Banned is maybe too far, but why should we as a country allow people to have petty power over meaningless things their neighbors do? Could we ban HOAs from being included in house sales, and every time it's sold the new owners have to opt in?
For the most part, I'm wondering about this in the context of single family homes since for homes like condos, you could make the case that HOAs are useful for shared things like roofs and whatnot. Maybe limit mandatory HOA involvement to things like what's truly necessary and shared and not how tall your grass is?
I won't live in an HOA. But that being said, I don't really have an issue with other people wanting to live in an HOA.
However, I do not like the fact that the HOA has permanent authority over any property you purchase inside of its zone.
I feel like there should be a specific and reasonable amount of money that you can pay in order to exempt your home from the HOA permanently, a method to break the HOA contract at least for as long as you live there.
Like maybe the HOA could reinstate the contract once you move out, and the next owner would have to break it again, but at least while you're living there, you should be able to be exempt from them if you so choose.
And also, I feel like there should be a governmental body that HOAs are responsible to that can handle mediation and give you a higher authority to appeal to.
I've heard horror stories of HLA presidents coming into people's houses to make sure that they've emptied their trash appropriately and other weird stuff like that should have a method of redress that does not necessarily involve a protracted legal battle.
Some sort of HOA governance that is nationwide with state and county chapters would massively lower my resistance to HOA's and give them a little bit more legitimacy in my opinion.
They should have to clearly establish their bylaws and submit them to the governance body and have them approved, and then they should only be allowed to exercise the bylaws that have been agreed upon by the community.
No more weird old people sitting out in your front yard, measuring your grass with a ruler and stuff like that.
The primary remedy for ~~coming into people's houses~~ home invasion is called "Castle Doctrine", which falls well outside the HOA's jurisdiction.
That is highly location specific, and even then it's gonna be a tough row to hoe unless you happen to possess a burner gun and can sprinkle a little crack on his corpse.