The best HOA story I've heard is where a wealthy man who was retiring moved into an HOA neighborhood and was told not to long after moving in that he was in violation of some nit-picky rule and he would be fined if he didn't comply. He tried to fight it and lost so he complied and set about fixing the HOA. Over the next several years, he hired or set up a management company and every time a property went up for sale, he bought it under that management company and rented them out. Eventually he had acquired enough properties that he was the majority owner. Then he purposely violated some rule and waited for the HOA to send him notice. He scheduled to go before the board to discuss his violation at the next meeting. The night of the meeting, after the board threatened him with whatever action they were going to take, he informed them that he was the majority owner in the neighborhood and as such he had the voting rights under the HOA bylaws to replace the board, which he did and then told the community that he was disbanding the HOA and everyone was free to enjoy their homes in anyway they see fit.

I used to get calls to "private" communities with HOA'S and they insisted that I, a sheriff enforce their rules. They said " they are parking on the street" I said "so what" they (they were two ladies with clipboards) I told them the streets were private and not subject to most traffic laws. They would also complain about someone not cutting a lawn or some other garbage. We had a situation here in Tucson where a family moved into their new home and within a few weeks received a letter demanding that they "remove the eyesore on their front door" the owner asked them what eyesore and they pointed out the 3 inch long and 3/8 wide tubular item with some writing on it. He told the HOA it was a Mezuzah and is a religious item containing the blessing on the home. They still insisted on him removing it. He refused and they fined him all sorts of fees and violations and even eventually put a lein on the home. they finally took him to court. The HOA had 5 people there all smug and the homeowner had himself and his lawyer, the sides presented their case and the judge addressed them and said he was dismissing the suit and was shocked at the boards actions and he was personally going to bring this case to the federal court to present it to the U.S. attorney to review for federal law violation on religious persecution.

When I was looking to buy several years ago, I saw a listing in which the realtor put in huge capital letters "NO HOA!!!". I guess she considered it a major selling point and I agree.

I'm currently looking to buy a home and the first thing I told my real estate agent is to not even bother showing me any HOA properties. I'll compromise on certain things such as if the basement is unfinished but a HOA is a guaranteed deal breaker for me regardless of the price of the home. I'll be damned if I'll spend that kind of money on a home only to have a bunch of Karen's and Ken's telling me what I can and can't do with my own property. I'm too frigging old, sick, and bitchy to deal with that kind of bullshit and I refuse to do so.

Always warms my heart to see an HOA go down.

My buddy bought a home with an HOA. Apparently in Utah if you can prove the HOA doesn't doesn't provide services in the contract for 1 year, you can vote to disband it. Every day for a year he quietly documented the dead grass between the sidewalk and the road that the HOA was supposed to be taking care of. Then he rallied his neighbors and overthrew tyranny.

I live in an HOA and these people are horrible. Thieves is even a kind word for them. They selectively enforce the by-laws.

A friend had a condo in a HOA that stopped doing any maintenance , drained the pool , locked the laundry ,and turned off the landscape maintenance . The HOA said they couldn't afford anything .The home oweners requested a aduit of the books and went to court .The court gave the HOA time to open the books . The day before the books were tobe opened the HOA managers moved .There were no books .

My little sister actually works full time picketing in front of an HOA in Bradenton, FL, sometimes there’s as many as 6 people! The HOA started fining her boss for parking his pick up outside the garage. After talking with others in the community it seems there’s a lot of petty policy enforcement going on. What the HOA didn’t know was how wealthy this guy is, he pays people $15/hr 7 days a week to harass board members. Additionally, he keeps filing lawsuits against the HOA for any thing he feels is unjust.

When I was young, I lived in a townhouse complex during my college years. One morning I discovered my car had a flat tire. While I was changing the spare, I had a middle aged lady and a very elderly man approach me demanding I stop since automotive repairs were against the rules. They advised I should have it towed to a shop. After telling them where to go wi their absurdity and how to get there, in great detail, I finished the tire change whilst they shuffled off muttering amongst themselves. Decades later, upon reflection, I have to admit they taught me a great life lesson: Never purchase property under an HOA.

