Why Most HOAs Seem Terrible
Average homeowners don't understand how they work, and there are few people to drive change.
In my post on how HOAs can sharpen your skills at work, we discussed the various benefits to you joining your Homeowner’s Association Board as it relates to building your skillsets as a leader, which can translate to your professional career. To discuss the opposite, there is the other side of volunteering within a small bureaucracy like your HOA. It can become quite challenging for the uninitiated, leading to burnout and failure.
Today we are going to review the reasons for why many HOAs you come across seem to be struggling or under fire by homeowners. There are few HOAs I have seen that are running smoothly month to month, year to year, and where the homeowner complaints are at a minimum. Those that are humming along may still seem to be in disarray. Why is this?
Typically, the only way you know things are running smoothly is when few people show up to Board meetings, complaints from homeowners are rare, and everything looks decent when you drive through the neighborhood. It is not unlike working in IT - when people are not complaining, it means things are working (i.e., “Why do we need these people?”).
Yet, if you join your neighborhood Facebook group you might assume the HOA is being run by a bunch of clowns. There always appears to be a difference in perception versus reality.
Before we begin, let’s make some assumptions:
We are talking about common HOAs/POAs that run on small budgets and where daily work is handled by a management company. Communities with full-time property managers are the exception (and sound amazing).
My experience has all been within neighborhoods, not condos. They face similar challenges, but some of what we’ll discuss may not be relevant for condos.
Making a Difference
One of the first things you learn when joining your first HOA Board is that you do not really understand how things work. You put your name in the hat for the election because people complain constantly, and you think you can spare an hour or two a month to attend meetings and make decisions. You want to help.
The reality is that being a “good” Board member requires more commitment than people realize, and the truly great ones that can drive change usually burn out or leave before they can make a difference. Here are the categories I see with Board members and their level of effort:
Board Effort Levels
Barely anything: Attend some meetings, rarely answer emails.
Bare minimum: Attend most meetings, answer most emails.
Engaged: Keep engaged with the community, communicate frequently to other Board members and homeowners, and actively help find solutions to problems. Stay informed with contractors such as the management company, pool company, landscaper, etc. Meet contractors in person when needed, review contract terms, and plan budgets.
Leading: Build and support committees, liaison to external parties (e.g. other HOAs, city/county officials, law enforcement, etc.), and be a voice for the community. These people develop other Board members. Also includes taking part in drafting new policy or guidelines.
Exceptional: Drive and succeed with an effort that requires supermajority support (topic for another day).
In nearly a decade of being involved with HOAs, I would say most Board members I have worked with balance between bare minimum to slightly engaged. This is not a criticism. It is just a reality of how long-term volunteer efforts typically work.
People join a volunteer organization, put in effort for a time, then get bored or fed up with the nonsense. They may get involved without realizing the commitment required and just coast until they can leave gracefully. They have jobs that are in-office, kid’s sports on the weekends, or a schedule that does not allow for a perpetual volunteer. It just is what it is.
This is why Board members may typically be older, retired, or stay-at-home in some fashion that enables them to maintain the commitment. It means that the only people that can lead your local community are probably limited to a subset of homeowners who have the time, much less the initiative to drive and see change.
For myself, I try to stay in the ‘engaged’ area as much as I can, but this requires a significant time investment that is difficult to sustain. ‘Leading’ is even more of a commitment that I have tried for stretches of time, but it requires a constant presence that most people cannot invest into, and remaining too long within it is what drives you away from the entire effort.
Attempting to lead also comes with added conflict, as your initiative can often be met with resistance to change or disagreement on priorities by other Board members or homeowners.
All of this is heavily dependent on who is doing the day-to-day work, which brings us to our next item.
Management Companies
Your complaint with your HOA is probably less about the Board and more about the management company running the daily operations. This is where most homeowners are confused about what an HOA actually is. You have the HOA members (every homeowner who owns a property lot), the Board, which are the elected homeowners who make HOA decisions, and then the contract management company who performs the daily operations.
