Homeowners association
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Some of the developments that real estate developers build are common interest developments, a category that includes planned–unit developments of single–family houses, condominiums, and cooperative apartments. Before the first unit is sold, of one of these developments, the developer records restrictive covenants — on all of the properties — that "run with the land," meaning that all successive buyers are bound by the same covenants as the original purchaser. These covenants, among other things, form a homeowners association.
A homeowners association is an organization comprised of all owners of units in the development. The vast majority of them are incorporated and are therefore governed by a board, which is a private government.
Homeowners associations collect fees, fines, and assessments from homeowners, maintain the common areas of the development, and enforce the association's governing documents. These may include detailed rules regarding construction and maintenance of individual homes. The common areas maintained and governed may include landscaping, common buildings (e.g., clubhouses) and recreational facilities, common walls in attached housing developments, and infrastructure like streets, mailboxes, sidewalks, and parking lots.
Often, a homeowners association has to collect special assessments, in addition to the set fees, from all the members. Assessments can be to cover legal expenses for a judgement against the homeowner's association, to repair damage from a natural disaster, or to make improvements.
In some states, California for instance, a Homeowners Association can sell a member's house without any judicial procedure in order to collect a fine. Other states, like Florida, require a judicial hearing.
Some of the responsibilities that the covenants delegate to homeowners association boards would otherwise be performed by local governments or require private legal (civil) action.
Nevertheless, only owners -- who need not be residents -- are allowed to vote in elections to choose the board. Residents of the community who are not owners (e.g., renters) do not receive a vote.
Some of the first homeowners associations in the United States were the private places, or private streets, of St. Louis, Missouri. The earliest, Benton Place, opened in 1867. In the next five decades, over one hundred of the streets were laid out in St. Louis. Many more appeared in nearby suburbs, such as University City, Missouri. Under the covenants of these private places, the residents not only owned the street but the utility easements sewer and water mains. After years of decline, the places underwent a revival in the 1960s. Most are in the prosperous Central West End but a few were all-black, such as the nearly all-black Lewis Place, were prosperous enclaves surrounding by blighted neighborhoods. Studies by urban planners, such as Oscar Newman, found that these private places were less likely to suffer from crime and other aspects of urban decay than the nearby public streets.
In recent decades, homeowners associations have become increasingly common in the United States, exercising control over 22.1 million American homes in 2005, according to the [Community Associations Institute].
References
- David T. Beito, Peter Gordon, and Alexander Tabarrok, The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 0-472-08837-8/
- Evan McKenzie, Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Governments, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-06638-4
- New York Times article, "Homeowner Boards Blur Line of Who Rules Roost" by Motoko Rich July 27, 2003
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