HOA's bad name

CICs act as both private corporations and governments. They could theoretically embody the best of both worlds, yet often represent some of the worst aspects of both worlds.

I agree.

Wouldn't a statistical study of how often threads have been about --

-- a rogue board;

-- an owner who is ill-informed and so a 'vocational dissident';

-- both the Board and an owner being clueless about the HOA/COA's lawful obligations;

be interesting?

Don't you think a study, as described above, of 50 threads begun, say in January of this year (and so arguably, about as resolved as they will ever be) would be helpful? Hint, nudge, elbow.

I think the one potentially valuable aspect of your for-profit [wink] site is the surveys. I think the rest of it repeats much of what is already on the net, and with annoying, multi-colored fonts on any given page to boot. ;)

I just love it when I see a post about someone going to call their local media to complain about their HOA. Good luck now selling your house... Gee I wonder why no one wants to buy our homes... That HOA must not be doing their job right. So I am going to broadcast it alright...

I agree with much of what’s been said here. I think people are more pissed off about everything these days, primarily because there’s so much you can’t control. You may not always understand why things happen the way they do - and sometimes, there IS no explanation, but you do love your home and dammit, no one's going to tell YOU what to do when he/she/they don't live in YOUR house or pay YOUR bills. Who has time or the patients to read that legal mumbo-jumbo that are the Bylaws and CCRs?

Social media is another part of it. I think you hear a lot more about certain issues because of it and because everyone’s mostly anonymous and there aren’t a lot of filters to fact check anything – not to mention most people don’t stand back and look at issues from a broader prespective, it’s easy to go online and yap about whatever without anyone fact-checking you. When people scream long and loud about “muh rights” that gets attention. When you come to this website or go to Twitter or someplace else, you can rant all you want rather than do the hard work of logging off, going outside and go across the street or next door to actually get to know your neighbors.

It goes both way - we're afraid to, don't want to look or sound nosey and what if we run into a crackpot or sociopath who causes all sorts of trouble. And yet, the heart of HOA problems and solutions begin and end with PEOPLE. Everyone lives in the same neighborhood and presumably want the same things (a clean, safe, attractive neighborhood where the houses will sell for a lot more than what you paid for it). How to get there can vary, depending on who you talk to.

Regarding Augustin’s suggestion about a statistical study, I think that would be a great ideal for the folks running this website. It would be interesting to see what problems come up the most over the last five years and if those categories moved up or down. For example, I think there are more questions about what the documents say or don’t say because many people didn’t pay a lot of attention until the pandemic when everyone was home and you started noticing things that have always been there, but you really didn’t notice, such as the neighbor’s yard across the street never seems to be mowed. You were working from home and decided hm, it would be nice to paint the house a different color – and then you got a violation notice from the HOA (WTF????)

There's so much blame to go around!

Owners who don't do any research before buying into an HOA and blame everyone else when they don't like or understand it. And don't ever, ever want their assessment to go up.(But also don't ever want to volunteer for anything or see services or maintenance reduced).

Realtors who don't proactively explain HOAs to their clients, brush off concerns, or just plain lie.

Board members who don't understand their roles or don't care and want to pursue their own agendas.

Managers who have no customer service skills and make routine molehills into mountains.

Management companies who underpay staff, provide inadequate training, and use methods of dubious ethics to make it difficult or near impossible for clients to leave them.

Lawyers, because lawyers.

Cities, who turned a need for a stormwater management program into a scheme that allows them to pass the cost of streets and lights and code enforcement and recreation facilities on to private owners (while still collecting and raising property tax) thus creating this entire absurd situation where lay volunteers are responsible for property maintenance and millions of dollars.

State legislators who don't want to tick off the homebuilder lobby, or pass ridiculous legislation that affects all HOAS because a powerful friend is mad at his.

The media who over dramatize routine enforcement matters.

The internet, which is rampant with misinformation from all of these people and from those who have never even lived in an HOA but want to score easy internet points with a fanciful tale of their uncle's friend's dad whose HOA fined him a million dollars because his grass was a quarter inch too high.

They're out of order, we're out of order, the whole system is out of order!

It would be nice if the lawyers and HOA managment companies gave good faith advice. One of the biggest issues on this site is misinterpretation of governing documenmts and statues, and who wrote those documents, LAWYERS. So people's advice on reading a document written by a lawyer...is..wait for it...another lawyer.

Breaking news. HOA board wastes $10,000 on new monument.