That violation you received about your trashcan is likely from the management company inspector, or an upset neighbor that reported you.1
If a Board member is the one actively writing up people for violations, as we see in funny commercials, know that this is not very common in my experience. This is why news stories about HOAs fining people for nonsense are “news”, because these one-off violations do not happen every day.
Most Board members are not involved enough to actively patrol the community for things like trash cans or yard decor. The Board primarily sets the policy and guidelines, and it’s up to the management company to enforce it. If your HOA does not have a management company, then it at least has a one-person property manager and/or poor souls that both sit on the Board and run the operations.
The unfortunate part is that your property manager is likely the manager for 5-10 other neighborhoods. They probably do not live within your HOA, and they may not even be the ones doing the monthly inspections for violations. Inspections are a whole other discussion, as they may be done by minimum wage workers who are fresh out of high school.2
There have been multiple occasions where a new inspector will get too excited with their role, and they start writing up homeowners for everything from grass an inch too tall or for things the Board agreed to not bother with (e.g., parking in the street).3
As an example, we once had a homeowner receive a violation for a dumpster in their driveway. A few weeks earlier their home had caught fire, and it was undergoing repairs. The inspector did not know this, so they wrote a violation. That owner posted in the Facebook group for help, and then we had an uproar over how terrible the HOA is. One simple email from the Board to the management company and the issue was resolved.
Yet, the criticism continued long after because of this one mistake by the management company. You also receive these common complaints related to violations:
“The HOA sent me a letter for my grass, but they can’t even keep their own grass cut!”
“Why should I get a violation for my RV parked in the driveway when the HOA pool looks like a swamp!”
“The HOA is harassing me about my trashcan! I am going to sue them!”
etc., etc.
Inspections may also only be done once or twice a month, so there are bound to be gaps in enforcement. This is especially so when violations have a certain number of days (e.g., 10 days in Texas) to be ‘cured’ by homeowners. This gives fuel to those who believe they are being treated unfairly because of other homeowners who may be doing the same thing (i.e., they should also get a violation but do not because they were outside the inspection window).
The alternative is to have a dedicated, full-time property manager within the neighborhood or subdivisions. This person could perform inspections weekly, if not daily.
Why not have a dedicated property manager for every neighborhood? They are expensive, of course. A management company usually charges a per-lot fee, like $7/lot per month. For 1,000 homes this comes to $84,000/year, along with the rest of HOA business expenses to manage the community (e.g., office supplies, violation letters sent, etc.). To hire a full-time person may double that cost, and they would also need office space within the neighborhood, increasing monthly expenses.
You could certainly hire a property manager without the company, but this brings other pros and cons we do not have time for here.
The important note is that it may not be your HOA Board that is bad, but the management company running it. Try not to throw your Board under the bus so quickly until you give them a chance to remedy any management issues.
Of course, homeowners will continue to have short attention spans or not care to learn how these things work. The complaints will spike every so often, and each time they do, your HOA Board dies a little inside.
We should make a side note here that there are absolutely HOA Board members who become way overinvolved into their role. They usually become popular on Reddit (sub appropriately named ‘Fuck the HOA’) before making it to the local news. These people usually run for the Board so they can exert control rather than building community to address issues. This is less an issue of HOAs than it is people who obtain slivers of power.
People are People
Another reason why an HOA may seem in turmoil is simply that few homeowners understand how they work. Even when everything is great, the perception may be that it is and always has been poorly run.
As an example, first time homebuyers do not spend enough time understanding the home they are buying or the neighborhood they are buying into.
