A Broken Trash Compactor and a Decade of Silence Buried This Georgia Community in Garbage

A years-long pile of household trash, broken furniture, and even a dead dog has accumulated near a school bus stop in the 193-unit Reserve at Lake Ridge community in Riverdale, Georgia, after the HOA's trash compactor broke and the board stopped holding meetings or sharing financial records for more than ten years.

The Better Business Bureau gave the association a B- rating over unanswered complaints, and the story had already drawn television coverage months earlier before this follow-up. It's an extreme example of what happens when an HOA board simply stops being accountable to the people paying its dues.