Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash • Hacker News Board

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#61

Post by LargeWu » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:02 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #11

bearjaws wrote: post #6

There will need to be some sort of carve out for towers, condos, townhomes etc. I cannot imagine running a building without an HOA, or some form of it. Who pays for the external repairs? Who pays for shared staff? AC units for a highrise are $2-5M, who is saving for that? This is just typical lawmaker BS, "oh I am going to do away with it", no real plan. If anything just remove the HOA bylaws that are clearly violati…

Those things are usually rentals here in Florida. HOAs are a real problem here due to the legal protection they have. They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue.

HOA's are ultimately run by the homeowners themselves. It's right there in the name. If the HOA is such a problem, elect different people to the board and change the rules.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#62

Post by scarface_74 » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:02 PM UTC

I lived in an HOA community for eight years and I have mixed feelings. So many things can go wrong without one - old cars in the front yard, political signs (I don’t care what your political persuasion is they are tacky), yard not being kept.

HOAs suck. But so do people. As another poster said, there are shared responsibility parts in some neighborhoods like pools, gyms, tennis courts etc

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#63

Post by DanielHB » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:02 PM UTC

7174n6 wrote: post #20

This is a huge problem in Pennsylvania also, but most of the municipalities have abdicated significant maintenance responsibilities to HOAs. They refuse to take over roads, retention ponds, and common land areas requiring the HOA to cover maintenance. Snow removal from "public" roads and landscaping of "common areas" is a significant cost for HOAs. If the municipalitiies are forced to take these dutues over it's goin…

It is well known that all the suburbs in the US are just an economic time-bomb waiting to happen due to the maintenance cost of the public amenities (especially when water/sewage/electricity infra).

Seems fair that the people who actually live in them are the ones paying for the costs instead of spreading it over to all residents of the city. Maybe we will see some suburbs converted to more dense housing once the public infrastructure needs to be replaced.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#64

Post by Thorrez » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:02 PM UTC

squigz wrote: post #21

reactordev wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things are usually rentals here in Florida. HOAs are a real problem here due to the legal protection they have. They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue.

> They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue. This is hard to believe. Have you got a source?

>Last week, I-Team Investigator Adam Walser reported how a Riverview homeowner ended up in jail and her neighbor faced foreclosure over what started out as HOA violations.

https://www.tampabay28.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigat...

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#65

Post by lazyasciiart » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:02 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #11

bearjaws wrote: post #6

There will need to be some sort of carve out for towers, condos, townhomes etc. I cannot imagine running a building without an HOA, or some form of it. Who pays for the external repairs? Who pays for shared staff? AC units for a highrise are $2-5M, who is saving for that? This is just typical lawmaker BS, "oh I am going to do away with it", no real plan. If anything just remove the HOA bylaws that are clearly violati…

Those things are usually rentals here in Florida. HOAs are a real problem here due to the legal protection they have. They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue.

There are over 1 million condos in Florida, and many of them are in buildings that need repairs the HOA can’t pay for. Remember the Surfside collapse?

Sure, it’d be interesting to see how people work out the concept of shared benefits that need being paid for from scratch, but I know and like some people in Florida so I’d still be sorry to see them do it.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#66

Post by wat10000 » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:03 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #57

qualeed wrote: post #27

As a non-American, I've always been surprised with how common HOAs are, and how over-bearing they seem. I know that I only hear about the crazy ones because blogs about normal/good HOAs aren't going viral, but I've seen enough horror stories that if I ever moved to the US I would do my best to avoid one like the plague.

In some places they act as a kind of local governing authority similar to a town or village council. In much of the US the lowest level of governing body us the county, and those can be pretty huge and diverse areas so HOAs are used to fill that gap.

I live in a county with more population than most cities. It works fine. What gap would need to be filled?

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#67

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:03 PM UTC

squigz wrote: post #21

reactordev wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things are usually rentals here in Florida. HOAs are a real problem here due to the legal protection they have. They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue.

> They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue. This is hard to believe. Have you got a source?

[deleted]

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#68

Post by fred_is_fred » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:03 PM UTC

qualeed wrote: post #27

As a non-American, I've always been surprised with how common HOAs are, and how over-bearing they seem. I know that I only hear about the crazy ones because blogs about normal/good HOAs aren't going viral, but I've seen enough horror stories that if I ever moved to the US I would do my best to avoid one like the plague.

You hear the bad stories. It all depends on who was elected and who votes. Most HOAs are not the horror stories you hear, just a quiet entity that maintains common property and is a backup solution for problems (when talking to neighbor does not work). Mine is cheap, like $300/year and we have a shared park, community space, and where I live lots of irrigation. They only send out letters for egregious violations and don't police or nit-pick.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#69

Post by jordanb » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:04 PM UTC

RandomBacon wrote: post #18

mschuster91 wrote: post #5

> In Riverview, HOA disputes escalated into arrests and foreclosure threats. One homeowner was jailed for a week over brown grass, while another faced a lien and thousands in legal fees tied to her house paint. What, excuse me, the hell ? I thought "debtor's prison" was outlawed centuries ago?

IIRC, they missed their court appearance and a bench warrant was issued.

Debtors prison with extra steps?

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#70

Post by bee_rider » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:04 PM UTC

I wonder if this could be part of the Florida/Disney spat? Are some of Disney’s properties under HOA?

Just random speculation, I haven’t been following it too closely. But, always got to be suspicious of a politician who suggests something that seems popular.