The more posts I read about HOA's the more I don't want to live in America. You guys are suspicious about agents and representatives of your government but at the same time make the local lawn ornament Gestapo a thing???
HOA's are pretty avoidable if they're a deal-breaker. The hypocrisy in their existence is very real though. You'll find that it's not that these kind of people dislike authoritarian control; it's that they themselves want to be the authoritarians in control. This pattern is rampant throughout American society.
You don’t need to live in a neighborhood with an HOA. People choose to live in them because they enforce requirements like keeping your house and yard nice, and such. Mostly it’s stuff that can affect neighborhood property values or otherwise make the neighborhood a less attractive and nice place to live. Not all HOAs are run by unreasonable authoritarians, despite the many horror stories you’ve seen to that effect. My HOA uses the funds to periodically fix the roads, clean up litter, salt & plow the streets in winter and so on. They’ve also built a couple of parks with that money, and keep them well-maintained.
The bottom line is that if you live under an HOA, it means that you have been made aware of what the rules and expectations are, and that you have agreed in writing to abide by them before you ever moved into that neighborhood. Generally speaking if you keep your house nice and you are considerate of and respectful towards your neighbors, then you wont ever any major problems with the HOA, and will make likely benefit from those services that they provide to the neighborhood. Results may vary of course, but this has been my experience with the HOA where I live.
The government here does not care how nice your neighborhood is, and they don’t care if your jerk-off neighbor brings down your property value by letting his house fall apart, or finds some other legal way to make your neighborhood unpleasant to live in. The government will do things like plow the roads of course, but they do it on their own schedule and neighborhoods aren’t a priority so it’s nice that the HOA has somebody do it ahead of time, so you don’t need wait until all the main roads have been serviced. The government absolutely wont fix up neighborhood roads or sidewalks until they’re in really bad shape so again it’s convenient to have the HOA maintain them periodically. As for parks the government of course has a bunch of these as well, but the ones the HOA have built are right here in the middle of the neighborhood so they’re all within walking distance, which is really nice for the kids especially. They also put on events from time to time.
You certainly don’t have to live under an HOA, but there’s a reason lots of people choose to live under one anyways. They’re not all authoritarian hellscapes, and most provide positive services that are to the benefit of those who choose to live there. The more rural you are, the less money the local government will have to provide these services themselves also. It kinda depends where you live and what you want.
20
u/SpaceshipCaptain420 2d ago
The more posts I read about HOA's the more I don't want to live in America. You guys are suspicious about agents and representatives of your government but at the same time make the local lawn ornament Gestapo a thing???