How Homeowners Associations Took Over American Neighborhoods

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Published 2023-10-30
More than 80% of newly-built single-family homes sold in 2022 belonged to an HOA, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. HOAs tout themselves as a value-add to homeowners, specifically when it comes to maintaining high property value, but not everyone is pleased with HOAs. Fifty-seven percent of homeowners surveyed said they disliked living in an HOA with more than 3 in 10 homeowners saying they feel like the HOA has too much power.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
01:06 — One HOA experience
05:46 — Benefits of HOAs
08:18 — Power dynamics

Produced, Shot and Edited by: Charlotte Morabito
Additional Camera and Color Correction: Mark Licea
Editorial Support: Juhohn Lee, Jack Hillyer
Animation: Christina Locopo
Supervising Producer: Lindsey Jacobson
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Jewel Inostroza, Jessica Navas

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How Homeowners Associations Took Over American Neighborhoods

All Comments (21)
  • @djp1234
    How is HOA not tanking home values? Who in their right mind would want to pay money for some Karen to tell them how to live? Sounds like a living hell to me.
  • @DEINFAMOUS
    I have told this many times. I had an HOA advise me that they had voted my property into their HOA and that I had 30 days to come into compliance. I sent a response that I was not part of their HOA. 30 days later I started receiving violation notices in my mailbox. I sent a cease and desist letter. A month later, I received a notice of intent to seize my property if I was not in compliance in 10 days. Two weeks later I received notice of a scheduled hearing. At the courthouse, the attorney for the HOA recognized me and asked if I represented the homeowner, and I told him that I was the homeowner. I told him that I was not part of the HOA and they had been advised of that in writing several times. In court, the HOA president told how I had ignored all notices and refused to pay fines. When it was my turn, I asked her how long the property had been a part of the HOA, she gave the date they had voted my property in. I asked her if she had membership documents signed by me. She said "No, you refused so we voted you in" The judge, and their attorney both said HUH ? ? ? I then asked her about putting violation notices in my mailbox and she said that was the only way since I refused to install a notice box at my garage door. I asked her if she realized that putting main in a US mailbox was a federal crime. She said "not in a HOA" I saw their attorney shake his head. The judge asked her how she thought that the HOA could vote someone in without their consent, she said the annexed the property according to their by-laws. I asked the judge for a judgment as a matter of law, and consideration of my counter-claim. The judge said "granted to both, state your counter-claim" I outlined my compensatory damages, and then asked for putative damages in the amount of $5000 per violation notice, and an additional $10,000 for the frivolous case. The judge granted $350,000 in putative damages, and just over $50,000 in actual damages for time, and earnings lost responding and researching their claims. HOA woman said that the HOA could not pay the judgement. I told the judge that I would accept the vacant 20 Acres of association property adjoining my property with the release of HOA claims. The HOA voted the next week to release the property and remove Caren (Yes her name is Caren) as HOA president. I found out that she wanted my property as access to the additional acres the HOA had purchased to build additional homes to sell. Subsequently, the members of the HOA voted to dissolve the HOA as without the additional anticipated acreage income, they could not continue to fulfill the HOA obligations. The entire neighborhood (save a few) is much happier with the HOA gone.
  • @genesisg7022
    My wife and I purchased our house in 2001. We refused to consider one that had a HOA! HOA is like living in an apartment, someone telling you what you can and can't do with your house!
  • @CameronFussner
    The issue is that either the renter or the owner must in some way pay insurance and property taxes if they want a "permanent roof" with utilities like electricity, gas and water. Because of this, many people—at least in California, where I currently reside—are living in tents. No taxes, rent, mortgages, or insurance. The number of people who tell me they live in their car that I meet amazes me. Its crazy out here!
  • @jer1776
    There should definitely be more laws regulating HOAs.
  • @MrsMathews
    I had no idea that HOA’s had the power to garnish your wages or foreclose on your home over petty fees. That’s horrible.
  • @wsidechris
    Homeowners sold their souls to avoid lawn maintenance, snow removal, and fear of a neighbor painting their house hot magenta.
  • @deluxe1of1
    The federal government needs to step in and HEAVILY regulate the existence of HOAs limiting their abilities such as handing out fines and placing liens on people’s homes.
  • @seaneaston3062
    "No HOA" is a huge selling point for real estate listings. We specifically bought our house because it was NOT in an HOA. Our neighborhood is cool because every house is different and most owners take pride in maintaining the neighborhood. We don't want to pay $200 monthly to a faceless company to manage our landscaping. We'll look after it ourselves, thank you.
  • @DiamondDazzle
    My father in law got on the HOA board when they moved to AZ. When my husband and I visited them we took a walk. My husbands mother made a big deal because some man had his garage door open. I asked her what the big deal was. She said , well, burglary. I said that's his problem. What she really meant is that everyone was supposed to have the doors closed. For a uniform appearance. I think board members are people that need their little bit of power. I'd NEVER live with a HOA
