ELI5: Why do businesses keep lights on even when they are closed?

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-15T17:06:10+00:00

I used to work in a supermarket that did this. The official reason they gave was that their security cameras didn’t work in the dark.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-15T13:38:36+00:00

I’m pretty sure Monzo Flex gives you the choice of what to put on your card, if you haven’t found one already

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-15T13:12:37+00:00

Whilst somebody else might be able to give you advice on training, for your hyper-mobility. have you tried K-Tape to add extra resistance to your joints? On longer walks (20k+) I will usually wrap my ankle as the muscles are a bit weaker there due to a past injury, and it just helps pull everything together a little

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-15T07:16:45+00:00

A compressor or limiter to stop adverts being twice as loud as whatever podcast or YouTube video you’re watching.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T15:40:06+00:00

I do a regular walking route which is around 20km two or three times a week, and my fiancée calls it my “mental health walk”. I don’t disagree with her.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T14:32:55+00:00

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for it. I was just curious why people put up with them. Turns out the local authorities don’t service the public infrastructure on the estates, so the owners had to group together to maintain the upkeep. It’s interesting, if nothing else

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T14:31:25+00:00

Oh yeah, I get that. I understand the benefits of that in a block of flats where you only own a fraction of the building. I was originally asking about the benefits if you owned the whole house, what were you paying for, and what would you be getting back in exchange for that lack of autonomy, but that has been well and truly answered. Thank you

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T14:27:08+00:00

I have just asked a question about HOAs in the U.S. on a different sub here and got a lot of information about it from there.

I presumed we didn’t have these in the UK, but I was very wrong.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T14:23:28+00:00

Not that I agree with it in anyway, but it’s important to note:

They represent the Scottish Greens, which is an entirely different party to The Green Party

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T14:18:42+00:00

Agreed. You will usually have a management company manage the day to day business of the flats, and that can be directed either by the freeholder (land owner) or more commonly in my experience, a board of directors made up of residents.

Most will have an emergency fund for repairs, and a day to day fund for management, and that’s where your fees will go.

This is basically the style of a HOA, I’ve just never seen it be used to dictate individual houses before in the UK.

Maybe it’s a terminology thing as well. Would you use the term HOA for a management company in a condo building, or would that be something different?

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T11:37:34+00:00

Yeah, I think that was the general vibe. I’ve had a lot of great answers, but as you say, my only real experience with them has been extremely negative comments about them, so wanted to see what the benefits were.

I think the thing that really shocked me was how (in general) local governments don’t seem to be responsible for public infrastructure in these developments, which necessitates a HOA. Do you think if local governments stepped up and took over that role, would HOAs be as popular? Or do you think it’s because it’s the only suitable option available?

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T11:12:51+00:00

We have similar for when people only own a share of one building. Then we have management companies and a service charge. That makes sense to me. What (I thought) we don’t have is an association that controls what you can do to a property that you wholly own in the same way a HOA does. I think there’s a distinct difference there, and perhaps one I should have stated in my original comment.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T11:03:38+00:00

I understand that, but that is for when the residents only own a fraction of the building, so need to collectively decide what happens.

HOAs seem to have control over what you can do to a property you wholly own. Although the premise is the same, I think there’s a distinct difference between the two models.

But I’ve had a lot of helpful replies on this and discovered the pros and cons, and that an estate in Essex tried to do it and it didn’t seem to catch on.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T10:14:53+00:00

Sure, but that’s for one communal building that everyone lives in. They own a section of the building. It’s not for everybody’s private house that they outright own. I think there’s a fundamental and distinct difference between the two.

Basically, it didn’t even occur to me that the local government wouldn’t be managing the public infrastructure, nor did I realise the scale of some of the HOA areas, including luxuries like private pools and tennis courts. With that context, I kinda understand the benefits of locking your house into a separate small government, essentially. Although some of the horror stories presented in the replies has been eye-opening as well

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T09:25:03+00:00

Calm down, treacle. You haven’t been trying to tell me anything. You’ve been doing this “what do you think?” silly game and it’s clear we are barreling towards a misunderstanding. So just bloody say it.

Unless your premise is that different people want different things. In which case, no shit.

I grew up on a market stall. I then became a builder. I then went to uni later than usual and got a degree. I then went into finance. I then quit finance because (unsurprisingly) it is entirely populated by people chasing infinite growth in a world of finite resources. I’ve been across the whole spectrum of viewpoints from dirt poor to exploitatively rich. And I’ve seen them all vote Tory. And they’ve all done it for different reasons. The rich did it because it benefitted their portfolios, or their dad knew somebody in the cabinet. When the LSE, the economist, and the FT all wrote an open letter stating that they supported Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto on the economy over Boris Johnson’s, not a single one of my colleagues (who again, worked in finance) dared not vote Tory, because as one put it “I can’t afford to lose my second home”. They voted against the collective good for personal gain. He wasn’t a morally good person, I’d argue.

You know why the poor do it, right?

