The Good. They set standards for how your house and property should look. So that no one has junk cars on your lawn, paint your house orange or lime green, have your yard piled high with junk and debris or let their lawn become a jungle. Rules so that no one has their property be an eye sore. No body wants to have neighbors that look like junk yard. And intimately maintain property values.
The Facts. The rules are covenants that come with the property when you buy the house that give the HOA's the legal right to make and enforce rules to govern your property to certain standards. Up to and including Court actions and fines for non-compliance.
The Bad. From personal experience. I had my house built as the community was first being built. There was only 8 covenants made by the developers, setting community standards. Once the HOA reverted to the home owners, it opened the door for bad things to happen. Little by little over time, more and more rules were invoked. Originally the owners could go to the meetings or vote by proxy by mail on the proposed changes to the rules. Eventually the mail in proxy votes were eliminated and the meeting was on Saturdays. Those that worked on Saturdays were left without the right to vote. The officers of the HOA were elected, but generally were filled by the those that didn't have jobs. As time went on, they began to see themselves as little gods, coming up with all kinds of new rules. Those new rules are binding on all home owners, the only exception being pre-existing items. In other words, if you had a rv parked in you driveway before they made rules against it, they could not enforce the new rule on you. As new HOA officers were elected, and over twenty years, they tried no less than 5 times to send me official registered letters compelling me to remove my rv or face legal action and fines. And I'd have to reply with a letter explaining that they could not govern pre-existing situations and indicate that if they proceeded with any action that my attorney would be involved. Over the years the HOA continued to send letters of non compliance, all about pre-existing situations... To which I rebutted their control. I won them all and the HOA has to back down. The fence that came beyond the back edge of the house half way up the side yard. The trash cans that were on the car port that they wanted on the back of the house out of sight. The front storm door which didn't match their new criteria (they mandated full glass doors... Mine was top half solid too half glass). First the TV antenna on the roof peak of the hours (which was not to be visible from the street), and later the direct TV dish which again wasn't suppose to be visible from the street. Since I could get a signal the back of my house, the dish had to go in the front yard. Since I had county property next to me, I put the sat-dish 4 feet onto county property out of the jurisdiction of the HOA... That one really pissed them off when they could do anything about it. Since my house was the last one on the street, the sidewalk ended at my driveway. My car was parked at the top of the driveway, technically blocking the sidewalk if the sidewalk continued on the other side of my driveway. They again sent me a letter saying I couldn't block the sidewalk. My reply... Since the sidewalk ended at my driveway, and there way no sidewalk continuing on the other side, then I wasn't blocking the sidewalk with my car... They lost again.
Basically... HOA's gives way to those with self empowered God like abilities to try to control others beyond reasonable restrictions. Petty Gods with petty issues. HOA's... 20% good... 80% pain in the asses with God complexes. A necessary evil that eventually goes bad.
