Banned is maybe too far, but why should we as a country allow people to have petty power over meaningless things their neighbors do? Could we ban HOAs from being included in house sales, and every time it's sold the new owners have to opt in?
For the most part, I'm wondering about this in the context of single family homes since for homes like condos, you could make the case that HOAs are useful for shared things like roofs and whatnot. Maybe limit mandatory HOA involvement to things like what's truly necessary and shared and not how tall your grass is?
Again, I don't think you understand why the HOA exists. No one joins because they want to be regulated. They join because they want the neighborhood to be regulated.
The American tradition of telling everyone else what to do and how to behave while not wanting others to tell you what to do and how to behave!
OMG dude. You can't be serious. Do you just not understand how rules work? The people who join are also, voluntarily "told what to do and how to behave".
Unless they agree to HOA rules they're not allowed to live in those neighborhoods, access those schools etc.... this is a coercive pressure.
I get that you're part of an HOA board so you think they're great, but for the most part you're part of a system that's a net negative in people's lives and society. See the Jon Oliver video linked above if you ever actually want to evaluate HOA more objectively.
I don't think they're great at all. I'm only on the board to avoid getting fucked. If I could abolish it I would.
That's all besides the point. You cannot have a voluntary HOA. It's completely pointless. No one is going to choose to subject themselves to the rules when no one else has to...
Exactly. They're a scourge. Even you can't abolish the one you're in when you want to. They have to go and this is a great way to do it. All it takes is a few people in a neighborhood to opt out and suddenly the impossible becomes possible and people will be able to disband bad HOAs.
Good ones (if they exist) will stay because everyone will voluntarily join in keeping the community great.
The community can, collectively.
I just explained how and why that's not possible.