Average home, average neighborhood, average HOA with unchecked power

When I first moved into my house, the neighbors immediately warned me about the HOA. They told me they get written up for every minor infraction, and they all suspected each other for turning them in to the HOA. There was a sense of fear and paranoia. Years later I learned that an inspector regularly drove around the neighborhoods, but people had mistakenly blamed each other. However, under this board, bills were sent on time, the website was updated, and maintenance requests were responded to quickly. It was stressful when the HOA demanded I repaint my house. We didn’t have the money at the time and had to ask family for help. They limited the colors we could paint it to about 7 choices, none of which looked like our current paint scheme.

Life under our current board is the opposite. No rules seem to be enforced (my neighbors let weeds grow waist high and burn tree branches in their backyard), the website is never updated, bills are sent late or not at all, we don’t know when or where board meetings are, and maintenance requests are ruled on so late it makes them pointless because the season has changed and supplies have gone out of stock. If a maintenance request is denied, it is hard to get an answer on what needs to be changed to get it granted.

We are fined late fees on bills that are more than 1/3 the price of the bill itself. I saw an assessment from 2022 that said my HOA had collected over $3,000 in late fees that year. That is outrageous. It is a mystery what our dues pay for in the first place. We have no common areas. There are no benefits. The annual financial report usually says the money is used for snow removal, fence repair, and website maintenance. But all residents have to maintain their own fences and remove their own snow. The website has not been updated in years.

With a diligent board, the rules felt oppressive and arbitrary. With a lax board, we pay money to be bound by unknown rules for no real benefit.

Our HOA has almost limitless power, but no responsibility. We are charged dues and fees, but receive no benefits and have no recourse if the board members simply do nothing. We live by rules we don’t get to vote on. When the rules change, they don’t notify us or update the covenant rules anywhere we can see them. We don’t get to know when or where the board meetings are. The board can take extreme amounts of time ruling on a maintenance request, but fine us quickly if our dues are late. I don’t know if the money we pay is used for anything except sitting in someone’s wallet. When I move someday, I will not move to a place that has an HOA. In theory, an HOA should make it easier to live in a community and address issues. Instead, it is a money-making machine with limitless power.