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Comment by dghlsakjg | Hacker News Reader

> Can you give some examples that are applicable today?

HOAs are pretty famously restrictive of free speech (house color restrictions, yard sign restrictions, political activism restrictions), and free association (visitor restrictions).

Their are some speech restrictions that governments apply to historic structures, but you would have a hard time as a government trying to register the name of every visitor to a residence, or restricting hours that visitors can come, or how long they can stay, but those are all things that HOAs try to control.

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>house color restrictions

And have courts ruled that cities (or other governments) can't impose color restrictions?

>yard sign restrictions, political activism restrictions

Not sure what's meant by "political activism restrictions", but cities most definitely have restrictions on signs. You can't put a brightly flashing LED sign next to a busy intersection, or plant a billboard to make some money on the side.

>and free association (visitor restrictions).

???

I've literally never encountered this, unless you count having to register to use the visitor parking.

Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Here's a community that requires all owners to be 55+ and to register guests. https://warwickgrovehoa.org/wp-content/uploads/HOA_Guest-Pol...

Here's a community that allows political yard signs, but limits their total aggregate area and how soon they must be removed after the election. http://caminovillage.com/pdfs/hoa-ccrs.pdf (bonus: you have to comply with the HOA rules when it comes to any window treatement that is visible from the front. They literally have rules about what they can see through your windows.)

Here's a legal case about a town that tried to get a couple to repaint their home: https://pacificlegal.org/victory-in-starry-night-mural-case-...

==Not sure what's meant by "political activism restrictions"==

Rules that literally say, "You cannot put up election-related signs."

==I've literally never encountered this, unless you count having to register to use the visitor parking.==

Rules that say how many people you can have at your house, how long they can stay, etc., etc.

Our HOA has rules about rental terms to block AirBNB—type short term rentals.

To be fair, though, this thread is about things that HOAs can do but local governments can't, and local governments can and do ban short-term rentals in some places.

I moved to a home that's part of a small (47 homes) HOA.

Here, the visitor restrictions are aimed at commercial visitors. You're not supposed to run a business like a massage parlor or barbershop out of your home.

Hah, "small" -- my HOA consists of two condo buildings, seven units total. We basically have to beg three people to fill out the required three board positions every year, because no one (myself included) wants to do it.

A friend of mine is a member of a little HOA that consists only of himself and his downstairs neighbor.

So much pointless overhead...

This is what you have to do to fix a roof or replace a hot water heater. Gen-X has observed what happens when an HOA is dominated by, for example, descendants of the original landowner. It takes someone with organizational skills to help the public good by joining a toxic HOA with the intent of shining sunlight on it.

Cities restrict where businesses are allowed to operate all the time; this doesn’t seem to be a counter-example.

Cities also have to adhere to cottage laws - it's perfectly legal and protected to run a small business out of your home. Unless the HOA says no. This isn't a power the city has.

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