No, it's because people don't want to live next to "that guy". Like the dude in WI that had his house raided. Fucking pallets and shit everywhere like a ghetto.
My parents had this asshole next door. He was lazy so what did he do? He planted a hundred trees all over his yard and then never had to mow again after he "let it go wild". Looked like shit and when my parents went to sell their house they had several lookers say "wow, we don't want to live next to that guy but we like the house".
That's why there are HOAs. Nobody wants that one fucker to cost them tens of thousands of dollars because he's a lazy or dirty fuck.
That's part of that. However there are many hoas that have very restrictive policies of what is allowed architecturely, it goes beyond just keeping your yard neat and tidy. (That's what the OP is running into.)
Rules on shingle styles and colors. Limited selection of siding styles and colors. Extra layers of bureaucracy if you want to modify your house with an expansion or other modification. Limits on landscaping options. limits on child play sets, trampolines treehouses, etc. What can park in your own driveway. It goes on and on. " Preserving the look of the neighborhood" is the common logic that goes into the covenant.
You don't truly own your house if you live in an HOA. That's fine if that's what you want. But in the end you are choosing to limit your own freedom in order to limit the freedom of your neighbors. Like I said, I find it odd that libertarians and other types rant about big government intrusion, but then feel very comfortable setting up the same systems in their own neighborhood. You could even say that your hoa fees are a tax under another name.
My parents have a home in an hoa as well. Plenty of years there to see how they run. The covenant rules are often used by a few busybodies in the development to complain about their neighbors, often anonymously. Board members are often retired people with nothing else to do, or the busybodies themselves that feel the need to enforce the rules and their ideas of what the neighborhood should be.
Great if you get good board members. If you get a lot of pricks, you are sol.
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