Gym staff. If you've ever been told that no, you may not have an indoor soccer ball because the only approved sport in this gym is basketball, then you know what I'm talking about. Fucking fascists.
I'm curious: Do homeowner associations actually have any power? As in, any legal authority whatsoever? Could they even take you to a small-claims court if you ignored their fines?
I can only speak for Cali, but here they can put a lien on your property and even go so far as to sue you in civil court.
Generally, HOAs exist only in planned communities (gated or otherwise), and when you buy a lot in the community you have to sign a covenant with a bunch of rules, and one of those rules can be that you'll abide by the HOA regulations or whatever. If you break one of those rules they can sue, I assume for breach of contract, and I imagine for common infractions the covenant will stipulate a penalty.
In Jersey, they basically are the only game in town. HOA's are authorized by statute, and can sue in civil court to enforce fines, have injunctions issued, and otherwise enforce the governing document. There are existing communities (usually built before the sixties and seventies) that do not have an HOA, but any new construction is likely to have one.
Haha, speaking of HOA's this reminds me of the time our HOA tried to fine my dad for putting up two really nice flag poles in our front yard between the tree and the house. On those flag poles were an American flag and a Texas flag. Mind you these are not cheap poles, these are the ones that are about 15 feet tall and require cemented in bases and are very nice complete with gold ball caps. They send us a letter with a $250 fine attached per pole and requested we take them down and then apply for a permit with HOA and re-install if we were approved. I will never forget my dads response as he is normally a very well reserved calm man who follows rules but his response was priceless. He send them a check and under the written amount, he wrote go fuck yourself, and a letter that explained to them he would never submit any permit paperwork to fly an American flag or a Texas flag. After numerous threatening emails claiming to "take action" on us, one day a member of the HOA came by our house to attempt to take pictures. This is where it got interesting, the idiot was dumb enough to actually come on the property and refuse to leave when we told him to get off the property and that he was not allowed to take pictures. Needless to say when we pulled a gun on him for trespassing and threaten to shoot him for endangering out life and property, something very legal in Texas, he called the cops on us assuming we would be in trouble. The best part, when the cops got there, not only did they laugh when he told them we pulled a gun, the HOA member was arrested for trespassing. 2 weeks later we received a letter in the mail from the president of the HOA with an apology claiming he had no knowledge of the ongoing situations and he filled out all of the paperwork for us and asked us to sign it and he would send our permit in the mail. My dad gladly signed the paperwork and dropped the trespassing charges and has been celebrating his "victory" over the HOA ever since. For reference, the flag poles look similar to this one, although not quite as tall and ours are not as visible because of the large tree in the front yard.