As many homeowners will attest, an HOA can dictate limitless ways to harm homeowners, most especially to the glory of the “bottom line.” Here are a few examples:
HOA foreclosures on homes lacking only a few hundred dollars of unpaid HOA dues.
Withheld HOA financial records, including line-item details, raising suspicions of incompetence, embezzlement, negligence, kickbacks, and other unethical actions. HOAs are not directly accountable to anyone.
No access to HOA Board of Director meetings—how is the Board spending HOA fees paid by the homeowner?
Widespread ignorance of HOA obligations and operations, which highlights the need for training home buyers, developers, and Board members, and possibly HOA managers on their individual responsibilities to the HOA.
Secret HOA subsidies to entice buyers, an almost routine practice by developers, which cause HOA fees and assessments to surge unexpectedly after a developer leaves the community.
Underfunded reserves, leaving homeowners unable to pay special assessments and costing them to lose their homes.
Contracts not scrutinized and not put to public bid, in one example costing homeowners $142,000 per year for years. (No one read the fine print.)
Developers completing construction and remaining in control of an HOA for years, even decades—one developer controlling his community’s HOA for 40-plus years…and with no homeowner-Board members.
No inventory of community assets, which is needed to manage insurance, reserve funds, and maintenance.
There are more HOA issues, of course, but that is a start.