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

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#111

Post by wolrah » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:32 PM UTC

GenerWork wrote: post #40

You can avoid this by not buying a home that is covered by a HOA. Snark aside, it's clear this guy hasn't thought out how condos will operate without a HOA. Going after SFH HOAs may be the best initial play here.

> You can avoid this by not buying a home that is covered by a HOA.

In many areas these either do not exist or are limited to only older construction. I haven't seen a single '90s or newer neighborhood in my home shopping that didn't have one.

Developers love the stupid things because it allows them greater control over how the neighborhood looks to potential buyers while they're still selling lots, and they're mandatory for new developments in some areas where the local government (reasonably) doesn't want to take on more road/utility/etc maintenance but isn't willing to actually stop sprawl.

> Snark aside, it's clear this guy hasn't thought out how condos will operate without a HOA. Going after SFH HOAs may be the best initial play here.

Someone else noted that in Florida the term "HOA" specifically refers to the kind affecting single-family homes. Condos have "COAs" apparently.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#112

Post by afavour » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:34 PM UTC

ozim wrote: post #73

afavour wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The logical answer here is to limit the things HOAs can and cannot do rather than ban them outright. But that doesn't make for a good headline.

Logical answer is to get reasonable people to vote when HOA is having vote. Don’t let Karen and her buddies run the meetings. People nagging about HOA seems like are not owners or not knowing how HOA works o r supposed to work.

Same problem you have with any kind of local government: time. Busybodies with too much time on their hands will dominate. People who actually have lives to lead don't have the time to compete.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#113

Post by qualeed » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

fred_is_fred wrote: post #68

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…

>It all depends on who was elected and who votes.

If I had to pick one thing I dislike the most about HOAs, it would be this. There is never a guarantee that your quiet HOA will remain that way in the future. Which, to me, seems like a crazy chance to take.

>we have a shared park, community space, and where I live lots of irrigation.

This is where my confusion comes in. My local government handles this sort of stuff. But I understand that we (as countries) have different thoughts on governments and their responsibilities.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#114

Post by firesteelrain » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

propter_hoc wrote: post #105

firesteelrain wrote: post #45

I am a BOD and Officer in a HOA. This will be messy - we would have to sell all of our common amenities, parking lots, overflow parking lots, playgrounds, gym, pools etc to the government or a private company if this happens. County would have to take over maintenance of our platted common property and property that we mow (and get paid for) by the County. County would have to step up enforcement of parking on street…

I upvoted you despite entirely disagreeing with your premise. Yes - negotiate with the county to take over management of the playgrounds and lawn mowing. Yes - make the clubhouse and parking lots open, fee-based and voluntary, and controlled by a private corporation rather than an imposed, taxed service. Yes - return the excess money to the current homeowners, or use some of it to effectuate these conversions. Honest…

We have a reserve study completed by a professional company that requires us to hold this much. For example, we are replacing two AC units for $50k total. Pool needs to be resurfaced for $100k. We have roof repairs that will need to be done eventually, gym equipment replacements, various beautification repairs, weir repair ($250k), fish guards/blockers, pond maintenance etc

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#115

Post by ghaff » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:37 PM UTC

LargeWu wrote: post #87

ghaff wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably true in general but, to the degree there are shared areas, someone needs to assess and allocate costs which isn't always obvious. Not really suburban but I have a relative who lives on a private road with other houses and (primarily) plowing and road maintenance needs to be dealt with. I agree that "your lawn isn't neat enough" HOAs are generally a plague at least up to a certain point.

"someone needs to assess and allocate costs which isn't always obvious" In most places, this is called the city government. Ultimately this feels like the "low tax area" myth is getting exposed. You still need to pay for all the same things your taxes would otherwise pay for, but for some reason it's different as long as it's not called a tax.

So shared facilities for a group of private individuals have to approved by and ongoing maintenance provided by the a government (as long as they feel like it) or they're not allowed to exist?

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#116

Post by next_xibalba » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

olddustytrail wrote: post #98

next_xibalba wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived next to a guy who would do maintenance and repair on his motorcycle which had “pipes” until nearly midnight. I would’ve killed for an HOA back then.

Why not kill the guy with the motorbike and cut out the middleman?

It's the libertarian dream. Unfortunately, the state has an outrageous monopoly on violence.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#117

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:39 PM UTC

wasjosh wrote: post #54

afavour wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The logical answer here is to limit the things HOAs can and cannot do rather than ban them outright. But that doesn't make for a good headline.

Or how about if you don't want to join an HOA.... you don't join an HOA?

[deleted]

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#118

Post by fred_is_fred » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:40 PM UTC

qualeed wrote: post #113

fred_is_fred wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It all depends on who was elected and who votes. If I had to pick one thing I dislike the most about HOAs, it would be this. There is never a guarantee that your quiet HOA will remain that way in the future. Which, to me , seems like a crazy chance to take. > we have a shared park, community space, and where I live lots of irrigation. This is where my confusion comes in. My local government handles this sort of stu…

There are plenty of city owned spaces as well, it's not all HOA run. I suppose I would ask if it's fair for a voter on the other side of town to pay for irrigation on my street?

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#119

Post by staticman2 » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:50 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #107

staticman2 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an agency problem here. The building could have been perfectly safe but the lawyer wants to "win" so says "fuck you we won't provide the report". The lawyer has no stake in the health of the project, if they are a litigator they just care about "winning". Alternatively the building could have been about to collapse but the lawyer wants to "win" and doesn't live there so says "fuck you we won't provide it." Sa…

So in Illinois merely refusing to provide the report is illegal on its own. So it's unlikely a condo lawyer did this "just to win" for a safe building. Specifically if you take the HOA to court for not revealing a document they legally have to, and the judge sides with the unit owner, the HOA has to pay the owner's attorney fees. The issue is HOAs and management companies have warchests for stuff like this, individua…

Maybe you could explain why you think they refused to turn the engineer report over?

Obviously I don't know the details but their lawyer being an adversarial asshole sounds most likely to me.

What other explanation is there? Like... was the board planning to sell their units before people realized the building had problems?

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#120

Post by danaris » Fri, Aug 22, 2025, 1:50 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #75

I volunteered to run my HOA in Massachusetts because I was afraid someone would come in and abuse their power and fine everyone for trivial matters. What I learned was that the town "forces" all new developments to have an HOA because town politics prevents the town from adopting roads from new housing developments. Thus all new neighborhoods in the town have "private" roads. It's a lot of "BS" work that's pushed on…

Sounds to me like the more effective use of residents' time would be to get several of them together to run for town office and break the deadlocks. Assuming you can contact enough other frustrated HOA members and get them onboard, even if the problem is several town board members (or whatever body it is), it could be possible to replace them with sane people.