Two Lawyers Are Fixing America's Broken HOAs

When Jonathan Gropper bought his dream condo in a historic Philadelphia building, he never imagined he'd end up suing his own neighbors just to see how his money was being spent.

The exposed wooden trusses and high ceilings were stunning, but the reality was grim. The roof leaked, paint peeled off lobby walls, and elevators broke down constantly, even as HOA fees kept climbing.

Gropper, a lawyer and entrepreneur, did what seemed logical in 2012. He ran for the homeowners association board and won, planning to push for financial transparency and proper building maintenance.

But when he brought in a forensic accountant to review the books, the board voted him out. They replaced him with someone more willing to go along with business as usual.

His neighbor Jonathan Waldman, a patent attorney, tried running for the board in 2017. The election results were delayed for months due to disputed ballots, and when Waldman asked to review the votes, the HOA made him count them in their lawyer's office without his phone, notes, or his own attorney present.

So he counted on his fingers. By his tally, he and several reform candidates had won seats, but the board rejected the results, citing technicalities like illegible signatures.

Waldman, Gropper, and other neighbors decided to sue. Then they discovered the ultimate irony: HOAs can use reserve funds to pay for legal battles, meaning the two lawyers were literally funding their own HOA's defense against them through their monthly fees.

Rather than give up, the two Jonathans saw a bigger problem worth solving. America has roughly 370,000 HOAs governing 53 million homeowners, and most operate with minimal oversight or transparency.

The Ripple Effect

The neighbors channeled their frustration into action, founding a startup focused on bringing accountability to HOA management. Their platform aims to give homeowners easy access to financial records, election processes, and building maintenance data that should have been transparent all along.

The timing matters because HOA complaints have surged nationwide. Homeowners report similar patterns: rising fees without explanation, delayed repairs, contested elections, and boards that operate more like private clubs than democratic institutions.

What started as two neighbors fighting for basic transparency in one Philadelphia building has grown into a mission to reform how hundreds of thousands of communities are governed. The solution isn't just about better software or record keeping, it's about shifting power back to the people who actually live in these buildings and pay the bills.

For millions of Americans living under HOA rules, help may finally be on the way from two lawyers who refused to accept that opacity and dysfunction were just the price of homeownership.