No, It's Not

At least the main body of the article (part of a Q and A) corrected the summary. See below. The discussion still has some errors. From the NY Times site:

A: The articles of declaration and bylaws for your townhome community will state which actions are within the board’s power.

Homeowners’ associations have elected boards that have a fiduciary duty to members and are charged with putting members’interests first and acting in good faith. Boards often have wide authority to carry out their duties, depending on what is contained in the community’s documents.

In many homeowners associations, the bylaws state that exterior maintenance, including window repair and replacement and weatherproofing, is the responsibility of each homeowner.

Under New York law, a board’s decision to conduct a community wide exterior inspection, and to hire an outside vendor to conduct it, will be protected by the “business judgment rule,” as long as the decision to inspect was made for legitimate corporate purposes, was authorized by the bylaws, was applied to all homeowners, and was made in good faith, said Nancy Kourland, a partner with Lasser Law Group, which practices on Long Island.

“Here, it appears that the board is well within its authority to hire a professional inspection company to assist it in performing communitywide inspections of all exteriors,” Ms. Kourland said.

If you dispute the inspector’s findings, you could hire your own inspector and use that report as a negotiating tool with the board over the scope of the repairs.

Even if you find that the board does not have the authority to mandate these inspections, you must decide whether you are willing to fight it, said Andrew Lieb, a New York lawyer who handles real estate litigation. Complying with the inspections will likely save you thousands of dollars on a potentially expensive and lengthy legal battle. You could also use the situation as fuel for your own campaign for the board, or that of a like-minded neighbor.

A homeowner’s association is a democracy, but living in one involves subjecting yourself to some intrusion, Mr. Lieb said: “You’re signing up for it.”

Fortunately I subscribe to the NY Times and was able to read the article on the website, along with some of the comments. As you might guess, most were a rehash of what we see on this website day and day out. Some of the comments were pretty good, like this one:

This country was founded on a principle of individualism and many, many Americans have difficulty dealing with any notion of community or common good.

I believe this is the #1 reason why there's so much drama in HOAs, and no, I'm not discounting greedy developers, property managers who take advantage of unsuspecting board members and the board members who are untrained, egotistical, power hungry and just plain lazy. Along with the homeowners who refuse to read anything and don't want to try to talk things out (it's easier to call the board dictators because you don't want to believe there's a requirement for you to get permission before you make certain exterior changes, although that was the rule when you first moved in 10 years ago.)

Whoever wrote the letter was P.O'ED because the board is having the windows of the townhouse community inspected and if there are problems, the homeowner will be given time to correct them or be fined. Context is everything, and i don't know why the reporter didn't ask what the documents say or what type of problems they're trying to catch or is this is something tge board has discussed in previous meetings.

The letter writer then said "based on our experience, we expect that deficiencies to be highly discretionary (?) He or she yapped about there already being a mechanism to address obvious problems, so why is this necessary? Well it wouldn't be necessary if people would look around their homes every now and then and fix the small issues before they grow into the obvious ones. I live in a townhouse community and although the association takes care of the building skeleton, I will still call about a loose downspout or suggest someone take a look at the tree in my front yard because it's in bad need of pruning.

Of course, all of this takes too long and writers have deadlines and are also lazy, as Cathy noted, and want the readers to read the thing (clickbait and all that) and it's fun to weep and gnash one's teeth about the big bad HOA - again.

I get the point that people have the attitude. it's my property and I'll do as I want. That don't mean you make your house look
like a Tijuana Llantera shop or you rent out your house for the weekend and 100 people show up for a kegger and destroy the tranquility
of the neighborhood.

Local Jurisdictions have laws and ordinance that are supposed to keep neighborhoods nice tho rarely enforced these days.
HOA's on the other hand do in fact do what local jurisdictions won't, can't or don't; and thats enforce the covenants.

I might add how dare you scold me and FINE me for stupid stuff like I forgot to put my garbage cans away on time. I know now there is way more to it than issuing fines and telling people what they can and cannot do on property that they own.

