← Back to context

Comment by JohnFen

8 days ago

> I've gotten nothing but benefits from living in neighborhoods with HOAs.

I'm happy somebody has. Except for you, I have never heard anything but nightmares from the people I know who suffer under HOAs.

No one is going to rant about how their HOA is pretty OK.

My building has an HOA, and the worst I can say about is that's it's pretty boring.

  • There's a vast difference between the HOA for a building, and one for a suburban neighborhood.

    • My suburban neighborhood has an HOA and it's fine. Most of what they do is take care of the community swimming pools, sports fields, dog park, tennis courts, and landscaping and signage along the roads.

I question the motivation of people choosing to live in a place where they are constantly at odds with the agreed-upon standards of the community. They should leave if it is really that stressful and onerous.

  • The problem is that those standards can change based on who's elected or chosen to run the HOA.

    • Such is the problem with living in a "town" -- or anywhere with a city/community council. People are allowed to move to an adjacent neighborhood, or county, or anywhere, if they don't like the standards and governance.

    • they can, but in my experience rule changes are approximately zero. All of the HOAs I've lived in have been very reasonable. When I was on the receiving end of notices - they were well-deserved as much as they were embarrassing.

  • It's not a question of being at odds with the agreed-upon standards. They aren't.

    > They should leave if it is really that stressful and onerous.

    Easier said than done. A few people I know found that it was difficult to sell their home because the existence of an HOA scares off buyers.

    • > difficult to sell their home because the existence of an HOA scares off buyers

      It can be a concern. But I actually found the opposite to be true in my case. During my house-hunt I was far more turned-off by the appearance and disrepair of several houses and properties near the places that I was looking at. So it can definitely be a consideration from both perspectives.

  • > place where they are constantly at odds with the agreed-upon standards of the community.

    I didn't write those standards, so why would I agree with them? Should I be homeless now?

    • You seem to not understand what a Homeowner Association is. You have to agree to the rules in order to live in the community. However, you can choose not to agree to the rules if you don't like them. In which case, you can move somewhere else in order to avoid homelessness.

    • You can’t have a property under an HOA that you didn’t agree to. Either you were the owner when the original HOA was entered into, or you were aware of it when you purchased the property.

      1 reply →

  • The thing that really makes me wonder are some of the horror stories where new homeowners were surprised by the HOA existence, or at least some of the enforcement actions. It also seems like an easy thing to fake for the clicks, who knows.

  • And this is how we get Redlining

    • Not sure how redlining comes into this. Everyone in my neighborhood provided no fewer than 3 signatures in a contract agreeing to abide by the well-documented community standards for use and upkeep of their property.

      2 replies →