• Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    HOAs just like unions and governments are as good as the people that involve themselves in them and the less people represented in the democracy the more power you have in it so if you’re not happy then get involved.

    • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      In my experience the people that “involve” themselves are raging clowns with superiority complexes.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        And they have control because they don’t have opposition from people who aren’t like them… Welcome to politics, it’s the same thing at all levels. Get involved or shut up. You don’t vote? Then you agree with whatever the people who do decided.

        • explodicle@local106.com
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          1 year ago

          Or just don’t agree, and get a house that’s not part of an HOA. With individual houses at least, you can realistically opt out of a system where the 51% of Karens accept management company bribes.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              You didn’t understand what they said… You’re free to purchase a house somewhere where there’s no HOA if you disagree with HOAs and don’t want to get involved in them. That’s how you have the freedom to opt out.

              • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                In the US these homes are increasingly rare. Pretty much any neighborhood built since the 70s comes with HOA bullshit attached

                • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  74% of the housing market doesn’t have an HOA in the USA, worst case put pressure on the higher level of government to get them regulated, it’s a US issue, you don’t see that anywhere else.

              • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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                1 year ago

                I understand their point, it’s just a bad one. So much of where we live depends on job, educational, financial, and familial circumstances that it’s just outright ludicrous to pretend HOAs are the only factor to consider for a home purchase. Or even an important one.

                Especially when so much of what makes them frustrating to deal with is created by bad HOA members, not even necessarily the contract itself. You will not know it’s a problem until it becomes one, in all likelihood.

                Yes, you are technically free to not buy into a HOA neighborhood, like you’re also free to deliberately send your kid to a shitty school as you live in a van.

                • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  Three quarters of US citizens live somewhere without an HOA, doesn’t seem so hard not to have to deal with one and if you do, as I already mentioned, just get involved and improve things and if that doesn’t fix it then get involved at a higher level. HOAs are a US issue only, get them regulated.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So you believe the working class is america is under represented because less working class members vote than the rich voters? “Welcome to politics, it’s the same thing at all levels” That just isn’t how it works is it?

          Home owners associations are more accessible to those with more money and more time. Seems familiar doesn’t it.

          • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            No, I believe that if there’s only 20 owners that are involved and you jump in you’re 1 out of 21 voices instead of 1 out of millions of voices so your opinion has more weight to it.

          • Serinus@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Well, yes. Less working class people vote (as a percentage) than rich people.

            Also the rich people help run ads telling the working class who to vote for. And that works often enough to be effective.

            • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              “Well, yes. Less working class people vote (as a percentage) than rich people.”

              So your answer was no.

              So now lets get into the President. Vice President, Treasurer, Member at Large, and Secretary postions.

              They have the ability (as the board) to vote on a matter without the “populous” being present or having a vote.

              An HOA can be okay, but can take advantage of situations really quickly. Not to mention hold grudges over things for years.

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
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      1 year ago

      True in theory, and while I realize that this is purely anecdotal, in my experience as a contractor, HOAs are invariably a giant pain in the ass to deal with.

      What you want as a contractor is a professional property management company that’s used to dealing with construction contractors and is familiar with industry standards and basic reality.

      Fortunately I don’t work in residential construction anymore.

    • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I kinda agree with you. In theory, they definitely are. But at the same time, in practice, the already bad reputation of HOAs seems to attract the worst kind of people. It’s a political position and suffers just like any other political position. The kinds of people who’d be best at it often don’t want to do it because it’s toxic.

  • uis@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    While in USA Karens are relatively yong, in post-Soviet countries they are…

    A group of them called Grannys Near Entrance or Grannyguards

  • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    That reminds me, I used to think getting that haircut would make me look all cool and badass.

    I really don’t know what I was thinking.

  • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    We don’t have them in Australia that I’m aware of, but they do sound atrocious. What happened to that land of the free?

    • Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My HOA only has rules for weeds and not blocking sidewalks with cars. I thought I was going to hate it, but honestly it keeps things nice. In my last neighborhood so many assholes would have boats and RVs literally parked on the sidewalk.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not from CR, but I think you thought about wrong type of HOA. Closest thing to american HOAs in Europe I think Gardening Association or something like this. Google translate says it’s Zahradní Komunita, yandex says Zahradní Kamarádství.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          I speak English perfectly, no need for terrible translators (Yandex literally wrote “Garden Friendship” – the correct one is zahrádkářský spolek, DeepL is pretty close).

          I think we used to have these “gardeners’ clubs”, the writer Bohumil Hrabal (look up some Menzel films based on his books) referenced his, called Zahrádkáři Kersku (Gardeners of Kersko) in Slavnosti sněženek. However, it was voluntary and more of a cooperation club where members shared produce, seeds and experience, rather than having to follow aesthetic rules (besides peer pressure). I don’t think we have those anymore, the culture is way more individualistic; also, Kersko is a village of recreational homes. We don’t really have suburbs: single family homes have fences around their gardens and nobody cares what you have behind one.

          On the other hand, most blocks of flats have a bytové družstvo (Flat Collective) with mandatory membership. These are quite strict, usually run by old women that have lived there for decades and they operate like HOAs: they dictate where you can park your car or bike and what you can hang on your door, you must go through them to change a doorbell nameplate, they facilitate repairs of shared equipment, collect fees if you rent the flat to someome else etc.

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yandex literally wrote “Garden Friendship"

            Kek. Yandex was shitty, yandex keeps being shitty.

    • Pregnenolone@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They’re basically stratas and body corporations in Australia, except the laws basically make them not as powerful as HOAs

  • kamen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The word “homeowner” contains the word “meow” in it; now you can’t read “homeowner” in any other way.

  • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    I’m not in any way familiar with HOA’s but… in my mind they should be filled with at least a proprotion of bored boomers.

    Karen’s can be boomers, but can they be male?

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        American crime writer, Karin Slaughter, threw a cute little Easter Egg into one of her books. One of the busybody residents in an upscale neighborhood is named Alison Hendrickson.