HOAs operate under a cloak of secrecy

My excerpts from the Abstract of an excellent Memphis Law Review article.

Homeowner associations (“HOAs”) operate under a cloak of secrecy where innocent and unwitting owners have money extracted from their wallets, and then are subjugated to the dominion of potentially wasteful and extravagant expenditures authorized by condescending HOA board members.

In the modern era, HOAs are marketed as establishing desirable communities through the imposition of covenants, conditions, and restrictions (“CC&Rs”) and rules in a neighborhood, with the purported outcome of enhancing quality of life and property values. To help accomplish this unsubstantiated and unproven utopian vision, buildings or neighborhoods controlled by HOAs are subject to the imposition of HOA dominion via CC&Rs upon the underlying property as well as ad hoc rules and regulations.

This exercise of dominion and control, administered by a Board of Directors or Executive Board (“Board of Directors”) is purportedly undertaken in the interest of fulfilling the goals of the HOA. With the powers vested in the HOA Board of Directors to regulate behavior, impose sanctions, and assess fees, the HOA is tantamount to an omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent deity.

Source: “The Homeowner Association: A Descent Into Dante’s Inferno Palliated By A Summons To Improve The Hate-Hate Relationship Through Transparent Disclosures,” The University of Memphis Law Review Vol. 54, p.43, Bradford P. Anderson.