They may see that there is a community pool and splash pad, but they miss that there is only one for the entire neighborhood, and that it’s not in walking distance from their home (or even part of the same subdivision). The same can be said about playgrounds or simple things like sidewalks, which new neighborhood developers may completely ignore because they are not required to install or completely connect them.4
Many people do not even know what an HOA is, much less that it is generally a “keep the lights on” organization. It is rare that an HOA, working on a budget that barely pays the yearly maintenance, is able to afford to build amenities like new playgrounds, gyms, courts, or some other nice feature.
If you buy a home, whatever you have access to at that moment (e.g., playground, pool, splashpad), is what you can expect for the rest of your time there.
Your friend who lives in the neighborhood next door and pays the same HOA yearly amount you do, yet they get many more amenities, is not a reflection on how bad your neighborhood or HOA is. It means you bought in the wrong neighborhood.
The bare minimum you can expect from your HOA is that the bills get paid, the grass gets cut, the pool cleaned, the fences maintained, and whatever services you are contracted for such as trash or security. Many HOAs struggle to do those things in general, so if you expect more, then you need to change your expectations - unless you plan to join the Board.
Instead, these homeowners (again) take to social media to ask why we cannot build more amenities to make the neighborhood nicer. They throw the HOA Board under the bus and rile up the community to take action.
As we know, these people rarely show up to meetings, never volunteer for the Board or committees, and if they do manage to get their complaint across, they find that they do not understand the core issues, the history, or what is already being done to address these items. This cycle repeats every few months or years, even when communications are sent out frequently to keep homeowners informed.
At this point I may be ranting, but what I am trying to get across is that the stress of dealing with uninformed people is the most painful part of being on your HOA Board, and why it is difficult to keep good volunteer Board members engaged or leading the community.
Nobody is Perfect
I must add that I myself have not been a perfect Board member. When I first got involved, I had a need to 'prove’ that the HOA was doing everything it could; that I was doing everything I could. In the process I ended up fighting with people online and made both friends and “enemies” in the process.
It took quite some time for me to develop the hardiness you need to volunteer in small bureaucracies like an HOA or MUD. There is a tact and method to messaging that you slowly develop, and it gets easier to ignore the trolls. Admittedly though, even today I find myself struggling to not post or comment on people’s negativity, but you at least find yourself using more neutral language and gracefully accepting criticism.
You also have to get used to sometimes failing when you and the Board make a poor decision. Realizing that you must cut losses, pivot, or make big changes is something you must get used to, making sure your pride does not get in the way of keeping your community in good shape while meeting your fiduciary duty.
As examples, this could be moving the neighborhood pool from chlorine to salt, changing the landscaper, rolling out a Fining Policy or new Architecture Guidelines, and so on. When something does not work, do not double down and blame homeowners. Take ownership of the mistake, collect feedback, and turn your failures into positive change.
In the end, your HOA is simply people doing the best they can with the available information and resources.
Strategies for Success
How do you turn around a failing HOA then? Simple, get rid of the HOA! (I’m kidding…sort of).5
If you find yourself on an HOA Board, there are key things you should focus on:
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure that after every meeting or every major decision, that emails are sent out, posts are made in the local social media groups, minutes and financials are posted on the website, and that you get the ‘status’ of the neighborhood in front of people on a recurring schedule (at least quarterly). Make sure they know that the Board is working on the issues. Although do understand that…
Less is more. Do not overpromise and under-deliver. Keep the Board’s goals at a high level and with extended timelines. With any bureaucracy progress takes time, and you should make sure that you give yourselves the room to navigate challenges. I use the Scotty Principle wherever possible.
Hold contractors accountable. Make sure that issues are reported to the pool crew, the landscaper, the lake management company, or whoever is managing maintenance. This is something the property manager should be doing, but as they probably do not live within the neighborhood it usually falls on the Board to monitor. When they do not deliver, make sure they understand your contract has a 30-day out. Similarly…
Review contractors yearly. Each time your renewal is up with a contractor, make sure you evaluate if you are getting the responsiveness and service that you are paying for. This means the Board needs to be engaged enough to understand when change needs to be made. At a minimum make sure these reviews are on the monthly agenda.
