So.
HOAs suck everywhere, huh?
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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It is such a strange concept. I’ve never really cottened on to why they exist or what the benefits are to them only the bad news about what they do. I had a gaming colleague in Wales that lived in an area where they had to get permission on what colour to paint their house. Just unfathomably comedic about the whole concept really.
You only hear about the bad ones because people who live in good ones don't bitch about it at every opportunity.
Basically it's a group of people who set up and enforce rules to prevent things like bubba having 6 cars on cinder blocks in the front yard, maintain community spaces, and even do things like pool money for yard services.
A lot of times it's basically municipal code enforcement done locally, because most cities don't have the manpower to do so everywhere.
Part of why the exist, for example, are condominiums.
Somebody has to maintain the shared/community spaces, for example.
For houses, hoas ostensibly provide services like community parks and standards like how you should maintain your yard/house/sidewalk; as well as preventing things like the neighbor I had who would dump trash in his yard (and then dump it in mine whenever he needed to tidy it up because we complained about that. Fun times.)
The problem comes in that those kinds of organizations attract power tripping egomaniacs.
The worst of it, in the US, is that once a property is part of an HOA, it’s almost impossible to remove it. (Basically… the HOA has to get dissolved by the courts)
They can also dissolve themselves, if enough members are willing to vote for it.
Sometimes. It depends on the bylaws. That still will have to go to the courts, though, since the HOA is marked on the deeds, and such.
Wouldn’t, speaking from a non US perspective, bylaws handle that though. Noise, trash, unwanted cold calling, I’m looking at you Jehovahs, to enforce that action. Or does this work as a front line against that ?
It depends on where you are.
Most cities have ordinances to that effect. But they’re pretty generic and frequently easy to just ignore.
The more rural you get here, the less ordinances you have to deal with. For better or worse, HOAs can get much more restrictive. (Usually, it’s worse, don’t get me wrong here. Like that one HOA that was fining a person because they used a different brand that was color matched to an otherwise approved seafoam green.)
But cities for example, aren’t really going to get involved with that one neighbor who keeps throwing keggars on the weekend, taking all the on-street parking, etc. unless it becomes a safety thing or something.
Yeah, I'd never buy a house where someone else can tell me what I can and can't do with it.
Heh. Renting with extra steps … 😉