Anonymous wrote:This thread just convinces there are no upsides to HOAs

Entirely agree. I live in Bethesda, where there are some older, unkempt homes. Doesn’t bother me in the least!

Some people simply aren't suited for community living. Pro tip: don't buy in an HOA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HOA's exist because humans have a tendency to be lazy, gross and selfish. Without them, there's no telling what your neighbors will let their homes look like. Yes, even in Potomac and Chevy Chase....where the lazy kids inherit their parents' multimillion dollar home and then let it go to shit.

I live in an HOA community, and I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love them when they enforce the rules by not allowing people to smoke in the community's public spaces, but I hate them when they tell me that I can't install a Ring security system on the outside of my front door.

By "lazy" you mean not having many millions to afford to hire and manage expensive contractors to keep their landscaping and exteriors to your standards?

And “selfish” because they don’t want to rip out all of the native plants to install non-native lawns which are kept green year-round through the use of harmful fertilizers and noisy lawn care machines?

Anonymous wrote:There is no defense. HOAs suck and are an infringement on everyone's constitutional rights.

They are worse when they appear as a result of people with a lot of extra $$$$ lobbying to install one and drive out all older residents out who obviously won't be able to afford to keep up. And the focus of this usually is perfection and having uniformly affluent looking area, not QOL issues like some described with the hoarders or 12 cars clogging the road.

Anonymous wrote:God, I lived in a neighborhood once where one neighbor was a hoarder and stuff was literally piling up so much that it was breaking out of their front living room windows and piling into the yard. Another neighbor made a permanent laminated display of her art hanging up on a clothes line right at the edge of her front lawn. It looked like a kindergarten hallway on steroids right in the middle of the neighborhood. She also had two big signs in her driveway with huge graffiti sprayed all over it saying STOP KONY. God bless HOAs for eliminating this trash

You got HOA installed in that area? What did they do with hoarder situation? Hoarders often have mental illness and require services to clean up and to function.

Anonymous wrote:HOA's exist because humans have a tendency to be lazy, gross and selfish. Without them, there's no telling what your neighbors will let their homes look like. Yes, even in Potomac and Chevy Chase....where the lazy kids inherit their parents' multimillion dollar home and then let it go to shit.

I live in an HOA community, and I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love them when they enforce the rules by not allowing people to smoke in the community's public spaces, but I hate them when they tell me that I can't install a Ring security system on the outside of my front door.

By "lazy" you mean not having many millions to afford to hire and manage expensive contractors to keep their landscaping and exteriors to your standards?

Anonymous wrote:We bought in a new development in Alexandria 15 years ago. Glad there is a HOA. If we did not have HOA, I could definitely see some homeowners never doing any maintenance to outside of house. These people only do Maintenance when they have been written up. The parking would be even more out of control.

New development is different. Most homes are uniform and parking is better designed obviously. Older homes have narrower driveways and often just 1 car garages or carports. It was a different lifestyle back then. Older residents who live there have no parking for their kids, new residents often have 2-3 cars and need street parking space. Even huge driveway3-car garage McMansions aren't immune from parking shortage, I see parked cars next to them here and there if they host guests or parties.

Also when you buy into the new development or the one with HOA you know what you want and getting into. OP wants areas that didn't have HOA (where people maybe do not want it) to have it.

Anonymous wrote:I love HOAs even though I do not currently live in one. To each their own. If you don’t like them, then live elsewhere.

I think OP's complaint is the opposite, it's about imposing HOA on people who didn't buy or choose to live in HOA neighborhood and cannot obviously afford to keep up with hew Jonessey highness

You are all really talking about having to force people who had lived in the area before you and don't have the funds to keep to your standards of noveau-affluence? That's disgusting. If you want perfectly manicured rich area, there are such communities. If you choose to buy new construction in an area with a lot of existing older homes you are going to have to deal with the fact that many of them don't have money to hire $$$$ contractors (YOU are the reason hiking up the prices for all services!!). Many are elderly without physical prowess to keep up perfectly manicured landscaping or they work FT jobs just to pay the bills and don't have time on their hands to keep up with you or shop around for affordable contractors who immediately quote higher prices based on proximity to mcMansions.

I love HOAs even though I do not currently live in one. To each their own. If you don’t like them, then live elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Fake, very staged.

Ooh "unpleasant to look at" sounds so horrible!!!

Anonymous wrote:As for “your rights as an American” HOAs are a form of government because when new developments are put in they have to form an association for roads, electric and other services. Even if the road is short.

In Virginia, for example in Franklin Farm’s HOA in western Fairfax, those roads in HOAs were installed by the original developer then deeded to the state. The roads are a VDOT responsibility, NOT the HOA. Ditto for electric lines and other utilities. The original developer paid VEPCO and Verizon Virginia and Cox Cable (Comcast if in Reston) to have them install the utilities. Those utilities are maintained by the various utility companies, each of which has an easement, The HOA has zero to do with any of that.

Separately, there is NO law in Virginia requiring a developer to create an HOA. Many parts of Virginia, example VB City, have largely forbidden the creation of HOAs. Instead, the city as a neutral party enforces the building code and the various property/safety/health codes. Surprise, even in areas without an HOA, people take care of their property because it (usually) is their biggest single investment.

We refuse to buy into an HOA, yet our property and street are better kept than some nearby (aggressive) HOAs.

Some of you are pretending that not having an HOA means there’s no local code enforcement. That’s obviously not true. You can’t burn trash in our neighborhood or build a giant aviary, because you’d get a visit from code enforcement. You’ll get one if your lawn violates the code too.

That’s about the right compromise for me between everyone’s liberty and our need to coexist. I would never live in an HOA. I don’t want enforcement of a uniform aesthetic. I just want to keep everything safe and not have nuisances. A weedy yard is not a nuisance.