With Shelia & JohnC, "the individual" is the heart of the matter to me, and those cited and the writer drink the same potion, which we can see in the language THEY use. Here's one:

"Homeowners’[sic*] associations have elected boards that have a fiduciary duty to members and are charged with putting members’ interests first and acting in good faith." Because we're in the USA, people reading this see individual members. But the Business Judgement Rules everywhere do NOT say to put the "members' interests" first, they state the "corporation's best interests. The corporation is no single individual. The corporation is not a compilation of individual 1 + individual. 2, etc.

None of the governing documents in my HOA say that the duty, obligation, job or purpose of the HOA is to somehow take care or do what's best for "members." How about yours?

While the AOI, & declaration show more than one purpose for my HOA, The basic is in most, I'm guessing, is to protect, maintain, restore and enhance the common areas. Thus I have no doubt, living in a condo bldg. as I do, that the governing documents give the board the authority to have anything inspected that might have a negative impact on the common area exterior of the THs.

Yet, we often see posters who think that the corporation's attorney is the "members'" attorney, i.e, A member's attorney, and don't grasp why they cannot phone the HOA's GC with a problem. I agree with Shelia that many issues in HOAs stem from the belief in the sovereignty of the almighty individual. That's why, imo, we often get posts from someone who wants to run around and fix things on their own lonesome, OR have some sort of state actor fix their HOA and rescue the person.

Because of rampant US individualism, It takes lots of effort on the part of some of us to insist that uniting with many neighbors to achieve a shared goal and acting collectively IS the cheapest and probably fastest way to make change.

Is NY state HOA language different than other states? The emphasis on Bylaws elsewhere is misplaced as the board's powers are clearly spelled out in the CC&Rs (covenants, declaration, deed restrictions) AND elaborations are in the Rules, which in CA are a governing doc. It's Unlikely that the bylaws state that the board can order inspections of windows. So one person wrote "A: The articles of declaration and bylaws for your townhome community will state which actions are within the board’s power." I have never heard of "Articles of declaration." A NY thing? Some kind of error?

* This might vary all over the US, but around my region, there is no apostrophe in "XXX Homeowners Association." And mine happens to be an "Owners Association," and guess what? my computer wants me to put an apostrophe after the s in Owners. Our HOA, of course, gets bids, etc., from vendors who put apostrophes wherever they want. I'm not trained in such things, but my understanding is that in the case of a homeowners association, homeowners is NOT a possessive word but, instead is a descriptive word or an adjective. If uncertain, look at copy of a recorded doc of your HOA, i.e., our CC&Rs & AOI have no apostrophes.

Actually what happens when one person doesn't put away their garbage can, is no one gives a s***. show me one video that shows "EVERYONE" suddenly not putting away thier garbage cans. Give me a break.

There are over 50,000 HOAs in this country, so you really can't generalize like that. It may not get caught on video, but just as peopke in one HOA might not care about the one garbage can or cart that's still on the street, there are others that do - especially after someone runs into the garbage can by accident. Or it gets stolen (yes stealing garbage carts is a thing - happened to a relative of mine). Or gets knocked down by the wind before the truck arrives and spills trash everywhere and some of that lands on YOUR lawn.

I agree that some HOAs are too picky about certain things, but if you have a rule, don't you think it would be better for you, your blood pressure and your next door neighbor to be considerate and just comply? If you think the rule is unnecessary, outdated ir unclear, you can work to change it instead of simply ignoring it.

Living in HOAs require people to pay a bit more attention to what the board is doing, but no one wants to do that either because they were told that "the association will take care of this or that" and you don't have to do anything. The developer says this in the sales brochures and so do the realtors because they want the house to sell, and homeowners don't bother to educate themselves on what living in a HOA really means.

All of that said, some of the commentators to the article did say when they were home shopping they were clear in saying they wouldn't consider a home in a H9A at all, and that's OK, too.

I think the cause of HOA conflict is almost entirely today's intellectual laziness in understanding what one has purchased. To me it goes hand-in-hand with our instant-gratification culture: "I want this pretty little home (or McMansion on four acres). Give it to me. I do not care about the fine print or 100 pages of -- whatdyacallit? -- Declaration and bylaws."

Another issue seems to be inability to comprehend. I don't know if it's a literacy problem, because statute, deeds and corporate charters can be complex to read, a civics problem, or if it's something else.

