I quite often see videos and stuff about crazy HOA people making it a nightmare for you to live somewhere. And it can be over small things sometimes like having your house number painted on the curb or your grass is an inch too long or something stupid. I even see them expecting residents to pay money toward certain things they want to do like events or holiday decorations etc.
If you live in a street with a HOA do they have any legal authority to actual enforce anything? It just seems crazy to me that you can own a home and have some civilian dictate how you’re allowed to live your life there.
EDIT: Thank you all for the insight and the information. It’s been a pleasure to learn about this topic and refreshing to see the sense of community HOAs can create. I’m glad I asked my question because it’s opened my eyes quite a lot.
45 comments
When you purchase a home that is part of an HOA, you enter into a contractual agreement to abide by the rules of the HOA.
So yes, in a manner of speaking, they have a legal authority to enforce that contract or petition the courts to do so.
Most HOAs are not a problem, you only hear and see stories of instances where they are. *And* you’re usually only getting one side of the story.
You agree to abide by the rules of the HOA as part of the contract when you purchase the house. Developers organize them because they protect (at least theoretically) property values through maintaining amenities like pools and tennis courts.
So yes, they do have authority, because you signed a contract agreeing to follow their rules. They can’t imprison you or anything, but they can take civil action.
Yes, they can impose fines that if unpaid can be converted to a lien against your home.
Living in a neighborhood with an HOA is completely voluntary and 70% of US housing stock is not part of one. The terms are clearly laid out before you can purchase the property. Choosing to buy in an HOA and then getting upset that you had to abide by the terms you paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to follow is the height of semi-privileged whining.
HOAs have some legal authority because it is part of the contract signed when purchasing the house. Take a lot of those stories with a grain of salt. Unless it’s in response to questions like this, people who are happy with their HOA aren’t flooding the internet.
Yes, you sign a paper agreeing to that when you buy a house that’s part of an HOA.
They can fine you and put a lien on your home to force you to pay them. When you buy the home you agree to abide by the regulations of the HOA and acknowledge their rights to enforce them.
If you don’t want to deal with an HOA just buy a home on an area without one. Despite the horror stores you’ll hear online, most aren’t that bad though.
It is like most things in life, the degree to which the contract is written and the desire of the people tasked with enforcement to make people’s lives miserable.
Since some believe enforcement will lead to higher property values, yes.
They can, and will fine you. At the very least. And pay someone to fix the problem and bill you if you don’t respond. Absolutely.
I bought a house in a traditional village to avoid the HOA silliness.
Along with what the other responses were, HOAs are not omnipotent beings. They’re run by the residents of the neighborhood. If residents are unhappy with certain rules or regulations, they have the ability to affect change. From changing board members through elections to amendments, it just takes organization and follow through.
Most HOAs are really innocuous and do things like: make sure the streets get plowed after snow, maintain the pool, and organize the annual garage sale weekend.
yes they do
Imagine you’ve bought an apartment in a 10-story building. The owners of each of those apartments have to work together to maintain the building & its common facilities. That’s what an HOA is. In order to keep up a community that has collective obligations, you have a board where every homeowner votes on things & which can collect money from said homeowners to keep up things for everyone. Thems the rules if you sign up for it.
Social media is the worst possible place to learn about the United States.
What you are seeing are worst-case scenarios that aren’t representative of most people’s experiences (a normal, drama-free HOA isn’t going to be an interesting subject for social media). Homeowner’s associations are basically private local governments that exist for certain residential subdivisions, and they tend to be most common with more newly-built places. When functioning properly, they collect dues to operate and maintain roads, facilities for residents (things like pools, tennis courts, clubhouses, etc.), and trash collection, among other things. If you live in a condominium, the association is responsible for maintaining common areas of the building. By buying a home in a neighborhood with an HOA, you are contractually agreeing to comply with its requirements. In most cases these are fairly reasonable.
