Exposing the Ugly Truth Behind HOAs

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Produced by: Cory Ray, Philip DeFranco
Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry
Art Department: William Crespo
Writing/Research: Brian Espinoza, Philip DeFranco
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#Home #Rent #HOA

[TheJjcczz]

The whole idea and practice of HOAs is just insane. You’re literally buying a house that you don’t actually own, and then paying your neighbours to provide the services the city is supposed to provide with your tax dollars

I would never agree to such an insane con job

[marenjones]

So not only can no one buy a house, but now we need a lawyer just to understand the paperwork. The "You own nothing and you’ll like it" shit is getting too deep.

[kibbs]

HOAs are just people who never got to be simon during PE class

[thatonelonghairedguy]

Fuck every HOA in America. My property, my rules

[cutedogsgettingcuddles]

An HOA is such a deal-breaker for me, I'd rather live next to meth heads than a Karen HOA president.

[moomie]

Not so fun fact: HOAs are a legally binding contract that was originally created to prevent black americans from moving into white neighborhoods. Back in the 20s and 30s, the Supreme Court ruled that you cannot prevent someone from selling a house in a white neighborhood to black people, so new developers came up with HOAs, most of which had the explicit clause that you cannot sell the house at any point in the future to a black person. That was legal because it is a contract you sign when moving in.

[ordie]

I just did a whole road of h.o.a roofs. They picked the people they liked most to have their roofs done first. Even though others had major leaks.

[j.t.hartzfeld]

If the developer (who usually are the founding member of the HOA, because they own all the lots), having intimate knowledge of the construction & maintenance costs, structures the fees in a manner which will not mathematically sustain the community, but markets the community structure as financially stable, is guilty of fraud and should be charged as such and made to make restitution.

[Migmaw]

Anyone remember the condominium collapse in Florida, the one with the COA being told by City inspectors as well as their own that major work needed to be done? Then some guy sneezed across the street and it pancaked killing innocent condo owners. Condo fees are out of this world as well, you buy a condo but if you fail to pay dues or forget a rule no matter how much money you spent you can be evicted from a home you bought 🤔

[graphite]

It gets me when Americans tell the rest of the world "We're the land of the free"while at the same time having so many tiers of authority! Senate, Congress, Executive, Judicial then all the State Governments, followed by the local Governments and finally the HOAs! It's like Inception with all these controlling groups

[Autotad]

Before we bought our townhouse, we made sure to get a copy of all the HOA documents. It showed the amount of cash they had, expected balance, and a plan of all expected costs for the next few years. I was really glad to see it was managed just by a small law firm and not a massive HOA conglomerate.

[THECREATOR]

HOAs should all be abolished. I don’t think someone should be able to tell me what I can or cannot do with my property. And if you don’t comply have your property seized.

[rickb]

You guys are missing an important point. HOAs are insureds. They own policies for the repair of covered damage within the park. The problem comes when the terms of the CC&Rs dictate that the repairs to a condo MUST be done by the HOA and the homeowner has no recourse. What we see is that the repairs, which might cost 50K, are done by an unlicensed handyman for a couple thousand dollars, leaving the homeowners with substandard repairs that they have NO recourse over. The insurance of the homeowner only owes the deductible of the HOA (usually 25K) so the HOA keeps that, doesn't file a claim on their own master policy, and then does the repair with unqualified people for the lowest possible price. This leaves the homeowners with zero options except to redo the repairs out of pocket.

[xygmugc]

They've been spending their money on lawyers while taking houses for pennies on the dollar over the wrong color paint. Hopefully this dissolves them completely.

[Ace-ccem]

Thank God HOA's are a rarity in Canada

[alp]

As a contractor I could tell you some really horrible stories about HOAs.

[MaksymCzech]

There is a similar thing in Czech Republic. If you buy an apartment in a "coop building", they can actually evict you if the neighbors don't like you and gather enough signatures. Don't take my words at face value at least that's my understanding.

[kensmith]

Many years ago, I was on the board of an HOA. Increasing the reserves for things that were obviously going to be underfunded was made nearly impossible by another detail. You need this thing called a "reserve study" IIRC to justify putting the money aside. The existing "reserve study" clearly missed a fairly long list of items. Getting it amended to add those things was something that the reserve study companies would refuse to do. They wanted to do a whole new study. I found that the existing study was just an inflation adjusted version of the one before it. The study company charged a boat load of money just to do that. If you try to put money aside without one the IRS gives you trouble.
Buildings built of HOAs seem to be built below standard by exactly the amount the inspector can miss while drunk.

[deceptionz_]

Restrictive covenants in HOA forms in this country have gotten out of hand. They need to be abolished.

[FatherFigure-itout]

I absolutely have no desire to ever live in an HOA ever. It sounds awful by every metric I use. That being said maybe some people are masochists and enjoy that kind of living so... You know to each their own.