I read a story where a house was in a H.O.A. and they were trying to fine the owner for walking in their house naked. The homeowner refused to pay the fee and the HOA tried to foreclose on the house, the homeowner filed a stay of execution with the court and a judge granted said Stay. The homeowner then filed a lawsuit against the HOA for invasion of privacy and being a peeping tom. The Judge sided with the homeowner stating that windows were to look out and not for looking into. With that judgement in hand the homeowner then went to the other court and said that they had a bogus lawsuit and moved for dismissal. The lower court granted the homeowners request for dismissal and ordered the fines were illegally obtained via the higher court ruling. The homeowner then charges the HOA for 2.5 Million dollars for invasion of privacy, trespassing, and embezzlement the homeowner won the suit and the judge doubled the award.

I refuse to even look at a house that has an HOA. I never understood paying to have someone tell me what I could and could not do on my property.

I have been living in a home with an HOA for 30 years. If I ever buy another home the last thing I would want is an HOA. The pretext is that they are there to maintain property values. What you actually get if a bunch of people with control issues who turn your neighborhood into their little fiefdom.

I lived in a HOA neighborhood once for 10 years and swore never again after we sold and left. Little people who like control over others end up on the board. I saw them use our funds to sue a neighbor whose high quality wood fence was an inch too high. I live on 38 acres now and need binoculars to see my neighbors.

If you can join an HOA, but no-one can ever leave, HOAs will continually grow. As an Australian, it's stunning to think "the land of the free" would tolerate this.

I had an HOA lawsuit back in the mid 1990’s. I had sold my condo, and exited the association legally, so I thought! For24 months after moving, the HOA, continued to come after me for violations dealing with my car and truck, that one was present at the condo at any given time. The violation was that my vehicles were older then 2 years old! So the HOA insisted that my vehicles were an issue of safety due to age and neglect ( keep in mind the car was 1 year old, and the truck was an antique parked at m father’s house) I was 23 at the sale of the condo, but was hauled into court over unpaid and unsubstantiated claims of the prior 1 year, a lean against my father’s property, and impounding of all our cars ( on his land and inside the garage at the time) until violations were paid! Solution, call brother-in-law (cop), lawyered up, both with civilian and military attorneys, applied for search warrants of HOA board members and all bylaws regarding said HOA documents (costing us thousands of dollars) entered the court, and the HOA claimed that I was responsible to live under their rules and regulations for a period 9 years after I moved out and sold the condo! Court ruling abolished this HOA, jailed several board members found their attorneys in contempt, and most of the violations were communistic money grabs, and the board members were also found to have embezzled several hundred thousands of dollars! All vehicles were returned, lean was removed from my father’s property, and restraining orders extended against the HOA!

Hearing an HOA lost a case always makes me smile.

A friend of mine's favorite story about a HOA - he was installing satellite dish service and the HOA tried to prevent the homeowner from doing so. The owner contacted the FCC who showed up and told the HOA where to go.

Never ever buy a home in an HOA, NEVER.

We lived in Florida for 30 years. HOAs in a lot of communities are like mini gestapos. Any house we purchased always made sure you understood the covenants. The "Disney" neighborhood told ppl what colors of curtains, etc to put in their windows. That really exists there. -- We almost couldn't sell our house when we left bc the HOA changed up their accepted paint schemes for homes right after we had an ARC approved color for the paint on our house. Our Realtor was in the board, so she helped us crawl out of that mess. There was also a guy on the board who physically walked the neighborhood every morning going thru ppl's backyards (without fences) looking for things outside of covenants and writing ppl up. Then there was the guy on the board with the drone for fenced yards.... I absolutely drew the line there. Told them I'd take them to court for that. He stopped. One of our neighbors was having his driveway re-done while in the process of selling his home. The HOA put a lien on his home and took the guy to court for re-doing his driveway. The pending offer he had fell thru bc of that. In our friend's neighborhood, they had tow trucks on standby IN the neighborhood hooking up to any car that parked in the street and towed them off. Our friend got hit on two separate occasions on his lunchtime stopping by his home to get something really quick and take off back to work. When he came back out once, his truck was gone. The second time, they had his truck hooked up. HOAs in Florida are no joke. The HOA we have here where we moved (different state) is like $180 a year. It keeps the street lights on, and maintains our entry. That's it. None of this other terrorist crap. What a breath of fresh air!

ONE of the previous HOA’s I lived in made me replace the mailbox with their “specific” box that could only be bought through the management company. It cost about &350. Three years later they came around and demanded I replace it again. After some research I discovered the brother-in-law of the board president was making the mailboxes.

I was an HOA chairman in Mesquite, NV, and felt compelled to resign when the majority of the board voted to violate NV law to further their own authority. I'll never live in another one again. It's the most punitive level of "government" in our country.