They can have problems when particularly power-hungry bullies, busybodies or corrupt people end up in charge. One of the goals of an HOA is to maintain the value of the houses in the neighborhood, and sometimes, individual board members can get a very over-the-top idea about what that means and start trying to impose excessive regulation on the residents. HOAs usually have mechanisms for voting people out if they annoy the residents too much. Or a corrupt HOA board might use HOA money collected from residents to pay a contractor who is a friend or family member of some of the board members. While none of this is the norm, it can happen often enough to be a problem people are noticing. Personally, I don’t like them very much and I don’t live in a house that has one.
The best way to understand HOA problems is that they’re similar to problems of corruption in local government you see in other countries.
It varies depending on the state. At their heart, HOAs derive their power from contract law. You sign membership documents when you join an HOA and those documents give rights and responsibilities to both parties. Some states limit the power of HOAs so there might be things that are in their contracts that are not enforcable.
The problems tend to come up when someone who is a bit power hungry gets in control of an HOA and starts doing things beyond the actual power they have. Frequently, the people involved don’t know the law well enough to actually navigate the nonsense.
It really depends on how strict your neighborhood is. Most communities in my area do have an HOA but they aren’t insanely strict. A lot of the time it’s just seeking permission to do stuff such as changing the shutter colors or building a deck. As long as it’s within reason I’ve usually been fine
They do because when you buy a home in an HOA you would sign a contract agreeing to follow the rules of their community and consequences if you don’t. That gives the HOA legal authority to do what they do.
If you don’t live in an HOA you just have the local city ordinances dictating what you can and can’t do with your property.
You can make an agreement to give pretty much anyone any sort of contractual authority over you that you want, within reason.
A bunch of homeowners getting together and signing a contract to all pay into a fund that keeps the community pool, ponds, and other commons areas properly maintained as a group, and adding contractually mandated consequences if you don’t hold up your end of the contract is definitely legal, yes.
Are you not allowed to create and sign legal contracts between consenting adults in your country?
>It just seems crazy to me that you can own a home and have some civilian dictate how you’re allowed to live your life there.
There are plenty of properties available in very nice neighborhoods that do *not* have an HOA.
Choosing to live with one is just that- a choice.
It’s not mandatory.
When we bought our home we looked at a townhome in a complex where the residents dissolved their HOA. That ultimately made us decide not to buy.
In this neighborhood many homes were in obvious need of a new roof. Or the siding was beginning to fall off.
Our fear was that sharing a wall with homes that were in obvious distress was not a sound investment.
Had that community still had their HOA the entire complex likely would had a new roof and siding.
In my state an HOA can put a lien on your house. They have way too much authority for a non governmental entity. The same folks who make the rules enforce them, and also choose who to enforce them upon. The only way to fight them is in court, which can be very expensive. Like any overpowered authority, it is terrifying to deal with them *even when they are good* because they have so much power that you worry about making one wrong move.
Yes. But you’re reading the nightmare stories and stereotypes. And those are typically by people who, quite frankly, can’t follow a simple set of rules. Either that or they are exaggerating to tilt their story in their favor as a way to elicit sympathy.
If you purchase in an HOA development or condominium, you sign an agreement that you will live by the community standards of your home’s appearance, maintenance, etc. That’s to protect the property values of the community overall.
And you pay a monthly HOA fee that goes to the maintenance of the common areas. For example, in our condo, our HOA pays for our water, sewage, gas, high speed internet, cable TV, pool, weight room, grounds, exterior insurance (You are responsible for homeowners insurance within the four walls of your unit), landscaping and maintenance. In addition, a good HOA board puts money back towards major improvements in what is known as a *reserve*. That way, we’re not having to pony up for things such as roof repairs unless it’s really, really big. And, to your point, the occasional party or something comes out of the HOA budget.
And our HOA fees each month? $650. There’s no way it would be that little if we purchased all those on our own.
Now this is where some gadfly or crank will yap about how they had to deal with some overbearing board. 99% of the time, those people pulled some stupid shit in defiance with the agreement they signed. And if you get some Karen who makes unreasonable demands, you show up to the monthly condo board meeting and make noise.
Then there’s the inevitable person who will say ‘Well, I’d never be part of an HOA community.’ Well, good for you, Cletus. Go fly your Don’t Tread On Me Flag to your heart’s content somewhere else.
