Yeah, I’m sure there’s HOAs run by tyrants, but done right, it’s a social thing where we pool our resources and keep our houses up.

I'm a doorman for a high-rise condo building. The board is often the biggest complainers who use their position to get special privileges for themselves. One board member nearly succeeded in getting our Christmas bonus removed. Now we have a lady who is convinced her unit is infested with mold in spite of numerous tests showing otherwise. She's trying to get the building to pay for the full gut rehab of her unit.

In both cases their are shared maintenance expenses for the allotment. Like roads, drainage, and other things taxes would pay for but they cut themselves off from city by allowing an HOA.

Shitty that they even exist and anyone thinks it's a good idea to trust unqualified people to manage projects they have no experience in usually. All a scam to let the developers cut costs and pass it onto the residents.

Now most of these HOAs are managed by older residents and most of them have a "I'm gonna die, why should I care" attitude about future planning.

It’s good that I’m in Portland where it doesn’t roast. And if you call for my removal, I’d gladly step aside. Means you’d be the president then. I was drafted into this role against my will, and so would you be.

But these are townhomes, not stand-alone houses. The three houses in the confines of the neighborhood pay enough money to maintain the street they’re on, but they’re excluded from roofing and painting costs.

<<HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!>>

HOAs do exist in Europe too. Because it's impossible to coordinate maintaining shared property without them.

The central heating system is showing its age. With what technology will it be replaced? Gas? Oil? Heat pump? A connection to district heating?

If it's a heat pump, should you put solar panels on the roof? If so, who pays for them? Everyone? What if some don't want to? How will revenue be shared if only some are willing to pay the cost? How will you calculate how much it costs to heat one apartment whose owner shares ownership of the solar panels versus how much it costs to heat one apartment whose owner doesn't?

I don’t have a fence. Or a yard.

I just handle the roofing and painting contracts, and any sort of local landscape concerns.

This HOA looks after five buildings holding twenty-seven townhomes. There’s no lawns to mow here, no real interpersonal conflict. Residents pay into an HOA fund and then their building gets maintained.

I have never enforced any sort of rule otherwise.

But I can be an asshole if you need me to be.

Also, how are you assuming that I’m heteronormative? I’m a disabled trans woman. :/ I sign contracts for neighborhood maintenance.

I guess you’re right. There are no decent HOA presidents. But how would people who share a building collaborate on things like roofing and painting otherwise? They’d have to come up with the money eventually or things would fall into disrepair.

If I’m a dick for doing this, then so be it. Folks need durable and maintained buildings. I’m not even being paid.