A homeowner in Goodyear, Arizona is locked in a dispute with his homeowner's association over his practice of distributing free cold water from his driveway.

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[–] 138 points 1 year ago (22 children)

HOAs seem like they should be illegal. Having a contract in perpetuity that is attached to the purchase of property seems like it shouldn't be allowed. So it is not only bound to the person who originally signed, but to whoever purchases the relevant property afterwards, and that gives other people rights over you that can be changed afterwards and are only limited by their conscience.

I basically don't think you should be able to create a government by using a contract.

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  • [–] 33 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I basically don't think you should be able to create a government by using a contract.

    It's basically what Anarco-capitalism wants to do. Incidentally, HOAs form the best real world argument against Anarco-capitalism.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    The part that I hate about it is obliging future homeowners to participate.

    I get that the obligation was the main reason why HOA types wanted to build HOAs, but I'll never live under an HOA. As soon as I'm aware there's an HOA involved, I'm out. Burn the paperwork. I'm not buying it.

    .... Not that I plan on moving ever again.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I mean, hoas do have uses. Like a building in a city that has many condos in it. Gotta have a common method to ensure building upkeep, etc.

    So idk about illegal but I wouldn't choose to buy into one in the burbs.

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  • [+] -26 points 1 year ago (15 children)

    HOAs are elected and operated by the residents. Yeah they're often shitty, but as residents you can change them.

    Also, government creation contracts are called constitutions. Lots of countries have them.

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  • [–] 40 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Also, government creation contracts are called constitutions. Lots of countries have them.

    I also enjoy pedantic arguments, but I try to remember to avoid them when I think the topic is important. I had to stop myself from arguing against this point, because even if I won the argument, it wouldn't mean anything.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    If you squint a lot, HOAs could be a mechanism for bringing neighborhoods together. It allows them to self-govern over the shared resources for the neighborhood. Want to get a company to run fiber to everyone's home, or build a solar/wind farm for fewer dollars per MW than rooftop solar could ever do? An HOA is a legal mechanism to setup the financing and agreements to make that work in an affordable way for the residents.

    Most HOAs are not setup for anything like that. They're for requiring what fencing contractor you have to use and banning natural lawns.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    So why not form a tenant union at that point?

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago*

    It's basically that, for owners. But with stupid default rules that developers put in.

    HOAs formed after a development is built tend to be very cool and much like what is described.

    Collective bargaining for trash service, Halloween hay rides, July 4th bbq, etc.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago

    My new neighborhood has a corporate HOA and they won’t hand over control to the residents until a certain % of houses are occupied. The problem is the builder has been building houses for the past 4 years and they’re far away from completion, so we have to deal with the shitty HOA until then.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    You "can" change them, but don't some/most HOAs have it so that the more properties you own in a HOA, the more voting power/votes you have? Like you own 5 properties, thus have 5 votes?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Probably, but are there people who own a bunch of properties in one neighborhood? If they own a majority, isn't that more like a managed community than an actual neighborhood?

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    In my HOA almost all of the board members own multiple units and they don't even live in our neighborhood. I know one is a realtor, as she sold me my place, and another is just an investor.

    They're not always the most pleasant people, but they do an ok job the majority of the time. People seem to hate owning a house but still getting told no on things.

    I don't know if they actually vote multiple times, but I think we've had less than a half dozen rule changes in the almost 20 years I've been there.

    They have a vested financial interest in making the neighborhood as attractive and successful as the rest of us. While their motivation is purely a financial interest, the petty and self-centered things I've seen my fellow residents try to demand is crazier than anything our board has actually done.

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