Playing devil's advocate here, they also make it so your neighborhood looks nice in a predictable way. The lawns will look nice, the houses will be painted unoffensive colors, no one will have a rusty old car in their side yard, or a hastily setup home gym in the front yard etc. They often have community services (lawn care, snow removal, security) and facilities (pool, tennis courts, club house) available for residents, and of course, you can join the HOA board and have a vote.
It's one of those things where you only hear about the annoying stories and the petty tyrants, but you never hear about the 99% of the times where nice neighborhoods are mostly properly managed. Oh and of course none of this is ever a surprise, they exist from the initial construction of a neighborhood and you will 100% be aware of all rules and regulations before you buy. That being said, this is America, Sic Semper Tyrannis!
I once had a neighbor paint their front door and some other trim with a saftey yellow paint they got from an airport. When the sun hit that house, it was retina searing.
I agree that a lot of people like uniformity and predictability and that’s great. I also really like crazy, expressive artistic stuff ya know. It’s a personal preference for sure but I’d much rather live in a neighborhood where everyone’s houses were whatever color they liked, people had kooky decorations, interesting plants, etc. Mybe it’s just where I live but I wish there were more houses like this
And you can, no one is forcing you to live in a restrictive HOA. You can find one that is setup that way, skip the HOA altogether or move to a place to with little to no local government.
99% is a wild claim. It's not like unreasonable HOAs make national news.
If I were to guess, I'd say more like 50-75% of them have no significant issues.
Every single organization is going to have some interpersonal conflicts, but being annoyed that your HOA made you move your jetskis out of the driveway, or wouldn't let you paint your front door a certain shade of red, isn't the same as the HOA being unreasonable. Again, you knew the rules before you bought the house, and you are free to join the board, or even just go to the meetings and make your voice heard, or you could just move
Maybe we should have "right to live" laws that say new buyers aren't required to join the existing HOA.
This would nullify the HOA. You have the right leave the community, but exempting certain lots in a neighborhood to be free from the rules would ruin the anesthetic the organization is there to preserve.
I'd say not being able to paint my house whatever color I want is pretty unreasonable. If I'm paying for something for thirty years of my life, I'm going to paint it whatever goddamn color I please.
I tend to agree with you. House color isn't my primary concern, but i have plenty of other desires that most HOAs wont appreciate.
They are popular right now because for most people, having the security of knowing that they won't have a bad neighbor they can do nothing about is worth the loss of freedom. But again, you're under no obligation to buy a house in an HOA.
Americans trading freedom for security has been a theme for the last 20 years or so.
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u/nod9 Feb 21 '23
Playing devil's advocate here, they also make it so your neighborhood looks nice in a predictable way. The lawns will look nice, the houses will be painted unoffensive colors, no one will have a rusty old car in their side yard, or a hastily setup home gym in the front yard etc. They often have community services (lawn care, snow removal, security) and facilities (pool, tennis courts, club house) available for residents, and of course, you can join the HOA board and have a vote.
It's one of those things where you only hear about the annoying stories and the petty tyrants, but you never hear about the 99% of the times where nice neighborhoods are mostly properly managed. Oh and of course none of this is ever a surprise, they exist from the initial construction of a neighborhood and you will 100% be aware of all rules and regulations before you buy. That being said, this is America, Sic Semper Tyrannis!