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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

My HOA owns all the common area in the neighborhood, including the streets and parking spaces. So, all that upkeep (paint, seal, re-pave, snow removal, etc) gets paid out of a HOA dues. They also pay for landscaping of common areas, neighborhood lighting, and a few other things. The also organize trash collection (without which we'd have to buy individually and have a constant stream of trash trucks rolling through). And they have to carry insurance to cover that common property.

Who else is going to fix the roads? The county and state aren't going to, they don't own it. We seal the asphalt every 5-8 years and repave every 15-20 (I've only lived her 10 years, so those are very rough guesses).

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> The also organize trash collection (without which we'd have to buy individually and have a constant stream of trash trucks rolling through).

That's not a given. I live in a non-HOA area, and everyone on my street has trash collection from the same company on the same day. Thursday night, we set our carts out. Friday morning, we bring them in.

There's a wide middle between HOA bureaucracy and pure chaos.

I believe that usually means the local government has given a company an 'exclusive'. Or, to use the HN vernacular, the local government has outsourced a service. It's not uncommon.

Who organizes that?

My neighborhood - HOA handles it, trash pickup twice/weekly.

My parent's neighborhood (where I grew up) - no HOA, everybody handles it themselves, so adjacent houses end up with pickup on different days.

My previous neighborhood - county service (grandfathered in, the county stopped providing it decades ago, probably because people want a tax cut).

In my city, and everywhere I've lived, when you buy a house, you by default get no trash service. You find out which trash company services your neighborhood (there will only be one that does), and make an account with them.

Just like electricity, gas, etc.

> without which we'd have to buy individually and have a constant stream of trash trucks rolling through

Of course not, that's not how it works. The city contracts with a trash collector and they set a weekly schedule for each neighborhood.

> Who else is going to fix the roads?

Is this a trick question? The county of course. They own the roads.

HOAs have no purpose.

Is this a trick question? The county of course. They own the roads.

Is this a trick answer, or just deeply ignorant. Within 20 miles of me there are different places where a county, a city, a neighborhood and the state own the roads.

Seriously, WTF do you live where there's one answer to this question? Apparently so far out in the boonies you don't even have an interstate.

In a perfect world, sure. That's not reality in most of the US. The county absolutely does NOT provide trash service in my area. And we (via the HOA) absolutely own the roads within the subdivision.

Dumb AF? Yes, no argument. Reality? Sad but true.

Would be good to get stats on this. Does most of the US (by population, not by area) really not manage the roads (potholes, etc)? And not trash? I've yet to live in a place that didn't have either (across multiple states), but I also don't live in rural areas.

I'm in the DC suburbs (VA side).

Neighborhood streets - it's mixed, largely on age of development. Pre-1980 (very roughly) that state/county likely own and maintain the roads. Post-1980 (roughly) it's an HOA or condo or similar.

Similar for trash.

In my (and most) neighborhoods, the city or county is responsible for all of that.

There is a single trash company serving our area. Everyone just has a contact with them.

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