Homeowners Associations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Seeing this from the Netherlands, where HOAs only exist for apartments, and have nowhere near these powers, it's obvious that 'freedom' in the US is primarily for corporations, not individuals.

I remember reading a story a few years ago where a guy had a house out in the country. Soon a developer came in and built a HOA community around his house. His house was legally excluded from the HOA as it was not part of the development, but still in the neighborhood. On the back of his house, he had a huge deck. The HOA started harassing him about the deck saying it did not meet the rules and needed to be removed. He kept telling the them his house was not part of the HOA. Then one day he came home and his deck was gone. The HOA sent in contractors to remove it. He sued them and won. The court made the HOA rebuild his huge deck. That ended up bankrupting the HOA. Man, I wish I could buy that guy a beer!

I was born in 1986 and John's assessment of my ability to own a home is very flattering.

In Utah. An HOA in daybreak kept charging my brother fines for having dog poop in his front yard. He doesn't own a dog. It's also part of the HOA to pick up after your dog. $74 per day. He went on vacation once and got charged $1400 for poop in his yard that wasn't from his dog while in vacation

As someone who is indeed under 35, I can confirm the chuck e cheese site does not disappoint. This right here is why I enjoy this show

My grandfather lived in a neighborhood with an HOA. After a lengthy battle over a flagpole that was 1 ft too tall he went around to each of the board members houses at night and burned their lawns with fertilizer. He then reported them to their own boary that they weren't following HOA rules to keep grass at acceptable length. They didn't have any grass at all as the fertilizer burned it to death 😂 Gramps was a legend.

Our HOA hated us cause we were a mixed family. One time, they kept sending people to steal the number off of our house and then fine us for our house number not being clearly marked. Every time we replaced it, it went missing again the next night. So my dad superglued it to the house. We then received a fine for superglueing our house number to which my dad said 'How did you know it was superglued if you weren't the ones removing it?' they stopped and dropped the fines.

My friend owned a condo. The HOA sent a paper to go in and redo her patio on the second floor while she was on vacation. They put the planters up on the railing. She was gone for a month. The papers didn't take down the planters and she started being get fines for the planters. It was the HOA people that put the planters up there.

The fact that HOAs can perfectly, legally bypass even SCOTUS rulings on desegregation is some truly dystopian BS.

A few home owners in my dads neighborhood tried to start an HOA a few years ago. They had a meeting to vote if it should be put in place and only two people voted for it. Those people were then ostracized to the point they sold their homes and moved. Truly the best outcome imo

I was born in 1988, only able to buy my home because of an inheritance. Literally said while I was house hunting that I would not buy ANY home in an HOA. Bought a house built in 1922 and no HOA in sight. Loathed the idea of ever owning a home in one, because I don't want a bunch of busybodies who are not paying one red cent of my mortgage to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own home.

Jerry as a homeowners association leader is freaking perfect. Love that Voice Actor

i’m an incredibly non-violent person, but if an HOA secretly bought my house a year before evicting me for less than a Happy Meal i’d be catching multiple life sentences

When I bought my place (2013), I insisted to the real estate agent that anything in a neighborhood with an HOA would be immediately rejected. She said that as a buyers' agent, it was the most common request buyers had.

love living in a country where freedom is priceless

HOAs sound like the neighborhood equivalent of the Stanford prison experiment.

Honestly John's videos on American society leave me with the impression that the country is on the verge of tearing itself apart. I say this as an outsider.

“If you’re under 35 this story isn’t for you. You’ll never own a house.” Ok. Just because it’s true it doesn’t mean you have to say it out loud JOHN.

As a UK homeowner l feel fortunate.

I own a condo and my HOA failed to keep up with maintenance and inspection of the building and now they took out a loan so our payments went from 500 to 1,250 and we are all selling our condos because why should we have to pay for a loan we never took out lol. Never buy a property with a HOA its a nightmare!