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Comment by rtp4me | Hacker News Reader

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.

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

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.

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