Different situation.

In our neighborhood you really don't need an HOA. We're not a Beverly Hills rich neighborhood, but we all have larger nice homes. Everyone takes care of their property.** The Philippines is trickier because there doesn't seem to be a mechanism for enforcement. Even in the US, you can levy all the fines you want, but I believe in most cases the enforcement comes if you ever try to sell the home (then you have to clear the fines). A lot of time the HOAs are run by a separate management company that can sue you. As I understand it from 1poorlady (Filipina), suing someone in the Philippines seldom gets you anywhere.





**Ours is probably the worst right now because our ground cover is struggling, and so we have some patches of bare dirt in the front. We're trying to fix it, but we may have to replant.