What is the Purpose of Homeowners Associations?
Even before I was an adult, I lived in an HOA neighborhood (right, Mom and Dad?). What I remember is that they organized fun events for us. We had phenomenal block parties and we knew each others’ names and where all the kids belonged.
I have no idea how much it cost my parents in monthly HOA fees. And I do not remember any angry or concerning conversations about HOAs or our neighbors. The only thing I have a vague memory of is changing the house and shutter colors while making sure that the house did not look like any of the neighbors’. Uniformity was not the goal.
On a surface level, I understand that HOAs maintain standards in a community. And those standards are mostly regarding the physical appearances of the property/neighborhood in order to keep the property values high.
Can I paint my house a different color and if so which color?
Can I get a fence and if so what type?
It wasn’t until I lived in HOA neighborhoods as an adult that I understood the finer things in life like:
Your grass is too high. Cut it by Saturday or you will be fined. (No excuses: My lawnmower was being repaired.)
There are weeds growing through the cracks in your driveway. Remove them before the week is up or else you will be fined. (No excuses: I swear they only checked the day before I was about to remove them!)
There is a brown patch of grass in your lawn. Get rid of it before the end of the month or you will be fined. (No excuses: The brown patch was definitely there before I moved. In fact, the entire neighborhood had brown patches.)
Taking it up a notch:
No, you cannot park on the street in front of your house. You can park in your driveway but, if you do that, you cannot block the sidewalk, so it is preferred that you park in your garage which, hopefully, you did not make into a living space because you cannot do that either.
No, you cannot leave your trash can in front of your garage or on the side of your house because trash belongs in your garage which shouldn’t be a problem because your garage is not allowed to be a living space, so make sure you put your trash out no earlier than dawn and remove it before 6 pm regardless of whether you are home from work or not.
Yes, you can get a fence, it just has to be the type, color, height, and area that we say so, so make sure you put in a request for our permission first and also know that once you get it installed, we will not be cutting your lawn but you will still be paying for the lawn service as there is no financial opt-out.
Abiding by the rules makes the neighborhood look good. Not abiding by the rules makes the neighborhood look bad. Good also means uniform in presentation. I never knew life outside a military installation would be the same as it was on one. Well, actually, it feels worse.
Looking good on the outside says nothing about the character of the people inside [the HOA] except that they like for things to look a certain way…by any means necessary including intimidation, threats, and sprinkle in some lies and isolation tactics. And the law is on their side. But why your HOA cannot talk to you like you are an adult and a neighbor is beyond me. Basic behavior principals state that you don’t threaten people [with policies/ordinances/laws]. You reinforce appropriate behavior. Also, what happened to “seek first to understand”? Minimally it could like this:
Hey, we noticed that your grass is a bit overgrown. It is usually not like this so we are concerned. Is anything going on that you would like to share with us so that we may be able to assist you in remedying the problem? I know you want to contribute to keeping the community looking good…
And then you problem-solve from there.
But that is not where we are as a society. So, perhaps it is best to understand the motivations of the people who represent the HOA and to explore the origins of HOAs in the United States…