In 2012, Jonathan Gropper purchased a condo in a historic Philadelphia building after falling in love with its exposed wooden trusses, high ceilings, and other character. But beneath the charm, the roof leaked, the lobby’s paint peeled, and the elevators kept breaking.
A serial entrepreneur and lawyer, Gropper did what many engaged homeowners would do: he ran for the homeowners association (HOA) board and won. Once elected, Gropper pushed for more board transparency, including bringing in a forensic CPA to review the books. But he says the board refused, then removed him through an internal vote and replaced him with a more “compliant” member.
Gropper questioned whether the association’s finances were being properly managed, citing rising fees, deterioration of the building, and inconsistent election practices.
In 2017, his next-door neighbor, Jonathan Waldman, a patent attorney, also ran for the board. Election results were delayed by months due to disputed ballots. When Waldman requested to see the results, he says the HOA only allowed him to inspect the ballots in the association’s attorney’s office without a phone, notes, or legal counsel.
So Waldman tallied the votes on his hands. By his count, he and a few other candidates had won seats. The board disagreed, citing issues such as illegible names and mismatches with property deeds.
Waldman, Gropper, and a few other neighbors sued. But HOA associations can often use reserve funds—and sometimes homeowner-paid special assessments—to finance their legal defense. If those funds run low, homeowners themselves may be charged special assessments to help cover the ongoing cost of litigation.
This meant Waldman and Gropper were essentially paying their own HOA’s fees to fight them.
They eventually settled, calling the experience “HOA hell.”
The growing HOA hellscape
Roughly 78 million Americans, nearly one in four, live in communities governed by HOAs, according to industry data. They’ve become increasingly common: about 65.7% of new homes and 82% of recently sold homes are part of an HOA. Popularized in the 1960s as a way to protect property values and maintain neighborhood standards, sometimes of which discriminated against people of color, HOAs have evolved into a powerful layer of local governance.
In single-family home communities, HOAs are responsible for the common areas, such as security gates, pools, and private roads, and for enforcing the restrictive covenants (CC&Rs), which govern a community.
HOA condominiums hold even more power: they own the common areas, including the walls around each unit, and are responsible for the maintenance of roofs, elevators, parking lots, and more.
In theory, HOAs are run by volunteer neighbors who hire a property manager to help them oversee and maintain their communities. In practice, HOAs can quickly turn into mini monarchies, collecting fees, enforcing rules, and making decisions that directly affect homeowners’ finances and daily lives. Assessment fees are a prime example of this. If homeowners refuse to pay these additional bills, which can cost thousands of dollars, the HOA has the right to fine them or, worse, foreclose on them.
And monthly HOA dues can also increase at any time.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the national median monthly HOA fee was $135, but about 3 million homeowners paid more than $500 per month. In a 2025 national study of 1,000 participants conducted by 2–10 Home Buyers Warranty, half of the respondents said their fees have increased, with 65% admitting these hikes occur often. Another national survey of 1,000 participants by Platinum Home Builders & Design, Inc. found that 51% of homeowners made financial sacrifices to afford these fees, including 30% dipping into their retirement funds and savings, while 19% had to reduce discretionary spending, such as travel, home upgrades, or even essential repairs.
In the 2–10 survey, 54% of people living in HOAs said they encountered challenges, and 70% would not buy in an HOA-run neighborhood again. Homeowners cited three main reasons for their unhappiness: inconsistent rule enforcement, poor communication, and excessive fees.
And 40% of respondents said their boards were unresponsive, leaving homeowners feeling unheard or that their opinions didn’t matter. In the other survey, 64% of homeowners said their HOA causes them day-to-day stress, including 17% who felt it impacted their daily moods or mental well-being.
It’s unfair to assume that HOAs are all bad or corrupt though, cautions Howard Jacobson, a residential developer and builder who’s worked with condo and single-family HOAs for the past 20 years. Often, he says, homeowners are resistant to paying for maintenance, deferring it until they can’t delay it any longer. Jacobson points to the tragic 2021 Surfside condo collapse in Miami, where 98 people died after years of postponed structural work.
Jacobson says in his experience, cases like Gropper and Waldman’s are the exception, not the rule. He argued that the bigger issue is the lack of expertise and low participation. “Most people don’t want to serve on the board,” he says. “It’s a thankless job.”
Still, “there will always be disputes when people live in proximity and are expected to meet certain obligations regarding their homes,” adds Allison Hertz, an attorney board-certified by the Florida Bar in Condominium and Planned Development law.
The tech company bringing transparency to HOAs
After their experience, Gropper and Waldman teamed up to build TrueHOA last year to help prevent HOA nightmare situations and resolve run-of-the-mill disputes like those Hertz describes.
TrueHOA is a platform designed to track and verify key parts of HOA governance, including elections, voting records, and board decisions.
Instead of relying on paper ballots or internal processes controlled by a small board, it creates a digital trail covering voter eligibility, ballot submission, tallying, and election reports that homeowners can independently review because, as Gropper puts it, “I’ve seen school trips that get more accountability than HOA elections.”
The TrueHOA platform costs $6 per home annually, built into their dues. It is already onboarding hundreds of communities across different states. In one Miami case, conflict broke out in an HOA over millions of dollars in proposed improvements. Half the community felt the HOA was overspending—the other half agreed the changes were good.
Then re-election came. Voting was conducted using a mix of e-voting and paper ballots dropped off at the management office. But when the entire incumbent board was re-elected despite significant community opposition, Gropper says trust was lost. The board tried to respond that the HOA’s law firm had operated the e-voting system, but that brought little comfort to upset homeowners, who saw the attorney as acting in the board’s favor.
The board decided to switch to TrueHOA for their upcoming December 2026 election, so that, this time, the results will be irrefutable. Through TrueHOA, they can also run community votes to measure homeowner sentiment for their projects, accept community proposals for action items and ideas, and create a defensible audit trail for their ongoing decisions.
And because HOAs are run by volunteer homeowners, many of whom lack the time or expertise to manage complex budgets and infrastructure, TrueHOA created the Verified Governance™ Specialist certification, a free weekend course to help volunteer boards manage elections, communication, records, and decision-making more consistently and transparently.
“Volunteers don’t fail because they’re unqualified,” Gropper adds. “They fail because no one ever hands them a system. The certification is that system. It turns governance into something a part-time board member can actually run in a reliable manner.”
When elections and other decisions are challenged, it creates war zones in communities that take emotional and mental tolls, he says.
“Companies don’t run like this, and this is a company,” Gropper says of HOAs. “It’s one of those areas in the US that people just thought was a non-issue and just accepted it as a fact of life.”