In short, if you don’t want to be in an HOA then don’t buy a home in one. But, gotta say it, we did it six years ago and it’s awesome.
Yes. in Florida, HOAs have authorities under Fla S. Chapter 720 . (The powers of HOAs vary from state to state)
HOAs are essentially mini governments with taxing authority and the ability to fine homeowners for rule violations. Your HOA board members are essentially elected officials under Florida law.
Due to massive complaints from homeowners of arbitrary fines and harassment, in 2023 the Florida legislature held a Special Session and curbed the power of HOAs to regulate or fine homeowners. Homewoners can no longer be fined for what they have in their backyards behind a fence. HOAs can no longer issue a fine without a 2 week written notice and opportunity to correct any rule violation.
They have the authority afforded to them by the contract you signed with them. No more. No less.
Don’t want to have the rules of an HOA apply to you? Don’t buy a house in an HOA. Pretty simple.
State law limits the power of an HOA, but beyond that, they have as much power as you give them. It varies not just on a municipal basis, town by town, but it’s going to be different on a neighborhood basis. My HOA is not the same as the neighborhood on the other side of the highway in my town.
> have some civilian dictate how you’re allowed to live your life there.
It’s not just some civilian dictator. The residents agreed to a set of bylaws, which include a procedure to enforce violations and the process to change the bylaws. They might elect fellow residents to run the HOA, or in my neighborhood’s case they outsourced it to a property management company – This is a great option, because they have incentive to do a good job so we keep paying them, but they aren’t subject to biases and grudges like the residents are.
When there’s a violation to a bylaw, it usually starts with a letter informing you and asking you to do something about it. There may be a final notice letter sent after that, but they can issue fines specified by the bylaws. If you refuse to pay the fines, they can put a lien on your home, which will make things problematic if you try to sell or use the home as collateral.
But since every HOA is different as to what constitutes a violation, you’re cherry picking all the bad HOA stories you hear and think that we all live that way – we don’t.
You ever visit someone’s house and they have a weird rule in place that you don’t understand? It’s almost exactly like that.
By the way, you absolutely have HOA’s in your country. They might be called something else, like a building maintenance collective, or a neighborhood amenities consortium, etc etc, but anywhere a multi-family dwelling exists there are fees and there are bylaws.
In the US you can be living 10, 20, 30, 50 miles from the city enter of your major metro area.
If you live 2 miles from the city center and you park illegally on the street, you’ll probably get a ticket from the cops or some type of government authority.
If you park on the street illegally 20 miles away from the city center, a cop is not going to be walking a beat in a residential neighborhood with no thru streets. But the HOA can post a tow notice on the car and eventually have it towed.
Most people will want to live in a place with some type of order rather than chaos.
Somewhat informally, yes, they have some power but as of July 1 this year, HOAs in FL have to abide by some pretty strict state laws in order to continue to operate as an HOA entity.
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2024/06/03/homeowners-association-florida-new-law-restrictions-fines/73959484007/
A lot of people have glowing things to say about their HOA. I understand the good that can be done by pooling resources like that, as long as everything is managed well. The problem happens when the neighborhood busybodies decide they want to get on the HOA board and nobody runs against them. For me, the risk of that happening is too great and I will never take a chance on buying a property bound to an HOA. The per capita density of officious bastards is simply too high for me to risk it.
HOA’s can be bad…BUT I’ve been in several neighborhood meetings and there are people who just refuse to comply with the rules they signed up for.
Don’t take care of their lawn at all, leave things unrepaired, leave trash strewn about on their porch, etc. These people are loud about how much they hate the HOA, but they don’t do much about making their house look better.
HOA effectively create a small government, because there’s rules and regulations adopted for the land. They’re a government with no government oversight.
Local governments love it because if there’s a gated community the community is responsible for maintenance of all the utilities (road, sewer, etc). The homeowners pay taxes for a service they’ll never be eligible for and the HOA will eventually have to budget to maintain this. So getting taxed on both ends.
Every single government official I spoken with treats HOAs like police do when they don’t want to deal with this. “This is a civil issue”
HOA effectively puts you under a contract with the community and if you don’t abides by the rules they have levers they can use to cause you pain financially or ruin via liens/foreclosures.
