Florida’s Feudal Kingdom Law
Reasons for HOAs
In existence since the 1960s, HOAs
were developed for a multitude of reasons, including the following: They helped
developers by allowing them to transfer the day-to-day operations of their
properties to an association of the property homeowners once
a certain percentage of homes were sold.
By Jake Mitchell of Credit Donky: 23
Reasons Why Homeowners Associations are Good
Florida
Statute 720 is the primary guiding law for the establishment and operation of
Homeowners and Condo associations.
720.302 Purposes,
scope, and application.—
(1) The
purposes of this chapter are to give statutory recognition to corporations not
for profit that operate residential communities in this state, to provide
procedures for operating homeowners’ associations, and to protect the rights of
association members without unduly impairing the ability of such associations
to perform their functions.
(2) The
Legislature recognizes that it is not in the best interest of homeowners’
associations or the individual association members thereof to create or impose a
bureau or other agency of state government to regulate the affairs of
homeowners’ associations. However, in accordance with s. 720.311, the
Legislature finds that homeowners’ associations and their individual members
will benefit from an expedited alternative process for resolution of election
and recall disputes and presuit mediation of other disputes involving covenant
enforcement and authorizes the department to hear, administer, and determine
these disputes as more fully set forth in this chapter. Further, the
Legislature recognizes that certain contract rights have been created for the
benefit of homeowners’ associations and members thereof before the effective
date of this act and that ss. 720.301-720.407 are not intended to impair such
contract rights, including, but not limited to, the rights of the developer to
complete the community as initially contemplated.
COMMENTS
ABOUT HOAs FROM MEMBERS
Disclosure:
Comments
here are presented without individual references for obvious reasons. They are
taken from social media, Reddit, Facebook and other similar sources.
I've never heard of
someone having a good experience with an HOA. I understand they were originally
to keep property values up but I've heard lately they can bring them down
because people don't want to deal with the HOA. So why do they still exist? Is
it possible to live in a neighborhood and disband one?
My neighborhood had one
and decided to do away with it and right after that one of my neighbors started
a pig farm in his yard. So things like that could be a reason.
That said, I like the pigs
better than the HOA.
There’s
probably a reason why “Two-thirds
of people who live in the jurisdiction of a homeowners association” have a
negative opinion of them, “19% have been in what they call a ‘war’ with
their HOA“, “54%
of respondents said they’d rather live with a ‘sloppy neighbor’ than deal with
an HOA”, “78%
of those responding to the poll said they might consider NOT buying a home
because it would be under the jurisdiction of an HOA”
Because
HOAs have a tendency to devolve into petty tyrannies run by busybodies who
arbitrarily limit the esthetic choices of someone who ostensibly owns a home
and the land it's on. Which usually leads to bland, soulless, cookie-cutter
neighborhoods with 3 or 4 different shades of brown and beige trim and all the
same fences, sourced from the HOA president's brother-in-law, who happens to be
the only authorized fence installer.
HOAs can
also become feifdoms, with power-hungry cliques taking over control of a
neighborhood through HOA board seats. HOAs can be the source of much drama and
nepotism. As HOAs are private organizations, they are not subject to the same
open meetings laws and rules that municipalities employ in their governance.
They can suck the joy out of home ownership all in the name of "preserving
property value".
But the
problem is not just the board members and their petty authoritarianism that we
so frequently hear about. Those folks are just the public front, and often
puppets. There is an entire industry of property managers, specialized
attorneys, and other vendors that has come into existence to feed off of home
owners, because the law is so incredibly weighted against the home owners in
H.O.A. corporations that the home owners are essentially powerless.
HOAs suck
because they have almost limitless power and aren't required to provide any
sort of due process. Living under a powerful HOA that's out to get you is like
living under a totalitarian regime that has the power to ruin you financially
with arbitrary fees and liens. I will never again in life purchase a property
that's under the jurisdiction of an HOA, even if it means living in the middle
of a swamp. Give me liberty or give me a lease!
On the upside, 24% responded positively about HOAs. However, while a primary purpose of HOAs is to force neighbors to keep up the appearance of their homes, 54% of respondents said they’d rather live with a “sloppy neighbor” than deal with an HOA. Here are the results to this question:
What is your opinion of homeowners associations?
They’re great 8%
They’re okay 16%
Minor annoyance 21%
Major headache 48%
No opinion 7%
Plus, 78% of those responding to the poll said they might consider NOT buying a home because it would be under the jurisdiction of an HOA.
End of Comments
I personally have never
been in a conversation about HOAs when someone bragged about how wonderful
their HOA is.
I
will continue our trip through Florida Statute 720 in the next post.
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