I service a few of these "communities," and I find that almost without exception, the people who serve on the boards are those who really, truly have nothing better to do than be busybodies. They each have a list of "authorized contractors," and residents are supposed to choose from those lists or have new contractors apply for board approval prior to doing business with them. Being on the list is good for business, but not so good for peace of mind.
I was once fined by a board, for example, for not having my company name on my "truck" (a Saturn Vue), as required of all contractors who service the facility. Now these people should know that in New York and Long Island, having my company name on my vehicle would prevent me from driving on about half the major roads ("parkways" are restricted to passenger vehicles). The fine was trivial (I think it was $25.00), but what bothered me is that someone had nothing better to do than write me up.
I've also been fined for not getting approval prior to installing a DSL/POTS splitter on the outside of a house, amidst all the other utility wiring, meters, and boxes. This is a little plastic box about 2 inches by 3 inches that gets mounted next to the Telco NIB to split off the DSL. No one ever would have noticed the thing had I not been observed installing it, and frankly, I'm not sure the HOA has any legal right to regulate such things. But again, I paid the trivial fine to avoid losing the business.
One of the more interesting cases was when a board had a meeting during which they decided that all wireless routers in the community had to be encrypted (not a bad idea), but that the management office had to know the SSID and WPA key (huh?). That one came about when two residents set up their own unencrypted networks using the same default SSIDs, and one neighbor inadvertently tapped into the other's router. Somehow, that resident also managed to install the other resident's network printer to his laptop as the default, and all the porn he was trying to print was printing on his neighbor's printer.
I happened to get the calls from both residents the same day: One was a call to T/S the printer to find out why it wasn't printing, and the other was a call from the other guy to stop his printer from spewing out porn. It was kind of comical, actually; and the board came out with the encryption requirement shortly thereafter. But I never got a good answer regarding (nor did I comply with) the board requirement that they be informed as to what people's PSKs were.
-Rich
