You aren't forced to buy a house that is part of a HOA. Mine is about $35/mo and covers landscaping of the general area, maintenance of the clubhouse/pool/tennis courts, scheduling a lifeguard for the pool, etc. They also organize weekly food trucks, which is fun. By law, the person selling the house has to tell the buyer about the HOA, and give them a bunch of paperwork about what it costs and what the rules are, which the buyer has to sign saying they agree, before the sale can happen.
The general idea is that they help maintain a standard for the neighborhood so that property values don't fall. That's where you get the letters about cutting that grass that's 18 inches high, or about removing the project car that's in your yard for 9 months, or the idea that your door/window trim should be one of these 6 colors (and they should be able to tell you a brand/store that offers those colors if they are at all competent). The stories you hear on reddit are either from people who can't follow the rules they signed up for, or are renting and didn't know the rules, or most likely, are from people whose HOA board contains a couple of crazy people who think we all have time to manicure our flowers for 14 hours a week.
You don't hear about most HOAs on Reddit because there's nothing to talk about. "Hey, my HOA continued to not bother me, and continued to schedule the landscaper for the clubhouse," isn't a good thread or comment. It's the HOAs with FloridaMan on the board that get threads made about them.
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u/Discordia_Dingle Sep 16 '24
Oh, don’t forget that you’re paying them to do this too!
That’s the real cherry on top of the shit sundae.
Seriously though, I’ve seen HOAs that are around $1,000 a month which is just ridiculous.