I think the issue isn’t that HOA fines are a problem. It’s more that some of them have corrupt governance with little transparency and limited ways to break up

I think the issue isn’t that HOA fines are a problem. It’s more that some of them have corrupt governance with little transparency and limited ways to break up a group of people that all vote and act in alignment to each other rather than the interests of the community. Another problem is that in some areas, virtually all construction comes with HOAs so there isn’t an element of choice for buyers to opt out. That’s maybe a problem with competition, especially where big builders buy up large tracts of land and build hundreds of homes, all subject to the HOA. If people have choice and reasonable guarantees of good governance, then I don’t have an issue with HOAs. In practice, it’s a mixed bag. But we should remember that even though we hear outrageous HOA stories, by and large, most of them function without such frustrations. So restricting all HOAs in response to those few stories, feels like it will backfire.