[FrankR]

Homeowner Associations are nothing but little busybody, socialist communes; every time I have looked around to buy a house I tell the real estate person, "No houses governed by an association, or otherwise."

I pay the mortgage, not them, and what happens on my property is my business, so long as it's legal within the law..."Homeowner Associations" are NOT the law.

I thought contracts were two-way documents, what does the organization provide in exchange for having censorship powers over the OWNERS?

This is "community organizing" gone amuck.

[Brookhaven]

Homeowner Associations are nothing but little busybody, socialist communes; every time I have looked around to buy a house I tell the real estate person, “No houses governed by an association, or otherwise.”

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Ironicly, I had an uncle visiting recently that was wishing he had a homeowners association.

The guy with the lot that backs up to his decided he was going to start breeding dogs. When he steps out of his back yard he now has a view of a beat up back yard, a pack of dog, and the smell of dog ****.

A guy moved in next door to him that apparently has no idea of how to maintain his property. Literally has an old junked car in the back yard and knee high grass.

He has tried to get the county involved, but they say there is nothing they can do.

He has been trying to sell his house for a while (long before the real estate crash.) No luck. People tell him bluntly the reason is the neighbors. They have killed his property value.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I thought contracts were two-way documents, what does the organization provide in exchange for having censorship powers over the OWNERS?

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Uh, when you buy your house, you are guaranteed that there aren’t various nuisances or uglinesses in your neighborhood. Each lot makes promises to the others (hence the name “covenants”). The restrictions are created by a single private property owner (the developer) because he believes that people will pay more for some semblance of control and conformity.

No purple houses, junkers in the front yard, or (perhaps, if the morons would have specified it) freestanding flagpoles, which some people may very well find out of keeping with the aesthetics of a neighborhood.

I’d love to see photos of the yards and neighborhoods of the Freepers who swear they’d never live under CC&Rs.