> If the issue is so bad, that 70% of your neighbors actually come to a meeting and vote against what you're doing, it must be something really bad.
Two dangers with that.
First, mandatory votes are ... difficult. They exclude a lot of people, particularly those that gotta work two jobs to make ends meet, thus giving more power to those people who have lots of free time (i.e. pensioners, SAHM busybodies).
Second, tyranny of the majority. The original intention of HOAs was to keep out Black and Asian people and, in some cases, Jews [1]. Getting the majority of 70% in a majority white 'hood is an open invitation for harrassment.
If there is bad behavior, such as someone working on "car projects" at night, or letting junk pile up in their front yard, the solution is zoning, noise ordnances and environmental protection laws. Not HOAs.
I believe the modern purpose of HOAs is for the developer to keep the neighborhood looking good long enough to sell all the homes and make a return on their investment. Fair enough. Then it gets turned over to the residents and they go batshit crazy.
HOAs are a huge problem in Florida. It’s hard to find places to live without one. We escaped one that was controlled entirely by one family. Ten years later, they are still in charge of that HOA.
Now, we live in a neighborhood without an HOA. It’s not without a few minor problems, but people are generally more willing to just talk to each other and the city steps in with code enforcement if something ever gets really bad.
I think a lot of people here have PTSD from living in other places with an HOA. Last year, we had a newer resident get a little bit aggressive in trying to start an HOA. He was going so far as patrolling the neighborhood in a golf cart and calling code enforcement on people for all kinds of petty reasons. We ran him out of the neighborhood pretty quickly after that.
I will never live in a place with an HOA again unless it’s a shared building where you kind of have to have something.
But that's exactly why you need the 70% (example number).
The current situation is, that you have pensoners, SAHM, racists and others bothering with HOA and then bothering the neighbors. The HOA board might be full of them, or consist only of them, but they don't make up the (eg.) 70% of total inhabitants of whatever neighborhood (except maybe in some extreme cases).
To get such a majority, even "the others" would have to be bothered by <something> so much, that they would be willing to go out and vote (voting can be done in a way that even people with two jobs can do it, especially if vote secrecy is not required). If some Karen is bothered by a slighly brownish lawn during a draught, most people wouldn't bother and getting 70% of them to vote would be impossible. If it was a serious issue, then people would bother more.
> To get such a majority, even "the others" would have to be bothered by <something> so much, that they would be willing to go out and vote
Forcing mandatory attendance for HOA votes won't work out, that's the thing. Too many cases of remote landlords, properties stuck in inheritance limbo, or even First Amendment issues (can you be compelled to make speech, aka participate in a vote?). Requiring a "70% of all owner shares" would flat out kill most HOAs, and requiring a "70% of present owner shares" perpetuates the status quo of giving disproportionate amounts of power to the usual suspects.
Two dangers with that.
First, mandatory votes are ... difficult. They exclude a lot of people, particularly those that gotta work two jobs to make ends meet, thus giving more power to those people who have lots of free time (i.e. pensioners, SAHM busybodies).
Second, tyranny of the majority. The original intention of HOAs was to keep out Black and Asian people and, in some cases, Jews [1]. Getting the majority of 70% in a majority white 'hood is an open invitation for harrassment.
If there is bad behavior, such as someone working on "car projects" at night, or letting junk pile up in their front yard, the solution is zoning, noise ordnances and environmental protection laws. Not HOAs.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association#History