“because HOAs are voluntary.
“
Not really. Collectively they individually have gain a monopoly on all housing within any reasonable distance of every city and town.
On the other hand, in most cases HOAs are representative of the community. The board members are elected by a majority vote of members in the community, and are up for re-election every few years. In many cases, only a small minority of people show up to the elections.
It’s pretty easy therefore in most cases to get yourself elected to a board. If your board is truly not representing a majority of the people, and the people are at all concerned, it is pretty easy to get enough to show up to elect a new more representative slate for the year (our HOA it’s 3 members out of 9 each year, so in 2 years you’d have a majority).
Many HOAs also allow proxies, so you just have to get your neighbors to give you their proxy, they don’t even have to show up.
But in fact, for all the grumbling, often a majority of the community actually support what the HOA is doing. It still may be tyrannical, but it’s not just the board, it’s the majority of the community that re-elects the board.
“because HOAs are voluntary.“
Not really. Collectively they individually have gain a monopoly on all housing within any reasonable distance of every city and town.
There is a reason why they are adopted, and that is because they make the properties worth more to typical buyers.
If you ain’t typical, maybe some rural property with appliances in the yard are warranted.