I had a few bad experiences with my last HOA...
First, it seems some guy got in charge and then proceeded to have the HOA 'hire' his mgmt company!!! Yes, he hired himself and paid himself good money.... more than the old company was being paid...
Now, these people seemed to go out of their way to find 'problems' so they could justify their fee... I got a letter that my driveway was 'dirty'.... well, duh... it is a driveway.... now, it did not have a single oil stain or in fact any stain... it was just old concrete and looked like every other driveway in the neighborhood...
It took a few years for the people to get worked up enough to get him voted out... but then he refused to call an election!!! It was finally forced on him and he chose a building 15 miles away to have the meeting... well, enough people showed up to vote him out, but he did a procedural thing to try and invalidate the results... I think it took another 6 months to get him out...
We get a new mgmt company... and what do I get... a letter saying that my fence does not come close enough to my house on one side.... now, I have been living in the house for over 20 years and the fence was the one there was there when I bought it... how did suddenly 'move'
And also, who came on my property to measure it... there is no way you could see from the street as it was maybe a 1/4 inch off... I fought it for awhile, but then just removed one board and moved it over... fence looked worse, but it was not compliant....
Now, this was the association that was also supposed to prevent people painting their houses some god awful color.... but guess what.... people started to do it and nothing happened...
I finally moved, but it was because the neighborhood was going downhill and I needed more space, not the HOA...