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Comment by Simon_ORourke | Hacker News Reader

What would be the repercussions of not paying any fines and bringing a case against the city for over-reach on private property?

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In NC, the HOA can force foreclosure on unpaid fees, even if the home is paid off. And 80% of available houses are in an HOA. They have us. Anti-HOA legislation is needed, but the legislature is greased by their lobbying.

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that statistics like that only apply to newly–built housing. Older houses are far less likely to be in an HOA, because HOAs were simply not popular when they were built.

I may be ignorant on this, but how can HOAs have lobbyists? They are made up of local people right? Or am I behind on this and there is already a HOA industry?

> how can HOAs have lobbyists?

They don't. For all the power an HOA might have in their street or apartment block, outside of that very small boundary they're nothing. We're not talking about Boeing or Morgan Stanley or PG&E here.

HOAs are actually popular by choice - developers wouldn't set them up for "80% of available houses" if the houses were more valuable without them.

2% of people have horror story experiences with corrupt HOAs pocketing their cash. 23% of people just get poor value for money where some asshole changes a lightbulb and charges 100 residents $1 each. 75% of people have a tolerable experience, and quite like the fact their neighbour can't park an RV on their driveway and rent it out on airbnb, and if that means limiting what people are allowed to do on their own driveway, so be it.

Cities also like them (alot) since they assume costs that cities usually pay for. Neighborhood parks are usually maintained by the HOAs. Less commonly sidewalks, roads, and water lines are maintained by the HOA.

Oh they absolutely do.

https://www.caionline.org/pages/default.aspx

I'm not sure about this (someone please feel free to chime in), but HOAs are only "local people" after the developers have sold all the houses and moved on, at which point the HOA becomes controlled by the homeowners in the association with the most Nazi-like mentalities. Before this, the HOA is set up by the developer that bought all the land and developed the subdivision. So, presumably, the "HOA lobbyists" are actually the lobbyists for housing developers, which I think are definitely a real thing.

I understood that cities just like free property tax (no cost of maintaining infrastructure) by making hoa zones

The HOA is generally allowed to put a lien on your house, through the contract you were forced to sign with them.

> through the contract you were forced to sign with them.

Except for Texas, I have not heard of being forced into an HOA. You choose to join one when buying a property in a neighborhood that has one.

It’s not a choice when the overwhelming majority of available homes to buy have HOAs.

> Except for Texas, I have not heard of being forced into an HOA.

What's the story with Texas?

Forced to sign a contract?

I tried to have the HOA enforce rules against cutting down of trees. I even took it to a lawyer. I found out that many HOA covenants are written so poorly that they're not enforceable.

Aren’t HOAs private entity? It was an HOA demand in this case, not a municipal one I think.

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