David W. wrote:
(snip)
But many HOA's force their idea of style down the homeowner's throats. Some
friends owned a townhome with an HOA. They were told, "Next month you will
hire firm XXX to paint your exterior THIS color." Naturally, the color
sucked. And when their windows (and those of many of the townhomes) failed
at about 5 years old, all the owners were told they had X amount of time to
have them replaced (at the homeowners expense) with essentially the same
window from the same manufacturer. Needless to say, there was enough
protest over that stupid decision that they managed to get it changed (with
the threat of a lawsuit).

As far as I know most HOA positions are not inherited by blood line. If
enough people consider the HOA was way too out of line, there is a way
to replace those who sit on the HOA. Those who chose not to participate
and let their HOA got out of hand may deserve what they got, IMHO.

FC