So back to the original point of, small government. Even with federal, state, and city – you still have issues with ethics and compliance even with oversight.
HOA has no oversight.
If a board wants to fine 1k dollars for a trim that’s slightly off due to aesthetics – you’re screwed.
I’ve had board members who refuse to discuss their interpretation of the cc&r and when logically proven wrong, they refused to correct it and hide behind the statement “this is a volunteer position and we don’t get paid for this”
The property management associations don’t care and welcome this more because they can generate more work (certified letters, attorney hours, call hours, work orders) to make themselves seem more valuable.
I can go on for days about this, but effectively – you have people who have no business running a community focusing on the wrong things and causing problems for everyone in the long run.
I’ve seen several comments along the lines of “HOAs are just a board of neighbors who agree on rules to make the community better”. That’s not the case for most large/new neighborhoods, which are professionally managed. In these cases, a large property management corporation is responsible for drafting and enforcing CCNRs. Residents may hold a few board seats, but a lot of the decision making is not made by members of the community.
As someone who lives in a neighborhood without an HOA, I absolutely will live in one *with* an HOA my next home.
Doesn’t matter how well-kept your house is if the people next to you look like they’re squatters in an abandoned home.
I would say 95% of HOAs are not the terrible ones. An HOA as a concept isn’t bad, it’s the ones with a retired president who goes around measuring grass length and making sure garbage cans are in no later than 0830 the following day. I almost bought a house in Hawaii that was owned by the HOA…through some legalese the “house” only cost about $350 a month, but the HOA fees were upwards of $1900/mo. I decided not to buy the house because of the HOA, but I also decided I would never buy a house in Hawaii. Not my island.
Anyway, the VAST amount of HOAs just ensure that the community remains nice and communal amenities are provided. Parks, sidewalks, codes enforcement are the biggest ones. Idk how it is where you’re from, but trash piling up and grass longer than 8-16 inches will almost always be a code violation. The HOA just enforces that preemptively.
It’s normal to be hesitant about HOAs, but my go to is to just read the bylaws and ask around, if even one person has a gripe with the HOA, a lot more thinking goes into it.
They can put a lien on your house, so yes they have authority. That means if/when you sell your house, they get to take part of that money away from you and put into their own pockets.
We don’t have an HOA. When something communal needs to happen, we come together and contribute. Does everyone contribute? No, but enough do that it’s not a big deal. You can be a community without creating a bureaucracy.
In the USA, we have a ton of land. And In many states there is undeveloped land that is not in the jurisdiction of any city. The local government overseeing this land is county level government, then state level government. County governments don’t often have a lot of services to offer rural or semi-rural locations.
A big development company can buy the land if it is available for purchase and development. This land is completely undeveloped, no roads, no utilities. The developer will build the roads, install the utilities, build the houses. The developer will install everything needed for the residential community to be modern. Since there is no local city government this community will have to manage their own services: garbage, snow removal, utility maintenance, ect, ect.
I hate HOAs, and their ridiculous rules. I am on my 5th house that I’ve bought over the years and I still absolutely refuse to buy in an HOA community. Want to tell me what I can and can’t do with my house, or what I can park in my driveway? Make some payments, until then STFU
Remember that you will only ever see complaints, no one who is satisfied will their HOA is wasting time singing its praises online.
Personally I have only rented in an ungated HOA master development while we were settling in and figuring out where we wanted buy. It was a fine HOA, dues were weren’t crazy, I think around $600/yr (2012-13). For that aside from public areas maintenance and landscaping we had private athletic fields and track, two pools, and a community center that you could reasonably rent for events. Additionally they ran several youth and adult sports leagues/teams (soccer, basketball, football, tennis, and swimming) that were open to the public but members had preference and at a discount. Our youngest played in the soccer league two seasons a year from 6 until she aged out at 16 – I think the most we ever paid as a HOA non-member was $80/season which is cheap for youth sports.
Ultimately we chose to buy in an older neighboring development that predated HOAs (platted in the 70’s) but that was for the acreage.
