So, for those who think HOA's are so great, how many of you would have NO PROBLEM with your own local HOA requiring you to keep your garage doors open in daytime?
I would not have signed that agreement, and would have found somewhere else to live.
How about if the HOA also required you to keep your front door unlocked, so they could come in anytime they wanted to (without you being there) to "inspect" that nobody is living anywhere else inside, either, or for whatever other excuse?
I would not have signed that agreement, and would have found somewhere else to live.
This original story stinks to high heaven of an HOA becoming a "Police State", that is requiring residents to "prove they are not guilty" by keeping their garage doors open, and fining them (presumed guilty) if they do not.
No, it doesn't. The original story states that the units were built with open carports that did not have doors. Certain residents chose (presumably without HOA permission) to put doors on their units. The HOA was graciously allowing them to keep their doors, rather than forcing them to remove the doors. However, when vagrants began living in them, they issued a requirement for residents to open the doors that were not supposed to be there to begin with.
That's not how "'Murica" works.
That would only be a true statement if "Murica" were requiring citizens to live in HOA communities against their will.
It is just insane to force residents to leave their property unprotected, or else be fined for securing their property.
Not when the doors were not allowed to be there in the first place. The properties were purchased with open car ports, and that is the only level of security that residents were entitled to expect.
Maybe to ensure that all vehicles are capable of being moved quickly in case of emergency, HOA's should require that keys be left in the ignition switch of all vehicles, with the doors unlocked? Makes about as much sense. And the HOA defenders would apparently go for that too since "that's what everyone singed up for". REALLY?
There seems to be some misconception here that the HOAs fool people into accepting conditions that are unfavorable to them. When I bought my house, I read the covenants, I liked them, I agreed to them, and I signed them. I have lived by them for the last fifteen years, and I am thankful that my neighbors have, too.
If the HOA proposes covenant changes, they need to call a meeting of residents, and the changes need to be vetted and voted on. Likewise, the HOA officers come up for reelection every few years, and there is opportunity for turnover. It is a very democratic system.
It sounds to me like you are seeing things like this:
Guy moves into a house, signs nothing. Finds out later that there is an HOA. Who knew?
Then finds out that the HOA mandates that he keep his grass cut, his trees pruned, and his house power-washed. WTF? He had no intention of ever cutting his grass!
Trees? No way! He had every intention of cutting them down and getting some cinder blocks to put a bunch of automotive "projects" on.
If only he had known in advance that there was an HOA! But now he's stuck, even though he didn't sign anything, and the evil United States Government is telling him to suck it up!
Communists, all!
