Depending on where you live and how bad a yard gets, it can be a real problem. Here, for example, it can be an invitation to snakes or other wildlife that aren’t confined to that property.

That said, I’m -1 on HOAs. I’ve heard far too many complaints and too few people happy with them to deal with one.

I've had quail, deer, mice, raccoons, coyotes, moles, hawks, snakes, lizards, bees, wabbits, squirrels, gophers ground beavers, bobcats, owls, and even eagles hanging out on my property. I'm in the middle of the metropolitan area, too. I don't mind them :-/ A couple years ago a coyote mom decided the front yard was the perfect place for her to watch her 7 pups grow up. She'd keep a weather eye on me, and I enjoyed watching them.

A couple months ago a coyote decided to poop on my front door. Obviously, it was sending a message, but I'm not sure what it was.

> but I'm not sure what it was

Probably didn't like my HackerNews posts!

> I don't get people who genuinely care for its own sake about their neighbors lawn having weeds.

Certain types of invasive plans are noxious, outright poisonous, encourage hay fever, or just spread so fast that they can end up destroying neighbor's yards as well.

Plants don't obey property lines.

Edit: Unkempt yards can also be breeding ground for pests. From mosquitoes in still water to hoards of rats. Most people don't want to put up with those styles of annoyances that are trivially avoidable if everyone in the area cares just a little.

Hay fever comes from grass. Less grass makes me more comfortable at home.

Rats come from having edible garbage available and fruit trees dropping fruit.

The most annoying things about neighbors are dogs that bark all day, and the leafblowers and lawnmowers.

> The most annoying things about neighbors are dogs that bark all day, and the leafblowers and lawnmowers.

Do you not encounter leaf blowers and lawn mowers in a HOA community? I would have expected it to be much worse because there would be maintenance crews doing it for every house in the area vs maybe a few houses on a ~20 house block.

Absolutely you do. The HOA I used to be in had that problem in spades. Weekends on a warm day were unbearable with the windows open.

These are all already torts or illegal under municipal law.

Unfortunately, the court system is not friction-less enough for "your weeds got in my yard" to be a remotely workable reason to go to court. It would be nice to live in a society where justice flowed as freely as municipal water and common law obviated the need for all other forms of organization or regulation, but in the real world going to court is so expensive and time-consuming that we need a lot of other forms of power around to avoid overusing that method.

If you have a plan for reforming the local judiciary to be so effective that HOAs are no longer necessary I am all ears, but I have not heard any proposals for doing that.

You don't need to go to court. Most cities will be happy to fine your neighbors for "harboring pests".

Weed seeds blow across property lines and create problems for other people. It creates an undue burden on those that want to maintain a garden or other curated flora.

And mandating that everyone have a manicured lawn doesn’t place an undue burden on those who like wildness and want to curate that or want to grow vegetables?

"Things happen by themselves outside, and having to deal with that because you want things in a certain way is an undue burden"

You know weeds are only weeds if you don't want them, right? Everywhere else they're just wild plants.

The bad weeds around here are spread by bird poop. Not much to be done about that, except mow them down.

Maybe going to war against natural native plants is a losing battle...

Why do you assume the weeds in question are native and not invasive?