LOL then decrease services. or get a grant or get vendors that cost less. Everyone acts as if the hoA budget is on a shoeString, but they are typically pork bareled with fat for the Mgt and Lawyers to take.

why is it that people assume there is only one way to balance an HOA budget. We've had water sprinklers for 25 years, guess what I turned them off and no one gave a sh** this year. Cut half as much grass in the park decreased lawn care bill by 66% no one gave a sh** about that either. And yes we voted on it and we are getting 70% approval on these reductions in expenses. But every HOA messaging board is saying reducing expenses is impossible???

I understand that you think everyone should just agree with your opinion and if they dont' they should be labeled as lawless ancharist, but the fact remains that I've read the law and have debated it with you and know what I am talking about. How many HOA board members buy a legal book and read it? I have, most have not.

dont' mistake disagreement with ignorance.

That you are unaware of the Surfside condo collapse does not surprise me.
Then you have not been following threads here speaking of same several times in the last few months.

we are not a condo, our reserve study is $15,000. Surfside was in the millions
apples to oranges.

You graduated high school and that's it, correct?

Because you have no understanding of why the Constitution and even Declarations are designed to protect certain rights of minorities.

Why so hostile? I think everyone knows every HOA community is different, so what works in yours may not in my community and vice versa. We can agree to disagree on anything on this website, but it's not worth blowing a gasket over. No one is suggesting that a board ignore what the community wants - sometimes all you can do is give people the information and let them decide. If they decide not to fund reserves or fix playgrounds, one can only hope the decision doesn't come back to bite them in the behind.

You said earlier your community just voted to reduce assessments, but in your previous conversation on the subject, you said it appeared you were the only person who seemed to understand the budget, noting some responses in an owner surveys had comments like "why don't we have a swimming pool?" Well, swimming pools cost money to guild and maintain, and that cost will continue to increase, but you also voted for lower assessments. What do you think that homeowner would say if you pointed that out and asked him or her to get some information showing how the community could pull that off?

I'm not suggesting your approach is bad because I don't live in your community and I do hope it works. That said, its dangerous to make assumptions about anything or say something doesn't happen or exist because you yourself haven't seen it and it sounds silly. The older I get the more I find that if I keep on living, life will get stranger and stranger. That's ok - hopefully it keeps me on my toes. You only stop learning when you depart the planet.

Which leads to another problem with HOAs and the people living in them ' short term thinking. Im not going to be here in 10 or 20 years, so why should I have to pay for roofs or streets I'll never use? Some of that thinking likely went on with Surfside. It's the same attitude with overeating - eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we will die! And then you find you're still here at 45 or 50, suffering from a severe heart attack and your life has been turned upside down for good.

Yes, it's important to get feedback from the owners, but when it comes to fiduciary duty, board members can't hesitate to be the adults in the room and make the tough decisions. I don't know if all homeowners appreciate that because they sit at home while the board pores over the numbers trying to ensure everything is paid for and reserves are funded and lack of rule enforcement doesn't turn the community into a free for all.

I doubt most board members pour over the numbers. I bet most of them just hand it over to the Mgt company and do what the mgt company recommends. Maybe Im jaded but that's what our board did for 25 years. It neither increased home values or had any other positive aspect. Our park was not even insured during that time.

Of course I'm one of the few that are not pro HOA and pro board members.

double talk nonsense. what you wrote is the same as increasing home values.

so home appraisals are also fantasy land, got it.

Each HoA is separate and not related to each other. A HOA is a sales tool for developers. They make them attractive so people buy in. But hey you got all the answers. I do live in a HOA ...

No the government does not say that. That is not how it works. The developers decide to make it an HOA when building. They have common areas built in their development. Why would the government care?

The California government says if you have common area then must have a HOA? I suspect something is lost in translation there. I think the Developers develop and build a neighborhood first. They decide to make it an HOA and file the incorporation. Documents with the state. When they incorporate as a HOA with common property then they stay a HOA.

There is no reason why a developer can decide not to form a HOA. However they lose their corporate protections. Plus the owners could never collect dues to maintain common area if not incorporated.

Many states, including Alabama, have such laws. The law defines which communities are subject to the HOA law, and one of the typical requirements is that a community has common area to maintain (and needs assessments to do so).