I live in a community with an HOA in Florida but luckily the previous owner had already sued them and got a ruling saying he didn’t have to join, which later applied to me, then it came out that the HOA committee was collecting thousands a year, using a couple hundred to keep the community sign area mowed then going in expensive vacations with the rest. It was a huge scandal and quite comical.

An old coworker of mine was harassed by the hoa for not having plants in her pots on her front porch. She was going through a really tough time because her mother was literally in the hospital dying and she did not have time to worry about it.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Saw a meme the other day: "What do call a group of Karens? A Homeowners Association."

I bought a house that was in a HOA. Then after being there for almost a year, I received a letter from the HOA and told me that my mailbox was 1 inch to close to the street. The company that I work for required to go out of town for a period of time so I received a $100 dollar find and I told them about the issue with my job and I would fix it when I get home but they still issue me to pay $100 dollars. I found out that the original owner was the brother of the head of the HOA, so I took them to court, I sued for $5000.00 because they did nothing to the previous owner and won. The Judge ordered the review the laws that HOA put in and will be hearing from the owners to see about change?

I will never live in a place that has my neighbors impose rules on my property. Nor do I wanna impose rules on my neighbor

HOA's are the perfect way for petty tyrants to get their fix in making other people miserable.

A woman I know said her neighbor painted their house an unapproved color.She asked " how did you get away with that color ? " The neighbor said that the HOA had been desolved a long time ago .Her finance company was still charging her HOA fees .

I bought my first house in 2007. The newly built neighborhood had rules I needed to sign along with my other mortgage documents. I noticed that the rules provided seemed to be just the last page of the neighborhood rules. After some back and forth between my realtor and the listing agency, I got all the rules. They weren’t too oppressive, so I agreed. After I moved in, I noticed nobody followed any of the rules. When I talked to my neighbors, I quickly found out, nobody had been given the full list either, and they didn’t ask. Luckily for me, because of the housing bubble bursting, the developer unloaded the properties as fast as he could and the HOA never got set up.

HOAs can be nightmares. My sister was going to buy a house in an HOA, and I told her, before you buy make sure you get a pen and paper and read ALL of the rules, at least 3 times. And any rule you're not sure of, write it down and ask the HOA to give you an example of that rule. Well after writing down 20 rules, she decided that this was insane and chose not to buy the house. Better to find out before you sign than after.

When we bought in 2006, our #1 requirement was "No HOA"...

An HOA is the last place I'd want to live. Either you own the property or I don't, what I do with it is my business. I understand the concept, but that's how I always felt about it. A friend bought into one and was always working, so didn't pay much attention. The teenager he was paying to mow his lawn just stopped for some reason, so it grew to much for the HOA. One day he checked his mail and found a bill for lawn mowing by a neighbor he didn't know. I'm sure he went ahead and paid it, but I wouldn't have. I told him that I would have sent a thank you note, because he didn't hire them to do that. Of course I realize that the government does not actually believe you own your own property, but but that's another subject.

Almost 20 years ago my wife and I visited a cousin in Arizona. He and his wife drove us around to show us a bunch of new housing developments, and he proudly announced that they were all under HOAs. My wife was recently arrived from another country so she had no idea what an HOA was, but my cousin and his wife genuinely didn't understand why I told them to just stop the tour unless there were some developments that weren't HOAs. (There weren't any.)

I lived in a condo with a HOA. The thing I learned about their rules were that they would selectively enforce them. There was a mosaic glass decal on a tiny window near the front door of our condo from when we purchased the place. It's fair to assume it had been there for some time prior, but not long after we moved in, we got a violation notice for it. I read over the rules and could spot various violations throughout the neighborhood that never seemed to change. If you don't enforce the rules for everybody, then the rules are meaningless. The amenities provided by HOA governed communities have to really be worth it to you to deal with nitpicky rules that will be arbitrarily enforced on you and seemingly nobody else.

A few years back I was looking around for a buildable lot. I found one, 2.5 acres at a good price. Very nice. It had an HOA. I asked for a copy of the rules. They were emailed to me - all 112 pages of them. Unbelievable nazi-like restrictions on everything. I sent an email back to the seller saying that he would have to pay me to take the lot off his hands.

Our township attempted to write and HOA type agreement. The residents protested and stopped this ordinance. Thanks for your work. People have rights that need to be defended.

