Don’t everyone in the HOA get to vote on who will be on the board and what rules there should be? Why do many of them seem to have strange and petty rules?
Why should it be different from any other election?
Comment on A product of his environment
Ecen@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Can someone explain why there are so many stories of bad HOAs in America? Don’t everyone in the HOA get to vote on who will be on the board and what rules there should be? Why do many of them seem to have strange and petty rules? What makes them able to issue fines for so small infractions? Where does the fine money go? Who sets up the HOA in the first place and what is the motivation to do so?
We got plenty of similar associations where I live (both for apartments and houses, though not so often for fully detached homes) and they usually work great. Basically you pay a monthly fee to your HOA that the board use to keep the plumbing and outside areas maintained, pay for tv/internet for everyone at a much reduced cost or maintain other common areas like laundry rooms, guest apartment, parking garage, workshop etc. There are of course some restrictions too you need to follow, but those are usually minor and common sense anyways (like you shouldn’t play very loud music too late in an apartment in the middle of the week) and that you don’t get to do whatever you want to the outside of your place.
(Another common rule is that you need HOA approval to sublet your apartment. This can be occasionally annoying to deal with, but is good because it prevents people from buying up apartments just to rent them out. And most of the time the HOA will approve you if you’re just moving away for a year or similar.)
plyth@feddit.org 1 day ago
mirshafie@europe.pub 2 days ago
Hittade svensken
cpaq47@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That was the original intent, yes. Then they were tainted by greed and now most of them are in place before anyone lives in the neighborhood, so owners have no choice if they want to live there. Many are owned and operated by private companies that profit off petty fines like this. I once got a letter threatening a fine because I parked my car in my driveway and it had expired tabs. This was during early covid when the DMV was slower than usual. I almost lost my shit.
Check out this episode of Last week tonight if you wanna get more upset.
Last Week Tonight HOAs
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
That’s not the original intent. In the US, HOAs were mostly created after the end of segregation to keep black people out of white neighborhoods, an origin story that puts into context the modern of pettiness and desire to control others we see in stories like this.
When these were found unconstitutional in 1948, they became private contacts until those became illegal in 1968, but because HOAs had to approve new members/buyers, the rules stayed in effect until the majority of a community decided to stop being racist. On top of that, in 1963 the Federal Housing Administration said they would only insure mortgages on homes with an HOA which is really what created suburban sprawl and the ghettoization of the American inner cities.
If you look at the history of HOAs it’s really a long and protracted fight on all levels by racists and bigots against the Civil Rights movement.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association
TL;DR: Although conceptually HOAs are a good idea, even trending towards communalism, actually existing HOAs are, with a few exceptions, downright regressive, often criminally so.
Ecen@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Thanks! I will give it a watch.
It does seem to suck. I hope it can get better.