There’s very little people can do. In order to fix things you usually need to get on the board, but the people who run HOAs are usually retired nimby assholes and they hold meetings while most in the neighborhood are at work so nobody can oppose them. They then reelect themselves to the board and the cycle continues. HOAs are usually a thing set up by the builders to make their lives easier for some paperwork and stuff. They absolutely suck 99% of the time.

Native plant garden bans aren’t just an HOA thing. Many counties or cities ban them too. Much of it stems for chemical manufacturers selling the white picket fence image after WWII to veterans receiving funding to buy a home. The chemical manufacturers pushed hard for that image so they could keep making as much profit as they made manufacturing for weapons during the wartime.

This means that trying to fight your HOA on yards is useless, you have to go higher and it’s a big big fight

HOAs offsets the cost and maintenance of roads and other civil services, so many counties love them because it keeps costs down for the government while charging the neighborhood. It keeps taxes down overall.

HOA benefit to have their own fiefdom, that allows them to weld near unchecked power because the turn out for board elections are even lower than most local elections.

Homeowners have the ability dissolve their HOA but they don’t because people don’t vote.

They’re fine to terrible depending on where you’re at. In our neighborhood they make sure no junky cars (cars on blocks) are left outside and that you don’t leave massive oil spills in your driveway and that your house is painted when it starts to peel. They also have planted a bunch of native gardens and maintain them and the dog bag dispensers and poop bins. Would just be better if the city did it, but whatever.

Pretty much nothing of what that other user said is true. HOAs host meetings at night usually, anyone can come, yes people don’t come and vote but that’s usually because people are fine with their HOA. They can’t vote themselves back in. If they sucked 99% of the time they wouldn’t exist, because getting rid of them is dead simple, literally show up and vote.

To add to some of the other replies (road repair, etc) the one we used to live in also offered access to a full pool area with life guards. This included a lap pool (with certain adult only times), toddler shallow pool, a medium (standing/walking) depth that had some fountains in it and a splash pad. A decent sized play ground. There was also a larger event space with a kitchen that you could rent (price was free, just had to schedule a slot and sign a damages waver). The fee also included “beautification” things like all the flower beds and landscaping/grass maintenance in all the public areas, which included a 2 mile loop running/walking path with the various body-weight workout stops. Tennis courts, community events with food/games/etc. It’s about $880 a year now i think, and the only rules were really just keep your place looking decent. We didnt have any issues because i always mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes anyways…there’s also guidelines for not painting your house crazy colors or building really weird structures, but it was pretty easy for your average lifestyle all things considered.

Im no advocate for HOAs, not even this one. I will never live in one again…but not all HOAs are equal is my only point. Some are $1000 year with literally nothing to “give back”. Eff all that.

You hear about the shitty ones, tbh.

Mine covers the community pool, a few small playgrounds, gym, community garden, etc. Thats it.

No getting approval to have your door be blue instead of white, no measuring your grass height, or any of those shenanigans.

If you want to see the positives of HOAs, Google “What are the legal options for dealing with my neighbor Reddit.”

Most people have a significant portion of their wealth tied into their property. Getting a new drug addicted neighbor three years before retirement could lead to unintended financial consequences. There are good HOAs, it’s just that nobody complains about them.

have few to no positive effects

The purpose of an HOA (in theory) is to divide the costs of land maintenance across land owners.

In practice, HOAs are routinely abused for rent seeking and stigmatization of minorities. But that’s not a problem specific to the legal arrangement. It’s a consequence of the managers and members.

HOAs have a lot of applications that aren’t horrible, you just probably dont hear about them. Neighborhoods with HOAs are often centrally planned, so there will be common areas that require upkeep like pools, clubhouses, parks, etc. They essentially take on a form of government role. In a lot of neighborhoods that are not part of an incorporated city, they do things like trash collection, road upkeep, snow plowing, etc.

I’ve lived in 2 places with an HOA, and in the one, all they did was the landscaping, even around all the yards of the houses. In the other, they handled the park/pool/clubhouse, and they did trash collection.

The down sides are often because the people in charge are just retirees who hunger for power, and there isnt much oversight from real government. Most people dont care enough to try to oust the bad leaders, so they stay in control, and they often do things that are illegal, but no one calls them out on it.

What’s the point of even having a yard if it looks like the ones in the picture?

Dog bathroom.