HOAs also enforce environmental requirements, legal requirements, etc. These are not voluntary payments and require payments to the HOA. Otherwise what happens it that it gets dumped on the city and everyone's taxes go up, another involuntary payment. There's a subdivision they are attempting to install next to my house by bypassing numerous requirements which are going to make HOA payments sky high. The developer is trying to do everything as cheap as possible and leave the homeowners holding the bill.