4 ms·

I would say that your first recourse is the ability to read all the financial documents. As a property owner in an HOA you have every right to read the contract

by db48x 2y ago

I would say that your first recourse is the ability to read all the financial documents. As a property owner in an HOA you have every right to read the contracts that your HOA has signed, to audit the books, and to otherwise verify that the HOA board is doing their job correctly. Second recourse is to vote in the elections. If you elect petty tyrants, you get petty tyranny. Third is to run for the board yourself to make sure things are being done correctly. And if all that is too tiresome then yea, sell your property and buy a house that isn’t in an HOA. Most houses aren’t.

alistairSH 2y ago
Most houses arent I’m sure this is true nationally, but does it hold locally for areas with good employment prospects? And once you remove apartments (which don’t have HOAs but are subject to the tyranny of the landlord instead)? Genuinely asking because I can’t think of too many areas in NoVA that don’t have HOAs. Correction… There are areas of older housing without, but any subdivisions built since the 80s seems to have one. The areas without tend to be older “downtown” areas (Arlington - very expensive) or on the outskirts (Fairfax Station - very expensive).
- db48x 2y ago
  I don't have any statistics ready to hand, but my recollection is that most households are not in an HOA, but that most newly–built houses are. It is my understanding that cities have started to rely on HOAs to own and maintain infrastructure that would once have been the domain of the city, and that cities are doing this to avoid raising taxes. On the one hand that makes a lot of sense. If you want your neighborhood to have a park, but you also want the streets built so that they lengthen all trips in and out of the neighborhood, then the park is really only going to be usable by people who live there. It is therefore unfair for people on the other side of the city to pay for maintenance of that park. On the other hand, HOAs can turn into drama factories. Too many people vehemently hate their HOA for being petty tyrants. On the gripping hand, city governments can be pretty annoying too. San Francisco apparently takes an average of three years to approve building permits. A few years back my favorite restaurant (not located in SF) was being remodeled, and the owner took the opportunity to replace the front door. The original was 40 years old and wearing out, so she replaced it with a virtually identical steel and glass door, the kind you can find on commercial buildings from here to Vladivostok. The city spent an extra month hassling her about it, worried that she was destroying the historical character of the town. Madness.
pavel_lishin 2y ago
Isn't this just the "if you don't like it, leave" argument? Selling your house and buying a different one that isn't in an HOA isn't as trivial as you make it sound. And in some parts of the country, it's rather difficult to find a house that isn't part of an HOA - in Texas, many neighborhoods get built with an HOA built-in.
- FeloniousHam 2y ago
  There's a disconnect in these comments that suggest a homeowner is forced into an HOA; for the vast (vast!) majority of cases, the HOA (and it's publicly available rules) are pre-existing to the home purchase. The rules can be annoying, but the primary purpose is the preserve the sale value of the properties. I'm ambivalent about an HOA, but my father's neighbors probably wished they had one when they were selling their house (he had two broken cars and one broke down lawn mower in the driveway for years).
  - pavel_lishin 2y ago
    Well, that's true - nobody is forced to buy a house. (Though, sometimes, they inherit one that's hard to sell due to an HOA.) But on the other hand, housing supply is limited. Sometimes your choices are "a decent house close to a decent school with an HOA" or "I guess we'll move seven hours away from everyone we've ever known" or "The neighbor's meth lab probably won't detonate this year, right?"

by db48x 2y ago

alistairSH 2y ago

Most houses arent I’m sure this is true nationally, but does it hold locally for areas with good employment prospects? And once you remove apartments (which don’t have HOAs but are subject to the tyranny of the landlord instead)? Genuinely asking because I can’t think of too many areas in NoVA that don’t have HOAs. Correction… There are areas of older housing without, but any subdivisions built since the 80s seems to have one. The areas without tend to be older “downtown” areas (Arlington - very expensive) or on the outskirts (Fairfax Station - very expensive).

db48x 2y ago
I don't have any statistics ready to hand, but my recollection is that most households are not in an HOA, but that most newly–built houses are. It is my understanding that cities have started to rely on HOAs to own and maintain infrastructure that would once have been the domain of the city, and that cities are doing this to avoid raising taxes. On the one hand that makes a lot of sense. If you want your neighborhood to have a park, but you also want the streets built so that they lengthen all trips in and out of the neighborhood, then the park is really only going to be usable by people who live there. It is therefore unfair for people on the other side of the city to pay for maintenance of that park. On the other hand, HOAs can turn into drama factories. Too many people vehemently hate their HOA for being petty tyrants. On the gripping hand, city governments can be pretty annoying too. San Francisco apparently takes an average of three years to approve building permits. A few years back my favorite restaurant (not located in SF) was being remodeled, and the owner took the opportunity to replace the front door. The original was 40 years old and wearing out, so she replaced it with a virtually identical steel and glass door, the kind you can find on commercial buildings from here to Vladivostok. The city spent an extra month hassling her about it, worried that she was destroying the historical character of the town. Madness.

pavel_lishin 2y ago

Isn't this just the "if you don't like it, leave" argument? Selling your house and buying a different one that isn't in an HOA isn't as trivial as you make it sound. And in some parts of the country, it's rather difficult to find a house that isn't part of an HOA - in Texas, many neighborhoods get built with an HOA built-in.

FeloniousHam 2y ago
There's a disconnect in these comments that suggest a homeowner is forced into an HOA; for the vast (vast!) majority of cases, the HOA (and it's publicly available rules) are pre-existing to the home purchase. The rules can be annoying, but the primary purpose is the preserve the sale value of the properties. I'm ambivalent about an HOA, but my father's neighbors probably wished they had one when they were selling their house (he had two broken cars and one broke down lawn mower in the driveway for years).
- pavel_lishin 2y ago
  Well, that's true - nobody is forced to buy a house. (Though, sometimes, they inherit one that's hard to sell due to an HOA.) But on the other hand, housing supply is limited. Sometimes your choices are "a decent house close to a decent school with an HOA" or "I guess we'll move seven hours away from everyone we've ever known" or "The neighbor's meth lab probably won't detonate this year, right?"