A contract is supposed to benefit both sides though. So maybe it's like an HOA that pays for a pool, as a benefit that comes with owning the house. But when it comes to things like you neighbors' ability to dictate your use of the property, it's more like a company that you only partly own because you bought most of it but there's others with part ownership and voting rights against your operating decisions. Point is, ownership is a set of rights, and the less rights you have, the less you own it.
The HOA is benefiting both people. It's basically a "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" agreement. The issue here is that you don't care about back scratches, so you feel like it's a one way contract.
