Hacker News Reader

Comment by emodendroket | Hacker News Reader

I've lived with and without an HOA and, besides common area maintenance, which I think could easily become a nightmare if you're going it alone, I appreciate how now there's someone to complain to if my neighbor strews garbage everywhere and it starts blowing to my front door. The world is full of horror stories because an HOA just doing its job is boring stuff and there are things that make sense to take out of their hands but I don't think it'd be a net-positive to just eliminate them all.

View on HN

> appreciate how now there's someone to complain to if my neighbor strews garbage everywhere and it starts blowing to my front door

Littering onto your property is rarely allowed, so you can call the non-emergency local police number.

There's no need to impose the radical restrictions of HOAs to solve problems that already have simple solutions without any of the downsides.

You can complain but they won't do anything about it more often than not. You need small local government to care about those things. I live in a country without HOAs and it's a nightmare. Everyone does how they pleases: noise, polluting junk cars, garbage in common areas, illegal parking on pedestrian paths etc.

I am lucky enough to be able to afford a large land area to put my future home on and fence the rest. If I ever wanted to allow others to build their houses there I would certainly want a set of rules - that is HOA.

I live in country without HOA and it is no hellhole like you described. Pretty clearly seems to me, HOAs are really not required for any of that.

It won't be hell in some places but it will be in many. Your argument is akin to: "my neighbours are well behaved so clearly polluting/noisy neighbours are not a problem".

It is a problem and if you don't have mechanism to deal with it is sheer luck if you manage to avoid it.

Your argument amounted to "there is one person claiming city around is very dirty therefore police is not responsive enough in many places".

GP's point was that HOAs are often more responsive to "nuisance crimes" than the local police. Why not address that with your response? Are the police more responsive where you live? Why do you think that's the case? Obviously HOAs aren't the only way to solve a problem, but they do work for some things.

My comment addressed exactly what GP said. He had specific anecdote, I has specific contra anecdote.

Okay, but all I learned from your two anecdotes is that there are places where more local government is required to keep the peace and other places where it isn't. I still have no insight into why this is the case or whether or not HOAs are the best solution to the problem.

Besides that, the HOA enforcers aren’t walking around with guns. Really seems like overkill to use the cops for this.

My old city had employees specifically for code enforcement who AFAIK weren't outfitted the same as the police.

Is calling the cops on your neighbor supposed to be a kinder gentler alternative solution? My HOA also provides services like landscaping that are just plain not the cops’ job.

Agreed. We have lived in an HOA neighborhood for +20 yrs and very much enjoy the "insurance" the HOA rules provide. We don't have broken/junk cars on the street or yard, neighbors with a large collection of hunting dogs, or houses that have been encased with shrubbery because the owner cannot/will not do lawn maintenance. Also, our HOA dues provide for a neighborhood pool, pond, walking trails, etc. All cleaned and maintained by our HOA funds.

Take a trip 15mins away to a non-HOA neighborhood and you will quickly see all the above (other than the pool, pond, etc). It is my belief most people will take the least path of resistance, and without some sort of community rules in place, nice neighborhoods will end up like the wild-wild-west.

Oh no! Not houses surrounded with shrubbery! When will the madness end?!

The madness ends when you have to sell your home and can't because:

* The neighbor to the left has 4 broken down cars in the front yard and a backhoe/excavator in their back yard

* The neighbor to the right has essentially a dog pound (er: "rescue") with animals barking all day/night

* The neighbor across the street has not done any lawn maintenance in over a year. The grass is so high you can find wild animals living on the property.

* The assessed value of your home has plummeted because the entire neighborhood is in similar disarray.

But, yeah, they have "freedom" to do whatever they want.

My city handled all that, without needing an unaccountable HOA. Lawns that got overgrown would be mowed and the bill sent to the homeowner. There was a limit on the number of pets you could have, and broken down cars weren't allowed on front lawns.

So if we swing back around to the topic of the article, cities have also had these "you must have a grass lawn" codes that are being decried, so not having HOAs wouldn't seem to fix the issue either.

Cities are more accountable (the same city had a rule against vegetable gardens in front lawns and a citizen got it overturned without having to get themselves elected IIRC) and are much less likely to overstep their bounds into arbitrary aethetic rules. No need for an extra layer of bureaucracy at least.

I have never lived somewhere with an HOA, and have also never seen the horrors you are talking about.

You do realize that you can just call the city and complain?

You could also just talk to your neighbor. I refuse to live in any home with an HOA.

Believe it or not this kind of neighbor tends to not respond well to requests if you can even get a hold of them. But that’s your prerogative and I’m not telling you to live in an HOA neighborhood if you don’t want.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com