Common? I will say it is common. (if common means asinine)
I cannot agree less... but that is why I choose to not ever live in a planned community or sub division- the ideal of a HOA is fine- in practice, we all know what sorts of people dominate those things- the people with no job, or menial mentality work, over developed amygdala, busy body, cannot mind their own business, and adept at manufacturing outrage type wastes of oxygen.
Ben Franklin said, "The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor."
Sorry you feel that way , I'm on the HOA Board in my neighbor hood in Florida . You paint a picture from the news where the HOA just can't wait to fine a fellow neighbor or take their house , or make a new rule , well its doesn't work that way in our HOA . Yes we have rules , if you bought a house here to live or lease , you were to read the rules & sign them .The HOA's job is to keep the community with in these rules ( That the HO signed on for ) to keep the Community looking good , it keeps the Homes resale value up because the entire Community is nice to look at & all homes are kept up .
I applied & was elected to this position when I retired a couple years ago , so I guess I am jobless like you say , but thats as far as it goes, I did it because those around my street said I needed to get in there to make sure some common sense is kept on the board , I can assure you this is not a job for the faint heated , seems there are always a few who don't like to abide by the rules they signed off on & yes they do get into legal trouble because of it .
We have a outside firm that takes care of all legal events if they show up & takes care of drive by inspections regularly , they are quite good at it & most of it is penny anti stuff & on most part HO's take care of it when they get the assessment .
We don't allow large trucks ( passenger trucks for personal use are fine ) , Boats or Trailers in the Community , nor are you to have a bunch of junk cars or trucks on your property .
Basically some people don't like the rules they signed on for & always have to try to get out of them or go around them in spite of them . We are probably more laid back then the very large HOA's , we hear the horror stories in the news & from some of the more high & mighty HOA's in our area , but for the most part , 99% of the people that live here like the rules , our house's sell at the top of the appraisal's & they sell very quickly .
I fly my P3S over the neighborhood , usually well over 100+ ft. & have no issues , I even used it to not only get Hurricane damage & to check retention Ponds before one ,to see if there is any blockage that might cause a flooding issue .
There are horror stories out there & with all the HOA's out there, you only hear of sparse issues with some of the more uptight ones .
As far as foreclosing on a Home , I can tell you its a very long process & the HO has a great deal of leeway , Legally , I can tell you this HOA will do everything we can do legally to help them ( one of our neighbor's ) to keep it from happening , but it does happen sometimes no matter how much you help , some people just don't care or have other issues we can never be aware of legally .