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I own a house in North Carolina, and my HOA is really active, they want to regulate everything... ...The HOA of the previous house I rent was worse.
I guess any where you go, HOA's (and Zoning Boards) are NAZI's. You can always run for board membership and get things your way. That was how one of my neighbors got himself exempted from a boat load of rules. The only one around with a super-sized deck.
There is almost no chance any local authorities can dictate what kinds of light switch they use.
but NEC is just a model code that needs local government regulation to be enforced. You will find some places are stricter than others.
Like anything in life it's a matter of tradeoffs.
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Beside local, there is the County and State level. Most of the structural/electrical housing rules around here are State. Appearance, size, etc., are more local. As of the last time I thought about moving (around 5-10 years ago), GFCI would be applicable to new houses only. As long as the home owner stayed put, those regs do not apply.
But, as
blueskull point out, those outlets are cheap. If one is selling ones house, anything non-compliant would bring down the value of the house. It would be foolish for a seller not to spend the few bucks. (That was why I was looking up the regs.)
Houses more than 40 years old are unlikely to be part of homeowner associations.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. I assume you're talking about a situation specific to your part of the world?
I would not be surprise if it is wide spread in the USA (that houses over 40yr is unlikely to be in a development).
I lived in 4 different States, and spend a good bit of time in another two States. Housing Developments appear to be only near major cities/job-areas.
Even in New Jersey less than 2-hours drive from NYC, housing development is not as wide spread as one may think and certainly recent. I live in a development (approx 25-30 yr old) - I was told by the township (while paying for sewage fee) that this was the first development in this township, first group of houses to have sewage connection instead of sewage tanks.
In earlier times, it would be flatten the trees, split the lots, build houses on them, and off they go start selling. Just new houses along a new road. No setting up common/shared facilities which requires an HOA, and no common looks for houses... For those, I do not think of them as developments - they lack all "look alike" feel associated with developments. Those are just new houses along a new road.