’s
Yep. The armbands aren’t just for arms anymore. 😒
I went to the the pool yesterday with my toddler and noticed a flock camera pointed at the pool entrance. Fucking perverts.
Whatever spying cops are doing, HOA busybodies are doing it worse.
Fuck HOAs. I refused to look at houses within an HOA when I bought mine. I fired a realtor because they kept wasting my time showing me “wonderful houses” that were within an HOA, even though I explicitly told them no.
Ditto.
Hoas are great for master planned neighborhoods, that are gated and have a community pool. The funds go maintaining the landscaping, gate, streets, and pool
They should not be used for any communities that lack of those . The problem is they are built into new housing and it’s difficult to get rid of them.
The only people I’ve ever heard speak positively about HOAs are the ones causing problems for people within them. I’m not sure if that includes you, but it certainly paints my perception of this comment.
Yeah,…gated communities? Private pools? Really kinda showing their hand there.
I made the mistake once. Property values. These are investment communities and not homes.
I lived in an HOA neighborhood for a year with no issues. I didn’t like the neighborhood because it was cookie cutter but the HOA never made any complaints to us.
Our driveway got plowed because of the HOA so that was nice.
Neighborhood was not very attractive in the sense that there were barely any trees in any of the yards.
I think it’s like plane crashes. We hear a lot about when things go wrong, but if it actually works, there’s nothing to talk about.
A friend’s grandmother lives in an HOA. She never has issues.
We should probably have the dues, complaints, charters, and whatnot be public to avoid some of the mystery. You wouldn’t move to a new state without being able to look up the constitution, other laws, or tax rates on a public site… (well you shouldn’t anyway). I don’t understand why we’ve decided it’s okay at the community level.
A friend’s grandmother lives in an HOA. She never has issues.
Of course a little old lady doesn’t have any issues - HOAs exist to make their lives easier. Why do you think they end up with rules like ‘dogs can’t bark after 10 PM’? Do you really think it’s a young person making that rule?
Yeah, if that were the only thing I wrote, my contribution to this discussion would be complete garbage.
We should probably have the dues, complaints, charters, and whatnot be public to avoid some of the mystery.
You have this, it’s called literally anyone and everyone online hating HOAs.
I can keep breaking down what you wrote, if you’d like.
So your technique for breaking down ideas is to invoke an appeal to majority, and then be condescending about it?
Holy shit, I’m outmatched. It might take years for me to recover from the epic own I’ve just received.
I concede. There are countless other discussions that need your brave insights. It would be selfish to take up even one second more of your time. Godspeed.
HOA are cancer. I don’t understand how anything the HOA does is not a municipal government issue.
Because our country has a weird obsession with “government overreach” and somehow a private entity policing your every move is “more free” than a municipal ordinance.
It’s because the government said let’s all get along, and treat black people as humans and HOA’s were a legal way to enforce segregation…
It allows individuals to harass members of the community they don’t like through ticky tack violations that can be selectively targeted at any type of “other.” At the inception of HOAs that “other” was usually some type of race, but it can apply to anyone who doesn’t conform or just who your crabbiest neighbor might not like because they hate kids or don’t like that someone drives a nicer car than them or are just angry at their lot in life.
The only thing I think is reasonable is in cities like SF, the HoA pays for elevators to operate and usually a full-time security guard(s). Its annoying that if I get a condo that I have to pay an HoA fee (some are insane and basically just rent) but if its reasonable I can see it being worth it.
But in suburbs? I genuinely have no idea why I would want to be in one. And the fact that youre forced to pay dues just because the previous owner of the home youre trying to buy was in it is wild to me
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Yeah, I meant that specifically for suburbs/single family zoning areas. A multi owner building needs an organisation to actually do maintenance.
In townhouses, HOA dues typically go to redoing the decks/roofs, trash collection, and landscaping. I kind of get the need for it in this case, since one person neglecting these things could have major implications on the value of the attached units completely outside the other owners’ control. HOAs are largely the stereotypical Karen bullshit, though.
Our HOA is a municipal government. It functions exactly the same as an HOA but ran locally by elected government instead of a private company.
Being municipal government doesn’t really make it any better.
Billionaires: Yes, your property values are much lower now. How about you sell to us before things get worse?
