It's simple. I like my house to increase in value. I've lived in two HOA communities and both homes have done exactly that. I like yards to look nice. I don't want to live next to flophouses with 20 non-related people living there. I don't want to live next to yards that have rusty vehicles on cinderblocks in the front yard and oily transmissions laying on the porch.
I like nice neighborhoods where people take care of their homes.
HOAs are ENTIRELY VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS. If people don't like them, they have the total and complete freedom to not live under one. But if they freely choose instead to sign the agreements of the HOA, they need to abide by the rules.
I never undertand these stories, usually about a flag that's in violation, but really about a homeowner who says, "I'm more special than everyone else."
Yep....see post #14
Exactly.
“but really about a homeowner who says, “I’m more special than everyone else.””
No, I am an individual not a clone. I’m a unique person not a Stepford wife. I am a person who adheres to rules, but not the busybody commandments.
Key word here: voluntary
An HOA is certainly a two sided coin. People buy homes with HOAs and don’t bother to carefully read the covenants (thinking they will never be enforced anyway - right?), then complain they are being persecuted.
If an action is in violation of the covenant, it is irrelevant whether there is a single complaint or fifty. It was in writing before one bought the house.
HOAs can be legal landmines. A potential homeowner needs to know what he wants & doesn’t want and the repercussions if he chooses wrong. Ditto for simply buying a home.