At least here in Argentina the equivalent of the HOA of the apartments have a lot of governmental regulations, they can't decide to pay the administrator a million dollars per month. Most accusation are about overprice in repair work and other stuff that is harder to prove.
A few years ago a common trick was that the developer designated the initial administrator. Then add a rule that requires a super majority to change the administrator, so it was almost impossible to remove it. Now there is a law that declares that special rule void in all apartments.