Originally published at: John Oliver explains one of America's most evil institutions: The HOA | Boing Boing
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One of our line-in-the-sand rules we set for ourselves during the seemingly interminable home-shopping process was “no HOAs.” That self-imposed restriction probably delayed our home ownership by at least a year or two but I’m glad we held firm.
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Both times I bought a house, I had the realtors add an addendum to the realtor agreement that if they ever even showed me a house in an HOA, they were fired and would have no overhang for fees if I ended up buying a house they had showed me. Relatively easy to avoid where I am or where I was looking, but I was taking no chances.
I mean, with all these storms in the Bay Area, my gate to my side door has subsided to the point I’m going to have to replace it – I can work the gate but it requires enormous effort – so my garbage cans are in my driveway until I can get that fixed. No one in my neighborhood cares, you can barely see them from the street. But I’m sure I’d have been fined a dozen times by now in an HOA, all because I don’t quite feel like spending $1500 or whatever right now to replace my gate.
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Well, that’s one less worry for me. I’ll never be able to afford to own a home.
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I used to live in an HOA before my divorce. It was a decent enough neighborhood, but their per month fees have increased quite a bit since then.
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You literally can’t live in a condo with out one. The associations are supposed to be run by the home owners. If you hate the rules change them?
I mean buying a house I would still avoid them. Then again I am not bothered by the house a few doors down with five junked vehicles in the front yard full of squatters who sell drugs and neither is the real estate market apparently as all the houses on my street have more than doubled in value in the last eight years.
But I can understand how some people would be. In my mind hoa’s would be a good place to inject some direct democracy. If a majority of your neighbors actually vote to fine you for not taking care of your property maybe that’s the actual litmus test?
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I get why HOAs get such a bad wrap, but I hate how the theme is that they are always this way. There are some good ones. I’ve interacted with good and bad ones, been part of one that was bad, became really good for a long time, then got bad again for reasons we couldn’t control but were completely and totally blamed for.
We found out, after the purchase of our house, that it is technically in an HOA. But it’s the best HOA ever. They have no requirements for anything - their 100% entire job is to maintain a small lake and the environment around it and I pay $9/month for that. Totally worth it.
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I really didn’t have a choice in my area, with my budget. I was stuck with either a condo or townhome, and there seemingly isn’t a single one that doesn’t have an HOA within a reasonable distance of my job. That said, my HOA doesn’t seem to be all that bad. Sure, the current president is a bit of a busybody, and I’m not one to test the limits of the rules, but they’ve always been friendly about letting me know when I run afoul. I’ve never actually been fined. I wish the monthly dues were lower, and I’m not 100% sure the budget is being handled as well as it could be, but I also don’t know if I would do any better. I will do everything I can to avoid an HOA next time around, but not because of HOA-induced PTSD. Just because I’d prefer it that way.
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We used to live in a condo with a HOA. At the time, the worst thing that happened was that I was forbidden to use bike hooks on the back lanai to store my bicycle; likewise forbidden to put up a clothesline there. OTOH, they did put in a bicycle rack in front of our building after I asked for alternatives. That said, the current monthly HOA fees there have skyrocketed to $500 a month, probably because the buildings are aging, and the majority of the condos are now owned by absentee landlords with little interest in much upkeep.
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I am well aware i am coming from a position of privilege, but we are of the “if you can see your neighbor, they are too close” school of thought. Pure country boy here.
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I inherited my parent’s condo which they lived in for over 30 years (it’s in a prime location in a desirable city and one of the largest units in the complex) and have turned it into a rental. HOA prevents short term AirBnBs so I have to do minimum 12 month leases which has seriously curtailed the amount of revenue I could generate. I could make a lot as a short term rental host due to its location.
HOA monthly fees are almost $1200/month now and continue to increase 5-7% every year for almost zero amenities…no clubhouse or pool, no community center, very little outdoor spaces - nothing really but secured parking and utilities. it’s also aging and some big ticket repairs are imminent. I am starting to question whether it’s worth keeping much longer.
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A relative who works in the real estate banking business commented that for investments they only buy HOA-ruled properties, and send lawyers to the meetings to represent their interests. I suspect that is, quietly, a big part of the ever-increasing fees and implementation of ever-restrictive rules.
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In California at least, there are constant changes to the state laws governing HOAs, and there’s a lot of legal consultation needed to stay in compliance. I think my HOA’s two largest regular expenses are insurance (definitely the largest) and legal fees. This has gotten worse since the last time I served on the board. Everything is more expensive when dealing with an HOA, hiring contractors, etc., and largely because of legal and insurance issues.
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I know someone who makes a killing as an HOA lawyer. Apparently none of the work is particularly hard, but she’s constantly raising her rates and there’s a seemingly infinite demand for it.
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The magic of HOA lawyering is navigating liability between individual owners, the HOA, the board, insurance companies, contractors, and their subcontractors. In SoCal, there are a lot of contractors that refuse to do business with HOAs outright because of the difficulty in making sure they have the correct insurance set up. Just the notion that condo owners own the “airspace” in their units, with the actual walls being community property is psycho enough to deal with when a pipe bursts.
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Even the X-Files had to have a HOA episode.
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Playing devil’s advocate here:
They might be trying to raise the funds for those big ticket repair items? Either that, or someone’s getting kickbacks or there’s some embezzling on the side going on…
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