Build committees. This is a tough one, because it is difficult to not only find people to join committees (e.g., landscaping, architecture, etc.), but finding people who can lead them. It is often that when a Board gives responsibilities to a committee that they wash their hands of it and let them do their thing. This is a bad idea. Keep tabs on your committees; I have learned the hard way that not keeping up with them can lead to disastrous results.
Meet in person whenever possible. In-person meetings are still vitally important to keep people talking in a civil manner. Do not take your HOA meetings to be 100% online if at all possible, and make sure that homeowner complaints or challenges (e.g., 209 Hearing) are always performed in person. If someone has an issue, encourage them to speak out about it during public comments at the next meeting. If it is important, then it should be both heard and discussed in person, even if the Board must meet a homeowner or contractor outside of a normal meeting. As an extension…
Limit the Board’s social media interactions. Any good attorney will tell you to get off of social media as it relates to being part of a bureaucracy. I challenge this idea because it is my opinion that good Board members are the ones that are plugged into it, and unfortunately social media is the best way to do that. It allows you to keep a finger on the pulse of the community. However, restrain yourself from getting into flame wars with your neighbors. When necessary, provide the info they need and move on. Most of the time the rest of the community will correct them anyways.
Make the tough decisions. Your HOA has a duty to keep the neighborhood in good condition so that homeowner’s property values are maintained (among other reasons). This includes collecting fees, up to putting a lien or foreclosing on someone’s home. It means getting rid of the landscaper, even if they have been delivering for the last 10 years but then raised rates too high. As a Board, do not be afraid to take action.
Closing
While much of this post feels like an HOA President venting, I hope you have come to understand why your HOA may be the way it is.
It is mundane, unpraised volunteer work. There is little to no benefits of being on your HOA Board other than being proud that you are keeping things running well. This means your Board volunteers may have a high turnover, causing your HOA to miss important things on a recurring basis.
Most homeowners do not understand how HOAs work, and they often take it out on the Board. This drives good Board members away and keeps the conflict ongoing. It also means the perception of the HOA is not aligned with reality; perhaps it is actually running really well?
Good contractors can be difficult to find and manage. It requires multiple Board members and a good property manager to keep tabs on the community so that it is always looking its best. This is a recurring task that must be kept up with all the time, and sometimes this means things get dropped.
HOAs typically work on shoestring budgets. This means your neighborhood does not seem to make “progress” in growth or becoming fancier. The reality is that HOAs are meant to keep things as well-kept as possible, not to build new amenities (without special assessments).
At the end we discussed ways to turn this around, and hopefully you took these to heart. If you are on your HOA Board today, remember to keep working through the challenges, stay off the local news, and don’t become case law!
Thanks for reading.
Homeowners may be surprised how often their neighbors report them for violations. It happens much more than you think.
I am not knocking inspectors, just that the simplicity of the work means any person off the street could do them. Many do a really great job, and often it is the property manager doing inspections, which I believe is better to keep homeowners happy because they understand the history of the neighborhood, the members of the Board, and any agreements or policy changes the Board has made regarding violations.
Depending on the jurisdiction and laws of where you live, parking in the street may not be enforceable as the streets are public. This is different if you live in a gated community where the HOA may be the one maintaining the roads rather than the city or county. For some HOA Boards, they may not wish to enforce CC&Rs that restrict parking in the street because they do not believe it is enforceable, or they simply do not wish to burden homeowners. However, even for public streets the HOA does have the ability to enforce parking in the street if it is in the CC&Rs. Whether a homeowner would win a lawsuit over that is another story.
Our new neighborhood lobbied the developer-controlled HOA to finish the sidewalks to connect homes to the ends of the street. Instead of forking out of their own budget, they used our HOA reserves. The homeowners paid to finish the sidewalks, not the developer.
Dismantling the HOA is an interesting topic for another day.