Evan McKenzie has the right idea: Hold homeowner's associations to the same standards as private governments. Active as I am in my hoa, I still wince when I think about how little we all, collectively, know about governing a community, and how few homeowners actually know who we are, much less voted for us. More often than not, complaints about the rules turn out to be made by people who have not actually read our CC&Rs and are completely clueless about what they cover. (Example: the woman who wanted the hoa to stop her neighbors from kissing each other goodbye.) We're careful to read the rules so we know what we're enforcing, but it would be all too easy to slip into the same bad habit of just assuming we know what the rules say. And you do NOT want to hear us debating paint colors.
At our last meeting, one board member took issue with a neighbor's nicely painted pale coral house: exactly the kind of petty issue that drives me BONKERS. The house is beautifully maintained, the color perfectly appropriate for Florida, but we spent at least 20 minutes discussing whether our accepting the color (and not forcing the poor guy to repaint) would mean "anything goes." Even as I tried to show my respect for the board member who disliked the color (and who works hard to organize community events, etc., so I do really respect her), I was put off by the very thought of five people debating whether someone's house was painted with good taste. Particularly since the offending homeowner had no idea we were even talking about him. At least we haven't descended to making rules about birdbaths.
The best thing about the article linked above is that it debunks the myth that homeowner's associations are grassroots community organizations or that they somehow protect long-term property values. Hoas are put in place for the convenience of developers and local governments.
Planned community development blossomed during the 1970s, just when taxpayer revolts, including California's Proposition 13, signaled the beginning of privatized public services. In the most extreme cases, developers took responsibility for putting in and maintaining infrastructure and common facilities and delivering trash collection, security, and other traditionally public services. Rather than providing the services themselves, developers created homeowners associations to do so. Today, homeowners associations are typically governed by a volunteer board of directors. Property management is carried out by a mixture of management companies, HOA-employed managers, and volunteers.
"The arrangement made sense to municipalities," says McKenzie. "They didn't want to ask the existing taxpayer for more money to finance development, so they adopted a system allowing them to tax new residents while delivering minimal services."
"We don't let anyone build without a homeowners association," a North Carolina city manager told members of a recent American Bar Association tour. "They're cash cows."
The members of our hoa board sincerely strive to meet our fiduciary responsibilities, and we spend lots of our "free" time doing so. But like every other deed-restricted community, we're just one election away from disaster. (via privatopia)
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