For those unlucky souls who live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association, they are forced to deal with the childish antics and pettiness of the men and women who have enough time on their hands to run the operation. It usually doesn't take much to get on the HOA's bad side, but when they do, they have to do something about it.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to reveal how they finally got back the at the HOA that made their life a living nightmare. There's only so much someone can take before they decide to take action, and the people in the following stories had more than enough of the people running their HOA. It's safe to say that each of these responses were more than justified. All posts have been edited for clarity.
He Was Going To Show Them
The antenna was 15 feet taller as my dad had raised the extension in response. The HOA president put a fine in our mailbox immediately and gave my dad a stern talking to at our front door.
The following day, the antenna was raised up another 10 feet with an extension added in. At that point, it was clearly visible all over the neighborhood. Another fine showed up in our mailbox and my dad had to go to another meeting. They threatened to begin eviction proceedings if he didn’t take it down immediately. He acquiesced and agreed to take it down.
The next day the antenna was still there with my dad on the roof first thing in the morning, waving at the HOA president as he predictably came around to inspect. In a furious huff, he went to the council and called my dad in and told him that they would begin eviction proceedings since he was not only violating HOA rules but making a mockery of them. At that point, my dad pulled his ace card and had my uncle lawyer come in and explain that where we lived, HOA’s could not regulate the use and transmission of HAM radios and licensed operators due to their use for emergency communications and transmissions. My dad knew this all along but just decided to mess with the HOA regardless. He kept his tower and the HOA caved in on the fines and punishments and realized they couldn’t do anything unless they wanted to take us to court and prove that what my dad had was unreasonable (which it clearly wasn’t).
It’s his favorite story to tell at parties.”
This HOA Quickly Learned Why They Should Help Their Residents
“I went away for a long weekend and left after work on Thursday. Late Friday afternoon, my water heater burst (in the attic of a three-story home) and flooded my entire townhouse. When my neighbor got home from work, he saw gallons of water running from underneath my garage door. When he realized I wasn’t home, he tried to find my phone number and when he couldn’t, he called the HOA to notify me. The lady that answered said that since it was ‘after business hours (it was 5:01 at this point), the matter would have to wait until Monday.’ My wonderful neighbor ended up calling the non-emergency police line and they came and shut my water off from the street. When I got home Sunday morning, my entire house was damaged and I could see my attic from my basement. After a massive panic attack and a frantic call to my insurance company, we started the process of repairs.
The cherry on top was that I needed to have a dumpster placed in my driveway and a moving pod to remove what was left of my furniture while they began drying out the house and I got a visit from the HOA. They didn’t like how ‘unsightly’ my home had become and wanted these items removed from my driveway. I essentially told them that they could take their complaints and shove them. I got a little revenge too because I stopped paying their stupid fee since they couldn’t fine me before six months and I was moving in less than five months. I’ll never own another home with an HOA ever again.”
It Helps To Read The Fine Print
“A family friend got married. He works at a power company. He ends up inventing some kind of new device which saves his company a bunch of money. He patents it and becomes very rich.
Now, this guy (let’s call him John) is a simple man, he likes to hunt, fish, and enjoy the great outdoors. John is also very much a do it yourself type of guy.
Well, John and his wife decide to use their new found wealth to move into a nice neighborhood that just so happens to have an HOA.
The first hunting season comes around, John puts in a pole to hang his freshly killed deer so he can butcher it and then he goes out and bags himself a deer.
John proceeds to butcher the deer in his backyard which the neighbor wasn’t too happy with and John got reported to the HOA. He ends up having to pay some fines, removing the stand, etc.
Well, remember when I said John was a simple man? Also, remember how he patented a new technology and made his money off that? John was no idiot, he was quite smart. So John poured over the HOA association bylaws. There were no rules against butchering deer on your property. However, you couldn’t put in an artificial pole in the ground.
So John worked with the HOA to plant a brand new tree in his front yard. He said it would increase property value and the HOA was happy to oblige.
So John planted his tree.
And come the next hunting season John tied up his catch to the tree and butchered the deer on a lovely Sunday afternoon for all to see.”
He Let His Rage Get The Best Of Him
“It wasn’t a terribly abnormal HOA rule, but my dad’s reaction was probably a standard deviation from the norm. Our old HOA had a policy that you can’t have brown spots on your grass. Our yard had brown spots. Particularly in a corner where neighborhood dogs would relieve themselves every morning. One day, my dad got a notice that if he didn’t cure the brown spot, the brown spot would be cured for him and he would be fined. For the next few weeks, my dad re-seeded and watered the area, but ultimately couldn’t combat the onslaught of dog urine. My dad tried to explain the situation to the HOA president/our next door neighbor (who had a dog suspiciously), but the notice stood.
One day, we were sitting in our living room and a landscaping truck pulled up. Like ninjas, they dug out the old yard and replaced with new sod. Two days later, we got a bill for the re-sodding and a fine of $200.
Now my dad was normally a moderately reasonable man, but he went straight hulk in response.