I think that property taxes and similars (e.g. HOA dues) should accrue as a lien against a property but not be foreclosable during the original owner's life. Then you create a state-backed entity that provides guarantees on loans against those liens for the municipalities and HOA subject to certain rules. (They could still factor those liens privately sans limitation.)
Good.
> ... and their owners' values decrease.
Really? In fifty years of home owning, not once with the "benefit" of a HOA, I've yet to see an owned house value decline.
Some countries just bypassed this entire US obsession with redlining and keeping the others out. Maybe try working more on community and less on uniformity.
HoA might be pointless if everyone lives on 5 acre lots where the stuff your neighbor does won’t really affect you but if you have homes squeezed into tiny 8k sq ft lots, we absolutely need some basic rules to live together in such close proximity. The rules can just be common sense rules that everyone can agree on but something needs to exist so one person can’t ruin it for everyone else. In a condo, you can’t just blast music during the quiet hours so others can sleep and go to work. In a neighborhood street, you don’t get to permanently park your giant RV and a boat and inconvenience others because you bought too large of an RV to fit in your own lot or are too cheap to pay for storage somewhere else and so now you have decided it to make it be everyone’s problem. This is just common sense which a typical considerate person would follow even without rules on the books but there are always a few that think they can just do whatever they want.
That's how you get Mr. Burns blocking out Springfield's sun.
Someone is making racket after 10pm or before 7am, or at all on Sunday? If they won't quiet down after being asked nicely, or you can't reach them, call the city - that's against national law. Someone decides to park something too wide for the street or over a certain size and weight? Call the non-emergency number, and a very eager tow-truck driver will show up with a quickness you wish ADAC (German AAA) would. Something has been parked on the street and not moved within a certain period (that I don't know off the top of my head) - tell the city that there's an abandoned vehicle and they'll put a sticker on it alerting the owner that they have 48 hours to move it. If parking is really tight in a neighborhood, the city will create a parking permit zone if you and your neighbors campaign for it. Someone doesn't mow their yard by July (before that, it's for the sake of wildlife) or won't get their tree that is growing over your fence trimmed? The city will make them if social pressure doesn't do it first.
I’ve never lived in a HOA that had to maintain roads, sewers, or street lights. All the infrastructure is covered by the county or city. Neighborhood pools, playgrounds, and common areas are HOA. That’s in addition to local parks, aquatic centers, and all the other local public service stuff the county and cities provide.
Our lots are 2,000-4,000 square meters or more.
I have that (see: Australia).
Don't need no HOA for that, just good community spirit, sensible local government, etc.
I did state as a fact that they are not required for park management. They're also less common than in the US and, so far at least, far less draconian (seemingly) in comparison to nightmare USofA HOA stories.
Freedom of assembly. If my neighbors and I buy stuff, put it in a box and then buy and create rules around how its benefits and costs are divided, and I sell my share in the box, that should be fine.
It's like "buying" digital movies. The button says Purchase but you/Amazon still get to dictate terms long after the sale.
They bought the box with the rules attached. Property is a packet of rights and obligations.
Should the town be allowed, ex post facto, to decide you’re no longer getting police and fire protection because they control those resources?
> I just paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to have my name put on someone else's contract without being able to negotiate any terms
Plenty of people negotiate HOA riders in buyers’ markets.
> like "buying" digital movies
Someone buying a house like they buy movies is always going wind up with the short end of the stick.
I’ll do whatever I can to wage war against the median HOA owner. They are the scum of society and deserve every bad thing that happens to them.