Hacker News Reader

Comment by samtho | Hacker News Reader

As the cost of this equipment goes down, this can totally become commonplace, what I fear is the HOA being the monopoly energy, telco, water, and sewage provider that can then charge ridiculous rates because it simply resell from the upstream provider. They can also make the rules on what, if any, value a homeowner can derive from solar panels on their roof, perhaps even going so far as to say that they belong to the HOA and are required to have them on their roof.

View on HN

If you don't think the HOA is acting in your benefit do you not feel you can affect change by going to the meetings and building a coalition of your neighbors to take control?

You generally don't stand a chance in a HOA if you're not a pensioner who has the time to actually go to meetings and wad through paperwork.

Even so, who in the HOA wants higher prices?

I suspect the fear is "HOA wants a new million dollar pool" and wants to pay for it with "profits" from the energy costs.

I wonder how a fee charged to be on the board of an HOA would change this sort of behavior. I wonder how increasing it would change the nature of of decision making.

A kickback -- maybe getting a $5,000 vacation in exchange for voting for a superfluous service contract -- can easily offset an extra $50/month fee... for the one board member who cast the corrupt vote.

Same as all politics: it's a shared cost, but somehow I benefit more than you do.

HOAs serve as a launching pad for lesser politicians and can do some pretty twisted stuff in my experience -- they frequently serve as platforms for tiny tyrants.

Also, they are often corrupted by corporate influence.

HOAs are in many cases a collection of opinionated amateurs making binding decisions on behalf of their disinterested neighbors. See also 'special assessments' And that's the best case scenario. HOAs can get a tad 'authoritarian' at least according to John Oliver: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qrizmAo17Os&pp=ygUPam9obiBvbGl...

This has been my stance on the issue, but I am just pessimistic for the first generation of HOA leadership because it tends to attract nosy, controlling busybodies that love draconian rules. It’s not until those people die off or move where new leadership has an opportunity to flourish.

Additionally, my statement was more generalized view of how it could be used, obviously if a homeowner finds themselves in this situation, the strategy would be to gather neighbors support and demand it to be changed or just do a hostile takeover of the HOA.

Or I could simply never, ever buy a home with an HOA, unless it's a condo.

Why on earth would I willingly give up the rights to do what I wish with my own property as long as I follow city codes?

...and no, 'property values' don't cut it. I don't even consider my home when factoring my productive net worth.

Not to mention HOAs usually come with a fee sometimes hefty enough to seem like a second mortgage payment. I'm with you I don't understand why anyone would pay hundreds of thousands for something then let the worst members of their neighborhood make decisions about what they can do with it.

My understanding is that some areas of the country have very little housing available that isn't encumbered by an HOA. I absolutely refuse to buy a house subject to an HOA, but I guess that means there are some places I would have a tough time relocating to in that case.

Sure, if I have time. The point of a republic form of government is that you vote every few years and then live your life. While it does take time to figure out who to vote for you don't have to figure out every petty issue, some of which you don't even care about (in a pure democracy you have to decide, and that means learn about them even though you don't care)

HOAs are too small to attract good people to run. (nations are too large and attract tyrants)

Electric co-ops generally have lower rates and are better managed than larger utilities

For ones serving municipalities or communities, sure. My electric company is a co-op, but it is also not a dedicated reseller as it generates most of its power and usually has surplus it sells to PG&E.

With an HOA, the very land your home is built on has this sort of lien via a “special property assessment” and you are subject to their policy or risk having your home taken in a 100% legal way. My electric company cannot do that to me.

If I don’t pay my property taxes the local municipality takes my house too, and they spend money on all kinds of stuff that doesn’t benefit me directly or perhaps at all.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com