HOAs, the homeowners associations, are, to some, the most important government body, regulating what neighbors do to maintain the neighborhood as perfect as possible. To others, they are the most annoying entity; they are always trying to bother people over the dumbest things. If you search online, you will mostly find people complaining about it or trying to buy a house without one. We cannot judge them; unfortunately, this association is known for its controlling manners and horrible ways of managing situations. We can find stories in which neighbors were charged a lot of money for the most irrational things, like taking out the trash outside the timeframe or an imperfectly groomed front yard. Yes, you heard me right; these associations can charge you for breaking one of the rules. But not everything is so bad. They are also the ones that we have to thank for not having a dirty neighborhood.
In my neighborhood, we had a situation that lasted years: a homeowner would leave their dog unattended, walking alone through the neighborhood. All the neighbors were really worried about it at first; nobody was taking care of the dog during the day, and a tragedy could have happened with all the cars that go through those streets, especially because we have a school nearby. That worry soon turned into anger towards that owner, as her dog would usually break things it found on the streets. When someone took out the trash, the dog would immediately jump on it and destroy it, and then the other neighbors would have to pick it up and clean everything.
This kept happening for a while —a very long while. Everyone tried to accommodate it to avoid the dog destroying more trash, but it was impossible to keep living like that. One day I snapped; I was tired of cleaning the street every day because of a dumb owner who couldn't take care of her dog. I went to her house to try to talk some sense into her. The conversation started with me calm and her uninterested in what I was saying, which made me extremely angry. I ended up screaming at her —all this was happening in the middle of our street— and other neighbors started to look at us. Finally, she went back to her house, leaving me talking on my own. It worked out; she started to stop letting her dog run around unattended, but I never knew if she understood me or was afraid I would scream at her again. I wasn't going to do all that again. Whatever the case is, it worked. Maybe with an HOA, this could have been managed in a better and calmer way.