Ok, Dennis, let's break this down bit by bit.
Most towns/cities have little to no recourse to deal with a property owner who refuses to maintain his property.
Case in point, rotting shutters, peeling paint, weed choked yard, or a car up on blocks.
Having been in that situation before, I found that the incorporated town where I lived had absolutely NO mechanism for dealing with the individual who lived up the street.
In a community of nicely kept homes, with your home for sale, would you want such a person living next to you? Curb appeal isn't just limited to YOUR property alone. Neighboring properties have a HUGE impact on the sales potential and price of a property.
In an HOA, there are community standards for appearance, as I have noted. This serves to protect your property values by demanding minimum appearance standards. In most towns and cities, your ONLY option is to sue the owner of the property, which may or may not work.
In areas where HOAs operate, they by and large give you the ability to contract for services as a unit. This serves to keep prices down for things such as trash removal and lawn services.
Your assertion that HOAs are answerable to "no one" is utterly and completely false.
ALL states that have incorporated HOA type governance within their boundaries have boards or commissions that have oversight authority on HOAs.
This is, quite frankly, more than can be said about towns or cities.
In essence, an HOA IS a small town or city. It contracts for services, it passes laws (known as community regulations), it assess penalties, it levies "taxes" (in the form of monthly dues).
How is this different than ANY other form of Government, Mr. "Freedom Lover"? I will offer the one GLARING difference from your own quotation...
"maintaining a set of national standards for those less fortunate."
HOAs have NOTHING to do with common welfare for the disadvantaged. In fact, they can be seen to be discriminatory in that, by working maintaining high home values, and levying assessments to pay for HOA services, they keep OUT those who are unable to pay.
As I have noted, HOAs can become overly restrictive and essentially spiral out of control. But, to offer counterpoint, I only have this to offer... Chicago in the 1960s. Philadelphia in the 1970s. California today.
I also like your assertion that conceptually HOAs somehow are worse forms of government than the other forms we have in this country.
In fact, HOAs, if properly structured (as mine is, as FUD's apparently is not) are not unlike the New England system of town meeting government, which is probably the purest form of democratic government that exists in this country today.
And finally, if, as you state, I'm a fascist in training for being vice president of my HOA, why am I offering FUD advice on how to deal with, and potentially WIN, his troubles with his HOA?
I'm glad to be able to offer this information to someone who obviously has no clue as to how HOAs work, what they do, or how they fit into the concept of American government.
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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
