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Homeowners Associations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

68 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this commentary1 month2023–2024 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN uses it as the go-to reference in threads about HOA absurdity, such as fines over small violations and authoritarian rules.

A John Oliver Last Week Tonight segment on homeowners associations, covering the surprising power they hold over residents and how arbitrary their rules can be. It mixes investigative comedy with examples of HOA overreach.

“A fun John Oliver video on how corrupt HOA's are” (HN, 2024)

1 recommendations · 3 citations · Commentary

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@arghwhat May 2024 Recommends
on HN thread A man ordered to hide his boat painted the boat on his fence
You do not have the freedom to choose an HOA, only the freedom to move somewhere else. Unless you define "freedom" as "not held captive", I don't think that really counts. A fun John Oliver video on how corrupt HOA's are: [this video]
Fun take on how corrupt HOAs are

Citations, criticism and jokes

@anjel Aug 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Microgrids Are Giving Power to the People
HOAs are in many cases a collection of opinionated amateurs making binding decisions on behalf of their disinterested neighbors. See also 'special assessments' And that's the best case scenario. HOAs can get a tad 'authoritarian' at least according to John Oliver: [this video]
HOAs can be authoritarian

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