Steve, one thing a lot of people don't realize about HOA's is that the reason they are becoming more common is because of laziness and corruption from city and county officials. Big developers will lobby city and county officials to DENY residential zoning permits to smaller plots of land, and one of the ways they do this is by getting laws and regulations passed that require new residential areas to be built with HOA's, and local governments LOVE to go along with this because then they don't have to enforce city ordnances regarding trash, weeds, etc... So they get to have their ordnances essentially enforced by HOA's that have almost zero accountability and run roughshod over people, and these local officials use HOA's to enforce their will regarding what people are allowed to do with their property in ways that would otherwise be wildly unconstitutional, such as selectively enforcing rules against signs and flags in people's yards that express views that they (local governments and the HOA boards, themselves) don't like. This is how you get these insane situations where people are sometimes faced with huge fines or even foreclosure and eviction because they put political signs on their own property. As a millennial, I won't be able to own a house until someone in my family _dies,_ but when I do I will sell that property and buy an empty plot on unincorporated land and plunk down a modular/ mobile home if the one I inherit is under the control of an HOA.

I turned down 3 homes that had HOA attached for my first home. The lady acted insulted. When I said HOA was not an option, she said she would have to find something for me later. Safe to guess I didn't do buisness with her. I was fortunate to have an ex realtor in my corner to keep me informed on what to look for.

8 years ago I lived under the rule of an hoa. I wanted to widen my driveway and was told no. I then asked if I could cut /trim the trees on either side of the driveway. Absolutely not. Those trees belong to the hoa. So, does their roots belong to the hoa since they are attached to the trees? Clearly, tenant's names, they are as the two cannot be separated. Ohhhhhhhh so the root belongs to the tree and the tree belongs to you. [setting this up] ** previous to this interaction I received a note from the hoa stating I was responsible for the conduct and actions of my guests due to the extension of the them being at my house and my house was subject to the rules of the hoa. I was responsible for any damages caused by my guests. So you are responsible the trees and by extension are responsible roots and any damage they may cause. My driveway is cracked due to the roots which creates a safety issue which by extension is now your responsibility. I was granted permission to widen the driveway.

I lived in an HOA community in NC. The house came with Tall Fescue grass that needed a lot of watering during summer. I went to the HOA and submitted a request to change the grass to Zoysia, a summer type of grass. They approved and I changed the whole yard ($$$). Zoysia goes dormant during winter, turns yellowish brown color. The HOA didn't liked it, even it was explained in my approved request for the change. We ended in court...

I got on the board and immediately cancelled all their rules “passed” after the original HOA because they never filed them with the county as required by state law.

Coming from the UK, it never ceases to amaze me that any part of the US allows this extortion. Whatever happened to the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I did that in Virginia, they sent out proxy sheets for people votes who will not be attending the annual meeting…I went door to door and gathered proxy’s from folks who basically gave up on the HOA. We (group of us) walked in and seated a complete new board, and changed the rules.

I moved from a very wealthy HOA neighborhood into a working-class/lower-middle-class neighborhood with no HOA. It's great! People actually talk to each other if they're unhappy with what a neighbor is doing. And while I do miss access to the pool and park the former neighborhood provided, I'm completely happy with the move and will avoid HOAs for the rest of my life.

45% of Florida lives under HOA?! That's crazy!

I live in Florida and I just found out at Thanksgiving that my mother is being sued by an HoA that is located next to where I live. The only problem: My 82 y/o mother lives eighty miles away. She had a cousin that owned a house in the HoA who died and have decided to sue family members for unpaid fees. I hate HoAs.

Living in a country where HOA's arent a thing, HOA's just sound like a legalised protection racket. The land of the free sure seems to have a lot of rules telling citezens what they can't do with their own property.

I worked for a cable company had a work order to turn off a person cable.. the HOA had me arrested. When I got out of jail the first thing I did was cut off all the cable to the hole place . My employer did not say anything to me and told HOA . Will fix the problem when are employe gets out of jail. F a HOA

My neighborhood has twice tried to get me to agree to an HOA and I refuse every single time. Luckily our area isn't heavy in this but I intend to speak against them at all turns.

