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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Adrian Horton

John Oliver on homeowners associations: ‘Glorified debt collectors with the power to upend your life’

John Oliver HOAs HOA
John Oliver on homeowners associations: “At their worst, they are glorified debt collectors with the power to upend your life and expel people from a neighborhood.”
John Oliver on homeowners associations: ‘At their worst, they are glorified debt collectors with the power to upend your life and expel people from a neighborhood.’ Photograph: YouTube

John Oliver looked into American home ownership on Last Week Tonight, and particularly the private governing structure of homeowners associations (HOAs). (For millennials under 35 and unlikely to ever own a home – “sorry, that is the deal you made when you decided to be born after 1988,” Oliver quipped – Last Week Tonight prepared a segment on Chuck E Cheese.)

But for everyone else, HOAs are a sneakily common force in daily life – 29% of the US population lives in community associations, and 82% of all single-family homes sold in 2021 were in one.

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