HOAs are a problem the way governments are a problem.
Anarchy isn’t the solution. Getting involved and working to fix bad rules and regulations is the solution.
If the color palate is too small, don’t ask for your specific color to be approved, offer an expanded palate to be adopted. Put it in terms they understand. “Conformity is valuable, yes. But uniformity is a liability. People like to be able to customize their homes. When the HOA hinders that too much, the neighborhood becomes less attractive to buyers. Property values are kept down.”
HOAs are inherently a problem. They exist purely for the benefit of busybodies and people with an unhealthy obsession with perceived property value. If your home doesn’t share the same physical structure as my home (ie condos, semi-detached houses, etc), you get no say in what I do with my property. There’s already municipal bylaws for the all the important things.
Often times, US HOAs are doing the things that the government does in normal countries. Maintaining the streets and public trees (if they exist), clearing and maintaining “public” facilities like parks or sports areas, etc etc.
What do HOAs do, other than tell people what to do with their properties? If the neighbourhood wants to get together and pay for a new park, they don’t need legally binding bullshit attached to their property title to do that.
What do HOAs do, other than tell people what to do with their properties?
My HOA handles, among other things, all exterior maintenance. They take care of landscaping, snow clearing in the winter, gutter clearing in the fall, they power wash the siding and decks every few years.
Well, technically they contract people to do those things, but still, I love it. It’s totally worth the monthly dues and not being able to paint the house whatever color I want (which I don’t feel like ever doing anyway).
Some of it includes the maintenance of common areas, like public landscaping.
There is also a lot more control of public amenities. City based amenities have to be made available to everyone; HOA based amenities only have to be open to those within the HOA.
Because the value of the community plays a role in the price and there is a significant variability in neighborhood “value” within cities. A lot of it is tied to crime rates, but there may also be class signifiers which affect valuation.
HOA’s are a problem though “property values” shouldn’t be the arbiter of what you can do to your home. Nothing should be off limits baring safety issues.
There’s no need for a HOA if the city completely fulfils the need for those public places, is what I’m saying. The discussion was on the purpose of HOAs, and this ain’t it.
In the analogy of HOA = government, getting rid of HOA = getting rid of government. That’s anarchy.
Getting involved in the HOA is the opposite of anarchy. Sorry if that was confusing.
HOAs are a problem the way governments are a problem.
Anarchy isn’t the solution. Getting involved and working to fix bad rules and regulations is the solution.
If the color palate is too small, don’t ask for your specific color to be approved, offer an expanded palate to be adopted. Put it in terms they understand. “Conformity is valuable, yes. But uniformity is a liability. People like to be able to customize their homes. When the HOA hinders that too much, the neighborhood becomes less attractive to buyers. Property values are kept down.”
HOAs are inherently a problem. They exist purely for the benefit of busybodies and people with an unhealthy obsession with perceived property value. If your home doesn’t share the same physical structure as my home (ie condos, semi-detached houses, etc), you get no say in what I do with my property. There’s already municipal bylaws for the all the important things.
Often times, US HOAs are doing the things that the government does in normal countries. Maintaining the streets and public trees (if they exist), clearing and maintaining “public” facilities like parks or sports areas, etc etc.
well that’s what they do now the reason they exist was to keep black, Jewish and Asian people out of the neighborhood
They don’t have to though. The problem is, nobody but the busybodies and obsessives normally get involved. If you got involved that could change.
Busybodies, retirees who don’t have shit else to do in their free time, and those who have to have their noses in everyone else’s business.
What do HOAs do, other than tell people what to do with their properties? If the neighbourhood wants to get together and pay for a new park, they don’t need legally binding bullshit attached to their property title to do that.
My HOA handles, among other things, all exterior maintenance. They take care of landscaping, snow clearing in the winter, gutter clearing in the fall, they power wash the siding and decks every few years.
Well, technically they contract people to do those things, but still, I love it. It’s totally worth the monthly dues and not being able to paint the house whatever color I want (which I don’t feel like ever doing anyway).
Some of it includes the maintenance of common areas, like public landscaping.
There is also a lot more control of public amenities. City based amenities have to be made available to everyone; HOA based amenities only have to be open to those within the HOA.
Who owns the land for the park? Who’s responsible for maintaining it? Who insures the park?
That’s what HOAs should be for.
What you want is a Community Association. They can legally manage the shared property, while having little to no power over your property.
That honestly sounds like a distinction without a difference.
What I still don’t understand is why American house prices depend so much on what their neighbors’ houses look like.
Where I live, even a fully abandoned broken down house with one meter high wild grass is not bad enough to devalue its neighbor.
It’s not about colour. It’s about signalling this neighborhood has “the right kind” of people.
Because the value of the community plays a role in the price and there is a significant variability in neighborhood “value” within cities. A lot of it is tied to crime rates, but there may also be class signifiers which affect valuation.
HOA’s are a problem though “property values” shouldn’t be the arbiter of what you can do to your home. Nothing should be off limits baring safety issues.
So a continuous siren on your roof shouldn’t be a problem for your neighbors?
Safety shouldn’t be the only limit.
There’s already noise bylaws for that.
Okay. A light house? Whatever else you and I can’t imagine? There’s plenty of annoying shit that’s not illegal.
Also neighborhood pools, playgrounds, parks. All managed by the HOA.
In less wealth-unequal countries, things like parks, playgrounds and pools are run by the city/town or municipality.
We have those too. Most probably. But sometimes a neighborhood will have their own.
There’s no need for a HOA if the city completely fulfils the need for those public places, is what I’m saying. The discussion was on the purpose of HOAs, and this ain’t it.
Most outright annoying shit, done nonstop, is covered under nuisance laws of some sort.
What does anarchy (the fact entities can act independently of others) have to with this?
Anarchy isn’t a solution nor a problem it just *is *and nothing a human does can chance that.
You trying to get involved to fix the bad rules is an act of anarchy if no one else is telling you to do so.
In the analogy of HOA = government, getting rid of HOA = getting rid of government. That’s anarchy.
Getting involved in the HOA is the opposite of anarchy. Sorry if that was confusing.
I have never met an HOA that would even understand what you just said.
That may be true.
All the more reason to join, so at least someone would.