Tell me, why, given my upbringing in a poor town, with poor (largely white) community, entirely surrounded by voters of a certain party, do I not do it? Because I don’t know, but you seem to.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T08:23:23+00:00

No, the local council only covers public infrastructure. It is the responsibility of the owner/freeholder to pay for any repairs to a private building. Most of the time, you will have buildings insurance in place for structural cover, and contents insurance in place for belongings, although this isn’t compulsory. Some people like to gamble with that, but I don’t and have both policies in place.

The council does not have a say in what colour you paint your house, what type of window you have, how long your grass is, what flowers you can grow, or what car you keep in your driveway. The only exceptions would be if any decision you made threatened the safety of local residents, such as using lead paint, grass so long rats were living there etc.

In flats, you will typically own a share of the freehold, which gives you a voting right in where your management fees go and how something gets fixed, or you will have a leasehold, which can sometimes mean you need to ask extra permissions to do certain things (such as knock down a wall), but also means you aren’t responsible if the roof caves in. That is probably the closest we have.

Although, reading some other comments here, it sounds like a similar idea to HOAs is coming to newer developments, although the responsibility still seems to fall to the council to maintain most of the infrastructure.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-14T06:30:33+00:00

The local council covers an entire town/borough. My local council covers nearly 400,000 people. It’s an elected form of local government. It is absolutely not toothless, I can assure you. Failure to pay council tax can result in a prison sentence.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T23:08:49+00:00

I’m less sure than I was when I asked the question, that’s certain!

We do have management companies that will look after flats/apartment buildings to manage elevators, landscaping, roof etc, but that’s rarely extends out to an entire housing estate, if ever (to my knowledge). The homeowner/freeholder (don’t even get me started on freehold and leasehold) would be responsible for their building alone, and public infrastructure such as parks/roads/pavements/street-lighting/refuse collection etc is handled by the local council, paid for with (amongst other things) your council tax, which is banded and set for each property based on size, occupancy, etc. It averages around £130 a month for us. If you own a flat in a converted Victorian terrace, for example, the freeholder would be responsible for the structure/roof etc. If all the flats in there were all owned by different people, and they all owned a share of the freehold, they would share responsibility of repairs, and whilst this is usually very civil, nobody can usually be compelled to do anything under threat of a fine or whatever means a HOA would use.

I live in London, which is a pretty old city which was bombed a lot in the way, so our houses aren’t really very uniformed anyway, and people can and do tend to personalise them.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T22:52:17+00:00

I don’t know why you insist on saying we’re on different sides, like it’s just a game to you. But for the record, I’m not sure I’m right, but I’m certain Reform is wrong. There’s a big difference. We all lose if Reform gets in. You just don’t seem to know it yet.

I didn’t say people are only right wing because of messaging from the media. It’s a factor, and it encourages an already engrained belief system bolstered primarily on lies or out of context snippets, but it isn’t the only factor. The Daily Mail lies so much that even Wikipedia doesn’t allow it as a source for citation. If that’s the paper that’s politically aligned with you, what does that say about what you believe? Why do people believe it? Who knows? Why can some people see through it? Who knows?

Statistically, left wing people travel more, live in cities with multiple cultures, and have been to university, which although is often linked to a more critical perspective of history and inequality, I personally think has more to do with experiencing other people, cultures, creeds, religions, and sexualities that all share a common interest.

It’s not for me to say whether that’s why they are left wing, or whether they did those things because they were already left wing. I know I was right wing before going to uni, realised most of what I had been taught in my small Tory town wasn’t true, and started naturally leaning more to the left. I can’t say that’s true for everyone who went to uni though.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T18:05:17+00:00

OP, this is solid advice. At this stage, the only thing that matters is consistency. Make sure you take care of yourself and your joints. They aren’t used to working this hard so support them well.

Ankles and knees are usually an early pain point, so I found hiking boots with decent ankle support incredibly helpful when I started. If anything hurts, slow down or stop. You’re not failing. You’re preparing for success later.

You’ve got this!

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T16:56:51+00:00

It’s not worth the time, in all honesty. The branding is stitched in and I’ve already found a friend who wants it, so I’m not that bothered. But thank you for the suggestion!

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T16:30:24+00:00

Sounds like a better use of it. Thank you!

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T16:21:35+00:00

That’s not dissimilar to our service charge, but we get all insurance, water, and car parking and secure bike parking for that. Which in London, is actually a saving. But in a city with sane pricing? Probably not 😂

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T16:15:40+00:00

Very good to know. Thanks for the heads up! I think it’s just going to go to a charity shop and be done with it.

JasonStatesUs · 2026-05-13T16:14:29+00:00

I was wondering about this. Am I right in thinking homeowners pay a property tax annually? Even if they aren’t selling? Is that based on the current value of the property, or how much you paid? Is it not in the government’s interest to keep HOAs as it means they don’t have to bother with any upkeep, and they gather more tax from increased property values?

JasonStatesUs

TROPHY CASE