  • @dianajohnson9928
    Unfortunately, not everyone has the option of not having an HOA. I currently live in Hawaii, and to the best of my knowledge, all townhouses and condominiums have an HOA, and at the moment, that is all that I can afford. When I first moved in, the fees were reasonable. But now, it has gotten out of control. What I pay in monthly maintenance fee, would pay for a two bedroom apartment or even a mortgage on the mainland. To make matters worse, we do not have any kind of amenities that would justify the fees we pay. No swimming pool, rec center, or even a park for goodness sake. What really takes the cake is that we have elderly people who are on a fixed income, and this is not even taken into consideration. I now totally understand why we have so many homeless people here who actually do have a job. It's totally crazy.
  • HOAs need legislation to stop them from the abuses that lead to horror stories. At a minimum they need to lose the ability to place liens, have a limit on what fines they can apply, how and when, plus be forced to disclose the details of their operations.
  • @georges.7683
    So many real estate listings make it a point to say "NO HOA" when applicable. Obviously "NO HOA" is a selling point.
  • @human151
    We are basically giving control of our homes over to a corporate board staffed by Karens. How are the American people allowing this? We’ve definitely gone soft.
  • @sliver01
    When I moved to another state and living with relatives till I found a house, the number rule with real estate agent was “NO HOA’s!!!!”
  • @ivanp2490
    HOA is the worse. I just sold my home 6 months ago and moved into a traditional clean neighborhood with no HOA. Although I was fully aware of the HOA when I first bought my previous home, the rates just went up insanely. I started at $80/month and within 3yrs I was paying $300/month. Their justification was always landscaping cost for which we didn't even have grass. We had a bunch of cheap bushes. We had 1 pool and a very small playground for the kids. No gym, no cleaning crews on-site. In fact the HOA was sold to different agencies and in the end the agency was "managing" us from a city that was over 50miles away. They rarely answered calls or emails. When we sold our home they charged us 3k to transfer the HOA to the new owners. It was the a horrible experience considering how expensive they are and how much control they have over your home.
  • @bluejedi723
    I'd rather pay an extra $500 a month on my mortgage payment to NOT BE part of an HOA than deal with HOA BS
  • @JohnnyLally
    I bought a beautiful first floor condo in 2013 as my first home. Lots of really cool older folks lived there. Even older residents sat on the board and kept re-electing themselves regardless of what the bylaws said. I’m a USMC vet and the rules said I could fly a flag. I chose a Marine Corps flag and was promptly sent a photo of my balcony with said flag and a warning to remove my flag as it offended other residents. My neighbors above and next to me asked why I took it down and I showed them. They insisted that I fly it again and started paying my fines for me while raising hell with the board. Long story short they rallied the other residents up and got me elected as Vice President of the board which in turn gave me more leverage to get a couple other younger residents on it. We removed them, found out they stole a bunch of money, the courts seized their units and we changed a bunch of rules and made it a fun place to live.
  • @Dvco33333
    Homeowner: "I just paid off my house, yeahhh HOA: "Not so fast."
  • @Ganzuri1023
    My wife and I are currently living in a hell HOA Community… We keep in mind that we are only leasing a unit there and are fully responsible for taking care of everything there. We both work 7am-5pm and come home to eat, shower, relax and watch tv. On some days we get home and go to church since I’m an active music player there. To make it short my wife and I are only home for a few hours. On our first week there, we got a “noise violation” because we were cleaning and painting the “Good Job” the management did. Somehow they listed 3 things. Loud Music, Slamming Doors, and Jumping?!?! We live on the first floor !!! And we had no music at all!! Then a month goes by and we get the same complaint… At this point we feel targeted by the community taking note that we are the only Hispanic Couple living there. We raised our concerns and it seemed to help for two months. Then two weeks ago a neighbor who, keep in mind was just opening his garage came out and told my wife if he could “leave” since my truck was pulling out and it’s a one lane road to get out. My wife was literally getting on the truck and his car was still in his garage without the ignition on!!?? How does that make sense ??? He wanted to say something… then he told us “Do you guys live here” ?? NO DUHH! and then he yelled at my wife pointing his finger in her face saying we can’t park in our driveway because it’s illegal and my wife told him to back off and then we just left. We sent a message to HOA and they never replied to our concerns. So then we put light bulb cámaras which keeep in mind are supposed to be camo cámaras meaning you can only know it’s a camara if you see it up close. 3 days go by and we see a neighbor causally standing outside our garage at 7pm!! The next day we get a message saying we violated HOA for cámaras !! We called and explained that we felt threatened and why it takes a violation for them to reach out right away ! They said we had two options… LEAVE OR FILE A POLICE REPORT !!!! How is this normal!?!?!? And to the ones saying HOA is not for irresponsible owners SHUT UP Because until you are in our shoes you will know why there are people who dislike HOAs…