Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/15/florida-homeowners-association.html
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HOA’s are a weird thing for a UK-er like me to understand. They seem so very “un-American” in our eyes. We don’t expect USA-ians being told what to do or not do with their own homes by an ad-hoc committee of randos.
Apart from covenants in the deeds (eg not keeping pigs), restrictions for “listed” (old and protected buildings) or the national/regional/local law, what we do with a house (and land) that we own is up to us.
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Arizona, not Florida - although HOAs in 55+ communities here are just as bad.
HOA in Arizona forcing teen who lost both parents out of 55+ community
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Oh no. This is very American. We like to scream freedom at every turn, but we also have a not so small minority that want to be petty dictators and dictate what others do. Freedom is what “I” want to do, but what “you” want to do needs to be rigidly controlled.
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Having recently bought a house and a few years ago sold another one, I can state with some confidence that being in an HOA lowers the sale value, often quite a bit.
At least one State (Arizona, if you can believe it) has ended up passing legislation making it very, very clear that an HOA cannot require or forbid anything against public policy. IIRC the test case was an HOA in Tucson that mandated water-thirsty landscaping against the city’s water use policies. Another in the Phoenix area forbade rooftop solar.
The subject never came up in New Mexico and I never got close to one in Montana.
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I had a friend who’s an outspoken Libertarian. He lives in an HOA. When I gave my house a weird paint job, he commented that he could never do that. Apparently the cognitive dissonance never hit him.
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He had the liberty to contract away his liberty, or something something blah blah.
handwaving.gif
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I have never found a reason to take Libertarians seriously. Their arguments always boil down to “might is right” and have no concept of actual civil liberties. It always comes down to "I will do whatever I want to whomever I want:.
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I think there are developments restricted to the over-55s in the UK, probably as a condition of the leasehold.
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It’s because we meat puppets fight tooth & nail against any sort of civilizing principles, and will happily vote ourselves back into serfdom at any given opportunity.
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That’s why some libertarians have become monarchists and neo-reactionaries. What they call freedom is really the privilege to do what you want because you are rich and powerful and shouldn’t be bound by the same laws as the little people, and they don’t need to invoke rights or civil liberties if the king is happy to grant them that privilege in return for their loyalty.
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This is what I don’t get. At least where I live, the people who think that the HOA helps “keep property values up” are the same people who don’t want the government in any of their business. But they think it’s ok for their nosy neighbors to get in their business? I think it goes to show that it’s just about money, it’s not about “freedom” no matter how many Don’t Tread on Me bumper stickers they have.
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Is your friend named Rand Paul?
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HOA are the comment moderators of suburbia.
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A rather involved but funny takedown of Ayn Rand’s Libertarian manifesto
Essentially Cobra Commander asking the protagonists:
“How are you the good guys here?”
“Your grand scheme makes no sense whatsoever”
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They think it’s ok because they are the nosy neighbours.
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Sounds like you know some awful libertarians.
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Sure, conditions of the lease, especially in shelter housing or specific types of development are not uncommon. But a panel of neighbours deciding if I can paint my freehold property a colour I like is very different.
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But the UK has leaseholds, which really don’t exist in the US. And ground rent, which is rare.
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You have to keep in mind that the USA was started by an ad-hoc committee of randos
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