Hoa's are insane. My uncle had a property that he had owned for 10 years before an HOA was finally established. They tried to tell him that because his house was there he was automatically subject to the HOA even though he did not vote to establish it did not approve the establishment he was the first house in the area. They tried to tell him that if he dug a well he would have to share it with like three other houses. And if he used his huge industrial size generator that could power a whole block they told him he would have to power the whole block with it. He told them to stick it where the sun don't shine because he's not actually part of the HOA

In college I worked private security and one assignment was a condo complex. My main duty was to keep the community safe through reporting things such as damaged gates, pools and clubhouse door locks... but I was also handed a list of violations to the association's policies to tattle-tale on residents in violation of the HOA (or COA... it's been decades)... anyway, my orders were to write down the violations without contacting the resident and handing it in to the management. Okay, I get it if it's a problem such as a newly-painted door of hideous color, but yes, the curtains were also an issue. Being that I am not a jerk, before writing it in the final shift report, if it was before 8pm, I would knock on the resident's door and explain their new drapes were in violation and to have them changed or hidden some way... my goal was to allow the residents a moment to fix the problem instead of being hit with a surprise visit by management along with the first day fine. Of all the security duties I had, that was the worst, even if you include the one where I got shot at. I hated having to enforce some of these stupid, idiotic, anti-freedom policies these organizations enforce.

I'm looking for a larger (10 to 40 acre) property in MI right now, close enough to suburbs to worry about housing developments moving in. I have seen a number of large parcels being split into two still-fairly-large parcels, and have already decided I won't buy one of those unless I can afford to buy both, because I don't want to risk a development with an HOA going in adjacent to my land.

I was a condo/townhouse mgr and had absolutely no problems. I now live in an HOA the board is doing so many things wrong. they are deaf to homeowners & maintenance repairs. Tell people to pay themselves for extra landscaping replacement Collect fees yet tell people to do their own exterior work. They don’t want to pay for exterior landscape maintenance upkeep. They increase fees, had a special asst while there was over 800k in reserves. Any extra money they pool the money into reserves and tell people they have no money. Yet, if someone is using an electric saw, patrol starts to drive around to inspect. Then board members exceed their term limits. Can’t get copies of financials or minutes. There are other matters too many to mention.

I remember reading an article years ago about a tussle that a HOA got in with a retired lawyer. He saw the power grab being foisted upon the residents of the HOA and decided to fight back. I believe that he filed so many lawsuits the HOA that it finally bankrupted it. I hate to see something go to this extent, but the board should have been removed years ago. I think that we all have seen those folks whose main aim in life is to control others. Give them a little power and ………

Ohio law, fortunately, provides a remedy for troublesome HOAs: the ability of residents to vote them out of existence. I and my fellow residents did precisely that to our development in Columbus a few years ago and there was much rejoicing.

Steve, I used to work for a developer and someone once told me that the reason Florida, Arizona and other states with large post WW!! developments were so HOA heavy was because cities and towns didn't want the burden of dealing with the added infrastructure, code enforcement and so forth. So the town's were actually the instigator's in developer's starting them in order to get their plans approved. It didn't take much arm twisting, the developers wanted a consistent, uniform look as a selling point and they wanted to include communal amenities like pools and community centers, so they started doing HOA's on most of these projects. If you or any viewers know I'd love to know whether this is true or false.

I live in AZ. Formally in a townhouse. Glad I sold and moved into a nice area that doesn't have an HOA. I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE ELSE TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO WITH MY PROPERTY AGAIN!!!

You know how I handle HOA’s Don’t move into one…..worked out well for me so far

I remember how horrified my neighbors were when they got a notice... Their multiple hurricane damaged houses were going to be fined a few months past the last storm would be fined daily for houses being out of code. Ppl were lucky to get insurance claim in & someone to even look at let alone fixing it then, FL was completely overwhelmed from the storms but this HOA wanted to profit off the disaster! PLEASE dont live in an HOA!

The insane part for me is that this kind of stuff is legal in “the freest country on earth “ All I know about hoas is that they are Karen factories

Another very enjoyable Lehto's Law tutorial! Thanks for the laughs, Steve. /:-)

I have never understood why in the supposed land of the free, so many are willing to live under the thumb of petty tyrants.

There's a reason the highest praise you ever hear about an HOA is, "It's not one of the bad ones."

HOA's are just one of the plethora of reasons why I live at the top of a mountain in the rural Ozarks...!

So easy for people to say "don't live in an HOA", but it's damn near impossible where I live. Unless you want to live an hour outside of town, just about everything is part of an HOA

Thanks for breaking all of that down. Good information.

My favorite subjects on your channel are when people stand up for their rights against HOAs, civil asset forfeiture, and corrupt local government abuses and actually win. I'm also glad to see the right to repair movement gaining momentum.

I've only had to deal with an HOA twice, my condo association and later my townhouse. HOA rules apply to some but not others. Naturally the rules applied to me but not my neighbor. So glad to have left HOAs behind!!!!

