In 2012, Jonathan Gropper bought a condominium in a historic Philadelphia constructing after falling in love with its uncovered picket trusses, excessive ceilings, and different character. However beneath the appeal, the roof leaked, the foyer’s paint peeled, and the elevators saved breaking.
A serial entrepreneur and lawyer, Gropper did what many engaged owners would do: he ran for the owners affiliation (HOA) board and received. As soon as elected, Gropper pushed for extra board transparency, together with bringing in a forensic CPA to assessment the books. However he says the board refused, then eliminated him via an inner vote and changed him with a extra “compliant” member.
Gropper questioned whether or not the affiliation’s funds had been being correctly managed, citing rising charges, deterioration of the constructing, and inconsistent election practices.
In 2017, his next-door neighbor, Jonathan Waldman, a patent legal professional, additionally ran for the board. Election outcomes had been delayed by months as a consequence of disputed ballots. When Waldman requested to see the outcomes, he says the HOA solely allowed him to examine the ballots within the affiliation’s legal professional’s workplace with out a cellphone, notes, or authorized counsel.
So Waldman tallied the votes on his fingers. By his rely, he and some different candidates had received seats. The board disagreed, citing points similar to illegible names and mismatches with property deeds.
Waldman, Gropper, and some different neighbors sued. However HOA associations can typically use reserve funds—and typically homeowner-paid particular assessments—to finance their authorized protection. If these funds run low, owners themselves could also be charged particular assessments to assist cowl the continuing price of litigation.
This meant Waldman and Gropper had been basically paying their very own HOA’s charges to battle them.
They ultimately settled, calling the expertise “HOA hell.”
The rising HOA hellscape
Roughly 78 million Americans, almost one in 4, reside in communities ruled by HOAs, in accordance with trade information. They’ve grow to be more and more frequent: about 65.7% of new homes and 82% of recently sold homes are part of an HOA. Popularized in the 1960s as a approach to shield property values and preserve neighborhood requirements, typically of which discriminated towards individuals of shade, HOAs have advanced into a robust layer of native governance.
In single-family residence communities, HOAs are liable for the frequent areas, similar to safety gates, swimming pools, and personal roads, and for imposing the restrictive covenants (CC&Rs), which govern a group.
HOA condominiums maintain much more energy: they personal the frequent areas, together with the partitions round every unit, and are liable for the upkeep of roofs, elevators, parking tons, and extra.
In idea, HOAs are run by volunteer neighbors who hire a property supervisor to assist them oversee and preserve their communities. In follow, HOAs can shortly flip into mini monarchies, accumulating charges, imposing guidelines, and making selections that straight have an effect on owners’ funds and every day lives. Evaluation charges are a first-rate instance of this. If owners refuse to pay these further payments, which may price 1000’s of {dollars}, the HOA has the proper to wonderful them or, worse, foreclose on them.
And month-to-month HOA dues also can improve at any time.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the national median monthly HOA charge was $135, however about 3 million owners paid greater than $500 per thirty days. In a 2025 nationwide research of 1,000 individuals performed by 2–10 Dwelling Consumers Guarantee, half of the respondents stated their charges have elevated, with 65% admitting these hikes occur often. One other national survey of 1,000 participants by Platinum Dwelling Builders & Design, Inc. discovered that 51% of house owners made monetary sacrifices to afford these charges, together with 30% dipping into their retirement funds and financial savings, whereas 19% needed to scale back discretionary spending, similar to journey, residence upgrades, and even important repairs.
Within the 2–10 survey, 54% of people living in HOAs stated they encountered challenges, and 70% wouldn’t purchase in an HOA-run neighborhood once more. Owners cited three most important causes for his or her unhappiness: inconsistent rule enforcement, poor communication, and extreme charges.
And 40% of respondents stated their boards had been unresponsive, leaving owners feeling unheard or that their opinions didn’t matter. Within the different survey, 64% of house owners stated their HOA causes them day-to-day stress, together with 17% who felt it impacted their every day moods or psychological well-being.
It’s unfair to imagine that HOAs are all unhealthy or corrupt although, cautions Howard Jacobson, a residential developer and builder who’s labored with condominium and single-family HOAs for the previous 20 years. Typically, he says, owners are proof against paying for upkeep, deferring it till they’ll’t delay it any longer. Jacobson factors to the tragic 2021 Surfside condo collapse in Miami, the place 98 individuals died after years of postponed structural work.
Jacobson says in his expertise, circumstances like Gropper and Waldman’s are the exception, not the rule. He argued that the larger challenge is the lack of information and low participation. “Most individuals don’t need to serve on the board,” he says. “It’s a thankless job.”
Nonetheless, “there’ll at all times be disputes when individuals reside in proximity and are anticipated to satisfy sure obligations concerning their houses,” provides Allison Hertz, an legal professional board-certified by the Florida Bar in Condominium and Deliberate Growth regulation.
The tech firm bringing transparency to HOAs
After their expertise, Gropper and Waldman teamed as much as construct TrueHOA final 12 months to assist stop HOA nightmare conditions and resolve run-of-the-mill disputes like these Hertz describes.
TrueHOA is a platform designed to trace and confirm key components of HOA governance, together with elections, voting data, and board selections.
As an alternative of counting on paper ballots or inner processes managed by a small board, it creates a digital path masking voter eligibility, poll submission, tallying, and election studies that owners can independently assessment as a result of, as Gropper places it, “I’ve seen college journeys that get extra accountability than HOA elections.”
The TrueHOA platform prices $6 per residence yearly, constructed into their dues. It’s already onboarding tons of of communities throughout totally different states. In a single Miami case, battle broke out in an HOA over hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in proposed enhancements. Half the group felt the HOA was overspending—the opposite half agreed the adjustments had been good.
Then re-election got here. Voting was performed utilizing a mixture of e-voting and paper ballots dropped off on the administration workplace. However when the complete incumbent board was re-elected regardless of important group opposition, Gropper says belief was misplaced. The board tried to reply that the HOA’s regulation agency had operated the e-voting system, however that introduced little consolation to upset owners, who noticed the legal professional as appearing within the board’s favor.
The board determined to modify to TrueHOA for his or her upcoming December 2026 election, in order that, this time, the outcomes might be irrefutable. By way of TrueHOA, they’ll additionally run group votes to measure house owner sentiment for his or her initiatives, settle for group proposals for motion objects and concepts, and create a defensible audit path for his or her ongoing selections.
And since HOAs are run by volunteer owners, a lot of whom lack the time or experience to handle advanced budgets and infrastructure, TrueHOA created the Verified Governance™ Specialist certification, a free weekend course to assist volunteer boards handle elections, communication, data, and decision-making extra constantly and transparently.
“Volunteers don’t fail as a result of they’re unqualified,” Gropper provides. “They fail as a result of nobody ever fingers them a system. The certification is that system. It turns governance into one thing a part-time board member can truly run in a dependable method.”
When elections and different selections are challenged, it creates struggle zones in communities that take emotional and psychological tolls, he says.
“Firms don’t run like this, and this can be a firm,” Gropper says of HOAs. “It’s a kind of areas within the US that individuals simply thought was a non-issue and simply accepted it as a reality of life.”
