this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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Revenge
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European here - what powers does a HOA actually have? Surely they can't make you leave or anything? Are their fines actually legally enforcable? What if you just dont pay them?
They can charge you fines, and if you don’t pay them they can put a lien on your house.
So no they can’t kick you out, but they can make it so that you’re unable to leave without paying them.
I'm pretty sure they can legally take your house away from you.
You mean the house you own?
Cause you don't own it in that case.
They have the power to charge fines and place liens if you don't pay them
I'm just the messenger. I won't live in one if those passive aggressive hellholes.
Yes, the fines are legally enforceable because (generally) you have to agree to them in order to purchase the house - joining the HOA and being bound by its rules either literally or functionally becomes a permanent part of the deed to the property. There isn't a legally viable argument that you only signed that part under duress because you could have chosen to live somewhere else instead. You could technically get a like-minded group of neighbors to run for the HOA leadership roles and eliminate the petty rules, but the rider contract to the deed still exists.
They can, and likely will, put a lien on your house which makes it harder to sell. Probably other avenues to fuck up your life too. Around me it's really hard to find a house without an HOA. It's probably like 90% of the market, or I triple my commute.
It's legally binding with the purchase of the house so there's no going around it.
But how can they have a legal right to put a lien on it? Do they have some kind of legal claim to the land or property? What's stopping any other organisation from doing this?
It's part of the paperwork you sign when you buy the house. It's essentially saying the can do that if you don't pay fines. Luckily my HOA is pretty lenient about things, but still sucks. I'd rather dissolve it and remove the restrictions.
Hm. How nasty. And I'm assuming there's some sort of provision that you have to sell on the house under the same terms?
Yep
They are part of the covenants, restrictions, and conditions that "run with the land." They are a more organized way of controlling the aesthetic of the neighborhood than traditional covenants. In practice they are used to harass people and were originally used to discriminate.
When house was built they were set up as HOA irrevocably. Or at some point the neighborhood wanted an HOA and current owners irrevocably joined HOA. So when you buy the house then the HOA sticks to it. That gives them legal right to issue you fines if you break their rules, and if those fines go unpaid they could place the lien
We have hoa-equivalents in Europe, tho. In my country they're called something like 'owners community', and they can even take your home if your debt with them gets too big. But I don't think they can fine you directly, the have to sue you, and the rules aren't usually as insane as in the States, but they can ban you from installing the windows you want, putting up a flag, hang your clothes to dry on the front...
They can be very powerful, certainly when hijacked by lawyers, John Oliver did a bit on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrizmAo17Os
It's incredible, and horrendous.