I was sent to DC to run a job for six months. I rented a condo that was under an HOA. They harassed me nonstop for stupid things that were none of their business to begin with. My union's lawyer consultation contacted the HOA and they never bothered me again. I wish I knew what was said. I will never live under an HOA again.

My mom lives in a nicer trailer park and I lived with her when I was an Over The Road truck driver. Well, I had a 3x5 US Flag properly displayed in a window for years. Then, all of a sudden, we had to remove it. They claimed it was an "improper window treatment" and MUST be removed. Living across the street from the office, I figured out how to display a Flag they couldn't say shit about. To shorten the story up, I welded a pipe to a Gooseneck Ball Hitch and hung a 4x6 flag off of it. The real kicker is, the driveway was RIGHT across from the office and they HAD to look at it every day.

I once drove through a 55+ trailer court and it was beautiful. Every place had it's own colors and personality. I really wished I could live there. It was amazing. When I got old enough to buy a trailer there, they were doing new sewer lines, roads, the whole thing, and then they got the new rules and all the colors of the paint had to be approved and you could no longer build on any sort of small addition. It was then that the whole place looked so different there was no reason to want to live there anymore, except for financial reasons. The lot rents were less than apartment living. Sad thing though, what happened to the community. Even the mailboxes had to all be a basic black. People used to paint them and decorate them, showing their personalities and unique artwork. What a wonderful place it used to be.

We actually really angered a group of real estate attorneys at a title company when we insisted on reading and understanding every page of the closing paperwork when we bought our house. I even managed to stump the whole group of them when we got to a word (don't remember what it was, but it dealt with mineral rights on the property). Not only did neither my wife nor I know the definition, but none of the 3 real estate lawyers present did, either. They had to send one of the lawyers out for a law dictionary to look it up. The closing ended out taking twice as long as allotted, but we knew and understood everything when they handed us the keys.

We lived in a HOA and didn't get the info on it until a year later. Some of the things listed in it were what type of pets you could have, where could park cars and how many you could have (no parking on your grass), how long your grass could be, all bushes had to be trimmed and sidewalks edged, had to put up a wood fence that matched every other fence in the HOA they picked the color could be stained etc. Even when could decorate for holidays ......... pain in the you know what. We moved. Best thing is never join one as they have certain people that you can let cut your grass etc. if you don't do it yourself.

The HOA on 5125 Fontaine St, 92120 in San Diego HATES Girl Scouts and OUR U.S. TROOPS. Yes, that's correct. They wouldn't allow Girl Scouts whether they were family or from the neighborhood to sell Girl Scout Cookies on the gated property. I had a big bay window that anyone could see from the street. Every year I would write "Happy Holidays" with window paint that removes easily with soap and water. When I changed it to "God Bless Our Troops", all hell broke loose. Political Statements are not allowed. They also didn't like the Halloween graveyard with tombstones of each of the board members' names on them. When the water main pipe burst and they failed to fix it or bring a truck with a water tank, many residents complained to the city, and the HOA was fined for every day we didn't have water. We also called in unhealthy water conditions in the jacuzzi and more fines. When I was sent a letter forbidding me from washing my car PER SOME MADE-UP RULE/LAW FROM THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, I contacted the fire department. They got mad and fined HOA for slander. The best one was all the different angles of pictures I took of the HOA's president's BOYFRIEND parking his truck in the FIRE LANE. He even saw me and had a good laugh.

My neighbor recently had a problem getting a permit for a fence . Code Enforcement required her to get HOA approval. Our immediate area does not have an HOA. Code wouldn't talk to the tax office which was literally 10 feet away. She had to get the mayor involved, but she has her fence permit.

I recently moved from Ohio to Florida. I never had a legit powerful HOA in Ohio. NOT the case in Florida. Down here EVERY development (90%) has an HOA. Especially ones with homes over 150k or a golf course. The HOAs are very powerful and very punitive over EVERYTHING! The worst thing is they keep changing management companies so every other month they go around the neighborhood writing down EVERY little violation of a rule written 20 years ago that was never enforced. You get notices to fix in 1 week or they will fix and charge you 10Xs the amount to fix. I live in the back of the neighborhood on a dead end street. I get a company truck. I parked it in my driveway for over 1 year then all the sudden a new management co takes over and I get a notice saying I can’t park a vehicle in my drive with ANY logos. They want to charge me $1500 a night! We just bought a new house. The first thing I looked for was NO HOA! When you look at houses for sale in Florida it is a big selling point in the listing that there is NO HOA! I have story after story.

