That’s easy. They don’t read it before they sign it.
My last real estate closing took almost 3 hours because I read each and every document carefully before signing it (after having read and edited the draft documents).
Everyone at the table was irritated with me except my wife who already knew law at I was going to do.
“Can you speed it up, we only scheduled an hour for this closing and we have others scheduled today” was said several times. No one, real estate agent, title company rep, seller’s attorney, etc., expected me to actually READ the documents before signing them. I ended up finding and correcting two minor errors and one major error in the closing docs.
However, I got the distinct impression most people do not read all the paperwork before signing it.
I have had similar experiences with auto loans, construction contracts and even my kids’ school permission slips. A lot of people simply do it take the time to read things before they sign on the dotted line.
“That’s easy. They don’t read it before they sign it.”
In my case, we were given outdated CC&Rs with no mention of an HOA. The revised ones, which we did not see for several years, allowed the formation of an HOA but did not mandate it. During a time when the ownership of many lots was locked up in a court battle, a majority of the remaining lots voted to start the HOA. That was the first time I saw the revised CC&Rs.
My realtor had died in the meantime, so suing him wasn’t an option. I guess I could have sued the title company, but I had never lived in an HOA and it didn’t seem worth the fight at the time.
I have a lot less sympathy for someone who buys into an HOA and then complains. We had looked at building a home in one area, but the CC&Rs required HOA permission just to plant a tree - the rules ran close to 100 pages. So we didn’t buy...but those who did would have no right to complain.