Cellar Door

That was pretty great!

stingermck

Secret Galaxy did it first!

lisadoris

My taxes aren't any lower despite the fact that some of the services my HOA fees cover (trash collection) are redundant. The fees also cover snow removal and lawn care the former of which is why I moved into a condo in the first place. Other fees may cover cable, pool maintenance, community centers etc.

To answer cultshock's question, yep, an HOA can foreclose on someone's house because nonpayment of fees. My HOA has just started this process on someone who is more than 10K behind and who has blown off the agreed upon payment plans multiple times. This was years in the making and was the last resort; we'll see what happens. I don't think this is a power an HOA should have.

slop101

Yeah, in addition to an HOA, I have a Melo-Roos property tax, which basically doubles the normal property tax.
It was their way of getting around a passed proposition that limited how much property tax can be charged.

Red Dog

HOAs were an easy target, but John attacked them well. My condo board is a bunch of a-holes. Lots of infighting and they hate NextDoor where people are constantly complaining about them.

Troy Stiffler

Those cases are unfortunate. HOAs are only bad when badly run. Apartment management works the same way. There are good and bad.

If you have a neighborhood with no HOA, it’s really going to be hit and miss on being a mess. No, I don’t think people are capable of the self discipline needed to keep up on landscaping. Or if 10 houses keep up and a few don’t, your neighborhood is going to look bad. A lot of those neighborhoods also have parks, playgrounds, sidewalks, misc landscaping, etc to keep up on. A lot of that stuff is private so the government doesn’t keep up on it.

Runaway

Like most things Last Week Tonight is reporting on, we don't have HOAs in Germany, at least not in that fashion. Most people want to live in nice homes, so that's motivation enough and if not, you'll have that one neighbor who will annoy the shit out of you, until you keep up.

Troy Stiffler

Well not my experience here in the US. And maybe in Germany all land is maintained by the government. I mean here in Phoenix, we have neighborhoods with man made lakes that absolutely need an HOA to maintain. Just about every master planned community has parks and landscaping outside of the owners property.

Anyways, if the subject was debated a bit more they would have mentioned these things or scrapped the whole rant. The HOA buying the home for $4 was infuriating and made for a good point.

Also, I’ve heard lots of horror stories about terrible HOA boards run by bitter men and drama queens. But you don’t hear about the ones who operate within reason. I just don’t think it’s a bad system.

Decker

Mine just started implementing speeding tickets and they can be really expensive for going 22 in a 15, which is something that is really easy to do and not exactly flooring it. They are now using our paid security guards to hide out and radar gun tenants so they can get a ticket in the mail later. I don't love it.

Jay G.

Before HOAs, those "common areas" would be handled as city/county/state parkland, and paid for by taxes. Of course, that would make it available to all, not just those in the neighborhood, so not as useful replacement for gated community, where it's only "common" to the landowners in that neighborhood.

Also, Phoenix, AZ absolutely should not have man-made lakes. You're in a desert, with a dwindling water supply, and that's wasting water.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-p...do-river-water

MrX

Decker

Wow that is super-quick!

Thinking of seeing him (and Seth Meyers) on the Strip for NYE.

Bandoman

Yay! I've missed this show.

cultshock

Me too, can't wait!

dex14

Renewed for 3 more seasons:
https://deadline.com/2023/12/last-we...26-1235651067/

Decker

Got tickets for me, my wife and especially my near-obsessed son to see him and Seth Meyers for NYE.

Also getting him this as a Christmas gift.
https://metalbird.com/collections/th...cts/puteketeke

Decker

So the show came back and John had a pretty sweet offer for Clarance Thomas :

Jay G.

HBO isn't posting the main show segments to Youtube until Thursdays now:
https://deadline.com/2024/02/last-we...bo-1235831235/

flansered

When LWT takes long breaks I usually forget about the show until I see that a new segment has been uploaded to Youtube. That reminds me that there is a new episode for me to watch on Max, because for some reason this show does not appear in my "continue watching" list on Max.

Troy Stiffler

That's often how I'd watch. As long as it hits HBO Max, I don't care.