I lived for 20 years in an HOV neighborhood in northern Virginia without problems. The first year, a board member (who happened to be an architect) decided that window flower boxes were prohibited. Now I didn't want a flower box but resented his arbitrary decision. So in the next election, I ran for the board and was elected to a three year term. The year after that, I became president. My third year was as parliamentarian. My next 17 years were spent as an ordinary homeowner enjoying the perk of a well run HOA, i.e. common grounds professionally maintained, including plants and snow removal at a reasonable yearly fee. And I was blessed with good neighbors. Based on most of the comments herein, I got lucky.

Steve, Awesome video. My wife and I were looking at a nice house in Manatee County Florida, and it had an HOA, so we asked the sellers realtor for a copy of the HOA Rules. At which point we told to contact the HOA directly who informed us that a copy of the HOA Rules would cost us $79 per copy. Needless to say we did not look at any houses in that sub-division again. Aloha.........................

When my son bought a house in a HOA community, the neighbor came over and within minutes said, "Hi, welcome, we have rules here." He continued to be like that. The lady next door on the first day said, "The fence between our property needs to be replaced so I will need $4,500 from you." He and I fixed it with a new 4"x4" and some paint. She had been told it needed to all be replaced and being elderly, she believed the contractor. People.

When we moved, I searched for houses online that met our minimum requirements. Got maybe 75 results. When I ticked off "no hoa", got only 1 result. I HATE HOA"s. I think it's absurd to be willing to agree to a force that can take your house away just because you want to feel you control your neighbors' houses.

My husband got on the board. Our lives have been a neverending living hell ever since. He didn't run this last time but the current board hates us. We just got a violation for having curtains and not drapes.

I had a property management company when I retired, and I dealt with HOA's all the time. They would do yearly inspections and depending on who they made the inspector they would flag the dumbest, most petty crap. They never answered the phone and were the most difficult people to deal with. Some would sue you if you painted your front door the wrong color.

HOAs are a great example of the problems with USA in general.

My wife and I moved away from the suburbs to a rural enviroment just because the HOA was operated by Fascists. They would wait until I was deployed with the military to harass my wife. They didnt have the balls to confront me about supposed infractions of the HOA By Laws while I was home. We would file an appeal and confront the HOA directers at meetings. A group of us seemed to put up a united front against the subjective policies they were trying to enforce. Best day in our lives was when we pulled away from the home for the last time giving them a single finger salute!

I’m from Florida and I’m being abused by the HOA my mother died from stress she had with the HOA she suffers from kidney disease she was fortunate to get off of dialysis but the HOA has targeted me for example the owner of the Next door unit has had multiple tenants Who have harassed me and my mother we have surveillance videos to prove it but they refuse to hear our side of the story and try to hit us up with a $1400 attorneys fees because they wrote us a letter. We demanded to be heard in a non arbitration hearing and they didn’t answer. On May 9, 2022 my mother passed away I’m disabled and they now have a habit of telling me disabled people don’t have a right to live in Their community what’s Worst nobody’s going to believe you because you’re disable That’s in the state of Florida Don’t they have any laws to protect us Like seriously how could they get away with making up a bunch of garbage like that I don’t have any money to afford an attorney what am I supposed to do now

I lived in a single home community that had an HOA. The gestapo of HOAs is the architectural committee, they are the compliance to the rules police AND are judge and jury. I am an outgoing reasonable courteous guy and was surprised when the board asked me to be on the three person architectural committee. I was able to persuade and or browbeat the other two members to set in place transparent procedures and streamline answers to request from homeowners. I was of the mind set that homeowners were our “customers”, (not Oliver Twist asking for a little more gruel) and should be severed with respect. Well it was going well until the board noticed what was going on and started to harass and over rule our decisions. Sadly for my neighbors I sold my house in 3 days and moved out before the board could come after me personally. Never again will I be under an HOA. Believe me in this HOA power corrupts and it corrupts completely, every time.

