Comment on A product of his environment
seejur@lemmy.world 4 days agoIsn’t HOA pretty unique to America (and maybe Canada)?
I live in an andelsboligforening, thats kind of the same i think.
Imagine if an association owned an apartment complex, and the association was owned by the members.
So i dont technically own my apartment, i own a specifik part of the association, that is connected with this specific apartment.
We have the same for city gardens called Kolonihave, its actually very common in Northern Europe.
In US we call that a housing cooperative, that’s different, because the co-op owns the building(s), then people own shares in the co-op. An HOA generally only owns (and maintains) the common areas, then individuals own their own building, but sometimes there aren’t any common areas, then you’re just paying the HOA for the privilege of being subject to their extra rules. Co-ops are rare, and harder to finance (since you don’t own something that can be foreclosed on)
We have taloyhtiö which is similar. The one I live in at the moment is pretty good, we even have our own janitor which is rare nowadays. Today I called the janitor about a leaking pipe and they arranged a plumber for tomorrow, no hassle.
The housing cooperative is much liked and there are elderly people living here that were born in these houses and never lived elsewhere. It’s not a posh neighbourhood either, which is nice. Just normal people.
But of course it varies a lot. Here most of the people who own the flats live in them, and the board members too, but the housing cooperatives whose boards are filled with landlords tend to minimize the upkeep and services. And when also the tenants change all the time the community that would look after itself doesn’t have a chance to grow.
We have a janitot as well, only ours is an asshole 🤷♂️ what can you do.
mirshafie@europe.pub 3 days ago
I imagine all neighborhoods have some local association that fills this function. It’s just that the USA cosplays as libertarians while being authotitarians.
I hate to drag in Iran into this, but that’s a country where property is respected. You owned a piece of land in the 60s that you never developed, then the revolution came and you fled to LA? Well your plot of land is still sitting there, untouched, in the middle of Tehran, now worth tens of millions of dollars.
As a homeowner in Iran, you own a cone with its tip in the Earth’s core and its base emanating to the edge of the universe. The same applies if ypu own an apartment. You have a veto, changes can only happen by consensus.