Recently, we rounded up some stories of people getting deliciously petty revenge on their nosy homeowners' associations. And in the comments, people shared even more tales of HOAs being ridiculous — and even more ways that people have gotten even. Here are some of their stories:
1. "Many years ago, my grandfather's HOA complained that they could 'see his RV behind his fence' (even though it was in the backyard). In response/retaliation, he put a toilet in the front yard and called it 'art' (as art was generally protected by local city ordinances). The HOA never bothered him again."
2. "Our former HOA president was so unpopular that when she 'retired' (AKA was forced to quit because of some vaguely implied legal trouble) someone published 'ding dong the witch is dead' in the community newsletter."
3. "I made the dire mistake of telling my neighbors that I was so tired one morning, I forgot to open the garage door. I very slowly backed into it, and there was the teensiest gap between panels. Honestly, you wouldn’t know it was there if I hadn’t told you. They told the HOA. The HOA visited my house while I was away and decided the gap you really couldn’t see brought diminution to the neighborhood."
"I was ordered to fix it ASAP or face a huge fine. I had three garage door businesses come out and look at it. These were reputable firms. All three said it couldn’t be fixed (and were completely confused as to WHY it needed to be fixed since you couldn’t see it). It cost me $1,200 for a new garage door.
I got back at my neighbors when they took their annual trip to Philly. I saw all kinds of kids traipsing across their beloved lawn. Usually, they’d scream at them to get off the lawn, but they weren’t there. I didn’t say a word to the kids. They ruined the front lawn, which was too bad, but not my problem."
4. "I bought my first house in 2019 and unfortunately it has an HOA. I felt pretty good about it until I painted my house. I applied, got the architectural review form approved, and painted my house lime green. I lived in San Francisco for many years and I love the bright colored houses. So after painting, the HOA told me my house is too bright and that I need to repaint it."
5. "What I hate about my HOA is the draconian parking rules have forced me to be a 'Karen'. I had someone parking in a non-existent spot near my assigned parallel parking. And the person who was parked in this non-spot behind my assigned spot had parked over the line — and not by a little — by a lot. When I tried to park in my spot, I got stuck and had to get the car that was parked in a nonexistent spot towed."
"Parking in another spot wasn’t an option as it would get towed if I left it overnight. I have severe ADHD and couldn’t risk forgetting to move it. I felt bad, but I wasn’t about to get my car towed because two other idiots can’t follow the rules or park correctly."
6. "I keep getting violations notices for items by my front door, like shoes (I stepped in water so I let them dry), a trash bag (groceries that I was bringing in), and clothing (swim suits from using the pool). All things that were cleaned up before the pictures were even emailed to the HOA."
7. "The HOA in my parent's neighborhood got big mad one year because no one was showing up to meetings. The neighborhood is generally made up of people who really don't care much about it, but apparently the ranting screed that was mailed out was effective, just not in the way the people who sent it thought it would be."
8. "Our HOA is within half a mile of the university. We recently rented our house to college students. Little did we know that our HOA Board would launch a barrage of complaints against our new tenants. Parking, noise, trash can — almost every violation you can imagine was urgently sent to us, accompanied with threats of fines, etc. They clearly hold prejudice against young people. When we responded with evidence of similar behavior by many neighbors, the lack of response was deafening. The board is also made up of people who have held their positions for years. Their processes and procedures are not transparent."
9. "In my neighborhood, there’s a rule that there are no sheds or fences over a certain height. One guy in my neighborhood built a shed, then built a fence that was higher than allowed to hide the shed."
10. "Used to live in an HOA neighborhood where you couldn’t park in front of your own house for many years. One day, I received a fine notice for a car parked in front of my house that wasn’t my car. I emailed the board president to tell her this, and she replied that if the car is in front of my house, I get the fine. So I printed out the email, put it on my dashboard, and started parking in front of her house. Only took a couple days for the fine to be removed."
11. "Never lived somewhere with an HOA, but I worked near a neighborhood with one. The HOA president comes walking in, "You know we lobbied against this business getting built?" Oh, thanks, you want me to be unemployed. Well, I'm here now. Fuck you. They complained all the time. Not my problem. I don't work for you."
12. "I once caught the person who checks compliance taking pictures to send us a letter saying we were out of compliance. So I sent an email accusing them of taking pictures of my daughter's room when she was changing. Have not been touched since."
13. "HOAs suck balls. My husband had to join the board just to stop the notices from coming! Some of my particular favorites from our HOA are: trash cans must be kept in the garage until trash day. No ma’am or sir, I’m not keeping my huge ass trash cans in my garage in Florida in the 100-degree weather with GARBAGE in them. We have them behind a small privacy fence now like normal people."
14. "I live in a neighborhood with an HOA and I don’t have a trash bin. I have to drive my trash all the way down like a mile to the dumpster. So sometimes I’ll just throw a bag of cat litter on my porch on the second story (you cant even see it), and I’ll seriously keep having people call on me. Like, if it’s that big of a deal, then get us garbage bins and a pickup!"
15. "My brother-in-law had a cast on his foot. He pulled his truck with the camper into the parking lot while we were unloading groceries. Sure enough, they sent me a notice. The HOA was always fussing about parking. One day, I returned home from work to find that they were having a board meeting and one of the officers had parked in my space. I marched right into the office and demanded they stop the meeting and move their car immediately."
—Kathleen H., Facebook
16. "My mom works in property management. Her company does the books for over 100 associations. One of them (in a super rich neighborhood) had a rule that 'there couldn’t be pickup trucks in the neighborhood after 6 p.m.' My mom asked, 'Well, what if you have someone over for dinner or something?' And they responded with, 'Dinner guests don’t drive themselves.'"
17. And finally, "You really wanna piss off an HOA, get a CB radio operator's license. You can put a small tower on your property and there isn’t anything they can do about it. Legally they can’t even prohibit in their bylaws."
—Jeremy S., Facebook