I once bought a condominium many years ago and had no idea about these condominium contracts. A few days after moving in, some representatives came by and gave me a contract to sign. They wanted it to be signed right away but I told them I had to carefully read it first so they reluctantly left. Most of it was fine and I agreed with what it said, but there were a few things I didn't like that had to do with issues with your own back yard (which by the way had a 6 foot fence around it so seeing inside would not be easy). Anyway, I did not agree and never signed it. They complained but I just gave them the number to my lawyer. The more they complained, the more I went out of my way to break their rules. After about 3 years, they gave up and left me alone. It went to court only once but since I never signed the contract, I was not held liable to uphold it. 🙂

When I was living in a small Florida community with a HOA, I convinced my neighbors to let me modify the HOA to get rid of picky rules such as the type of mailbox, the colors of the houses, how many cars you could have. Since at the time I was a County Judge, I had no trouble doing so and having the amended HOA recorded to each neighbor’s title.

NO HOA in a description of a home on the market is a major selling point these days.

When I was looking to buy a house, I came across ones that had an HOA. No matter how cheap or nice the affordable house was, I skipped it and eventually found a home without an HOA. I would rather live happily with an overgrown lawn than have an HOA put rules on me.

Full disclosure here, I am the vice president of an HOA board. The community we over see is pretty large 232 doors. They are older condos or 4 plexus. I would like to share with you why an HOA is important for some communities. We maintain the whole outside and common areas, new paint ,new roofs ,boilers on rotation. Sidewalk and drive way maintenance, laundry rooms ,outside lights. And keeping an emergency reserve. Half of us board members donate our time replacing lights, when we walk the neighborhood we pick up trash . We have cleaned all 58 laundry rooms. We are always shopping new contractors to keep operating costs down. I work a full time job and still find time to donate 10hours a week to community service in the condos we serve. It is all voluntary service,no one takes a dollar for our time. It should be an honor to serve on the board. And if you are out in the community you serve ,you develop a personal conection with the people you are serving . Dose that mean we have not served violation notices ? Of course not , but we also try to work with folks. 50 year old cheaply constructed condos are a challenge to keep up and try to keep the dues down. Underground plumbing is only good for around 40 to 50 years and is expensive to replace. A good HOA in a community of older people some on fixed incomes is very important, it is also an elected position, so if the board is bad it's up to the owners to vote in new members. That will serve them as they choose .At the end of the day , it's the board you choose.

Most of my HOA board never actually read the bylaw & declaration. I found that out when I got myself on the board. Do not over estimate the literacy/work ethic of your HOA. Karens will actually make up BS rules that do not exist. Often times the people are more nuts than the documents - always ask them to cite the exact lines for the "rules" they're telling you to comply. Know that you have a right to see the finance. Hold the Karens to the governing documents. Selective enforcement is illegal. I would never buy another HOA property, but while you're in one (especially one that's mismanaged), you may as well put yourself in a position that best protects your rights.

Spot on Steve! I'm in Massachusetts in an HOA condo assoc and our last mgt company was corrupt as hell. My husband and I have filed a complaint against our current one, with the AG's Commission Against Discrimination. Three of the five members are stone-cold bigots and one of them filed a false criminal threat complaint against my husband which cost us big in atty's fees. Fortunately, two members of the board will testify to the targeting of my husband. But the thing that galls me the most is that they keep getting reelected because no one knows what they've been doing behind the scenes, making a mockery of the whole election process! Moving into an HOA was the biggest mistake we ever made. Nitpickers on the board under the guise of "liability and safety" concerns while neglecting to take care of the real liability issues!

There is an exclusive, gated golf course community in my hometown. A homeowner installed a wood fence around his backyard. The HOA informed him upon inspection that the fence was 1/4" to 1/2" over the height limit for fences and told him to remove the fence. He, instead of giving in to the HOA, spent more money than removing and reinstalling the fence on a different solution. He had a landscaping contractor to add soil and sod to raise the yard! The HOA requires homeowners to get approval for any and all interior work. You can't paint anything inside without approval of the color! No pick-ups or boats in parked on the properties either.

Steve, have you seen the HOA where you have to leave your garage door open during the day? It's a joke. People need to stop buying in areas controlled by a HOA. Make those properties worthless and drive the HOA into bankruptcy.

I had my Harley parked near my window when I lived in a condo. A nice looking girl drove by, stopped and rolled down her window. I got all excited at the thought that wow she wants a ride! Then she started saying, "I'm on the board and you can't park your motorcycle on the lawn." That wrecked the day, needless to say.

I don't feel sorry for anyone walking into a situation like this with their eyes open. I would never consider giving one of these HOAs control over my life

My daughter and son-in-law lived in an HOA controlled development. One of the most difficult items they had to deal with was that the HOA required a TREE in the front yard. Well, near Colorado Springs, you are lucky to get any tree to survive. They would plant one and shortly it would die. The final solution was a FAKE tree!!!