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“Why do you hate community standards so much?”

I don’t. I hate HOA’s, and you have the two mixed up.

1. Because they are often arbitrary
2. Because there is no due process
3. Because there is no, or very little, check on their power
4. Because the remedies/penalties they seek are out of proportion with the infraction
5. Because they are often run by a cabal or block of homeowners that have the base necessary to rotate their people through the leadership positions ad nauseum.
6. Because in most cases they interfere with the quiet enjoyment of your property.
7. Because they often duplicate municipal laws already on the books.
8. Because they do as much to reduce the value of the home as they do to preserve it (dues; impediment on what you can do with your new home v. the HOA as a deterrent to a member who brings down the value of all homes through negligence)
9. Because the municipalities use them as a crutch to avoid enforcement of the laws already on their books.
10. Because they have the power to tax, and they can use that power to force somebody out of their home, again without due process.
11. Because it is thinly disguised fascism.

Both houses I’ve purchased, I had ZERO idea there was an HOA until AFTER the deal closed. Both cases, I was lied to by the realtor. If the HOA was a feature of living in the neighborhood, then why not list it on the brochure and the website?

It is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to find a home that isn’t subject to an HOA. Community standards are what we had in the 50’s. You didn’t need covenants to tell you that you should keep your lawn mowed.

If you are going to tell me what color I can paint my house, you can help pay my mortgage too.

As long as I adhere to the building codes, then I should be able to do what I want to with what I bought, as long as my use of the property falls under the concept of ‘quiet enjoyment’.

The legal concept of ‘quiet enjoyment’ should be enough for a neighborhood to go to court and compel a negligent neighbor into compliance.

Anything that brings the value of the property in the neighborhood down by a significant amount, for example, isn’t quiet enjoyment.

Telling me I can’t park my knaffing truck in my own driveway is fascism. The petty sh!theads in my neighborhood measured the height of my lawn WITH A RULER.

Now, if you want to create a gated community, and you make somebody SIGN A DOC UP FRONT TELLING YOU ABOUT THE HOA, and you all want to voluntarily sign away your freedom, don’t let me stand in your way. It is a free country, and the freedom to be a complete idiot is often and evidently enjoyed here in the US.

For me, I have enough involuntary government intrusions on my life at this point. I’m looking to actually offload many of them if I possibly can.

I keep voting for Republicans, and for the life of me those intrusions keep increasing. In fact, they keep creating brand new HOA’s every time I pop my head up. Nixon gave us the EPA, for example.

No sir. I’m all for community standards. I’m very much against micro-fascist oligarchies.