Quote:
Originally Posted by fastball
Quit making excuses for HOAs. You still have the rules of the city AND the property taxes - you’re paying EXTRA on TOP of those for the EXTRA rules of the HOA.
And how exactly is an HOA not legal extortion?
“Pay us a monthly fee or we’ll foreclose on your house even if you own it outright”
I know exactly what extortion is. I have family who grew up on Murray Hill in the Little Italy section of Cleveland.
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Feel free to share a legal brief explaining in detail why"extortion" is a legitimate way to describe joining an HOA. Don't forget the citations of all the court cases and portions of the United States Code supporting that argument either. I don't think you'll be able to find such support, but hey, good luck.
Especially with townhouses and apartments, HOAs provide varying common services beyond what local rules allow for, and the dues provide a common source of revenue for those common services - sidewalk snow removal, grounds maintenance, a community pool, some utilities, etc. In some cases the HOA owns the grounds and the structure/exterior of the dwelling, with the owner having some limited ability to make changes to those portions (usually after obtaining permission) while being free to go nuts from the drywall in. It's sort of an intermediate point between an living in an urban apartment building with no green space at all, and free standing single family where all rights AND responsibilities are on the homeowner.
Foreclosure MIGHT happen in extreme cases, but only after an extended period of going through collections agencies and/or lawsuits first. HOAs generally lack the legal standing to kick you out of your home - that's something more in line with the state, or the banks (and if like most people you can't afford to buy a forever home outright in your younger years, not belonging to an HOA won't save you from whoever gave you a mortgage kicking you out when you don't pay). Also worth keeping in mind is that while you're making your "principled" stand against HOA dues, you're mooching off your neighbors who are paying both their share of the common services and yours.
For someone as vehement about protecting homeowners' rights, you're awfully hostile to another right of homeowners: the right to voluntarily join others in giving up some of their other rights in exchange for other benefits.
As for familiarity with Mafia tactics bragging rights go... Cleveland, really? Considering my family went from Sicily to South Philly, color me unimpressed.