I’ve owned a home in an HOA community for almost 17 years, with no problems. I’ve received notices sporadically over the years, but they were for small things things I knew I should have gotten fixed sooner, but I got lazy with.
Not every HOA is run the same though. That said, they all serve the same purpose of trying to prevent neighborhoods from getting rundown and looking like a shithole, which drives down the resale value of the homes around yours. When buying a home in an area that is covered by an HOA, you are made aware ahead of time, and usually have to read and sign a covenant along with your purchase documents, where you agree to the terms of the covenant.
Living an a well upkept neighborhood has a positive psychological impact on not only the residents, but also those that visit or drive through. EVERYONE can appreciate the way wellkept neighborhoods look, but not everyone has the discipline to actually live in one.
As a lawyer, yes. If you don’t pay your monthly fees, they can put a lien on your house and foreclose on it.
When you join one you sign a contract and said contract grants them certain authorities.
HOAs are not as bad as people make them out to be. I have lived in two different neighborhoods with HOAs. One for 5 years. And my current one for 22 years.
HOAs do a lot of things that other people don’t realize. In our neighborhood, we have a large lake and a gazebo. We have to maintain the dam and make sure it is up to code. We keep the gazebo in good condition. Our neighborhood is considered private property, so the HOA hires snow plows to clear the roads if it snows.
Yes, we have standards and rules for the neighborhood, but nobody has ever complained about it. And our HOA is very nice and reasonable.
Edit: And every year the HOA organizes a party on the lake at the gazebo and pays for the catering/food.
My HOA threatened to put a lien on my property. I had wood trim that was there 15 years earlier when I moved in. It had curved edges instead of straight edges. I was in non-compliance and had to change it. A lien on a property ruins your credit. Makes it hard to get a job since I work in tech and they all do credit checks.
I also have required colors on my house. I cannot change it at all. Google “Reston, Virginia” Its a town sized homeowners association.
about 10 years ago my next door neighbors painted their house. They painted the deck. I thought it looked nice. They had to pay again to paint it back since they were in non-compliance.
They also fined people who had a small pontoon boat on a lake because it was 2 inches too long.
I call it The Democratic Peoples Republic of Reston. Normally you dont have issues until you live here long enough and your do.
my mortgage is at 2.5% so I am not moving. HOA is afraid of me now since I threatened to come to everyones home for words and came off as crazy. So since then I have not had any inspections.
They have legal power in the sense they are legally recognized covenant on your property rights you agree to in purchasing the property and can take you court for violations. Real property rights are often described as a bag of sticks, with the fullest being fee simple absolute. You give up some of those sticks with an HOA, presumably in exchange for the benefits. They’re not all bad. You just hear the worst abuses. Mostly they just deal with mundane shit like paying for maintenance of common areas and snow removal.
Think of an HOA as the collective that represents the community on behalf of the residents. they want to act in the residents best interest as stakeholders even if that is against another “troublemaker” resident. you essentially sign a contract to adhere to mutually agreed upon standards by each resident and thus the HOA enforces that standard. They can essentially kick you out if you don’t adhere to said standard.
When i drive through an HOA community call it cookie cutter but there is an appeal.
Fuck HOA. Don’t ever buy into an HOA. Friends don’t let Friends be a part of an hoa.
Hoa’s can sue you and kick you out of a house you “own” for very simple stuff. I’d never live in an hoa neighborhood. It’s always just stay at home moms or rich dads who have no authority over anything else so they take it out on everyone else.
I live in an HOA, and it’s not all bad. We aren’t supposed to have signs out by the street far beyond political seasons, roofs are supposed to be a certain color and quality, and sheds must match the brick of the house. Other than those restrictions we rarely have any problems. People like that we have a clean neighborhood with street lights, sidewalks, and landscaping. Sometimes people will challenge the HOA, on whether the restrictions above are too restrictive, but I’ve told a few homeowners that we actually have a mechanism for changing the rules, but it requires the neighborhood to agree to a change. I’ve even said I’ll help pass out your flyers if you want to petition the neighbors on a change. I think the HOA, at least in our neighborhood is good.