I could write a book on the topic. I’ve spent several years on the HOA board so I know when people complain about me…which helps immensely because they are too passive aggressive to actually confront you.
It’s not the fact that they hired an attorney to see if they could force my wife to close her business (no signs for business, no in person traffic…they just hate us) but how our official Karen has been with my kids. When someone brought up that a kid had left a popsicle stick in their yard 2 weeks ago, I pointed out that it’s not even something that can be dealt with after the fact and should never be an HOA concern but if they see my kids do something inappropriate like dropping something where it doesn’t belong, to just tell them. That was my fatal mistake. The Karen made it her life’s mission from that point on to follow my kids and watch them at all hours for the tiniest little thing and antagonize them. When my child who is on the spectrum was playing with water balloons, she approached and dared him to throw one at her. He was 8 or 9 at the time. I wish he’d done it. When the kids were sitting on the rock wall that divides my property from the neighbors, she made a huge stink about it because it was for sale and would keep buyers from being interested (it actually sold for 50k above asking price). She blocks every design we submit for a fence for our new puppies so we integrated every design concept that she hated into movable planters with a temporary gate because there are no rules on landscaping and because we hate her….we know all the loopholes.
I’ve been triggered enough by these examples so I will stop so I can calm down…I am looking forward to overdecorating for Christmas though because that is untouchable.
I bought a house in a development that had died. My house was built in the 70s. But a new developer came in and as houses started being built everywhere, they enacted the HOA clause and populated it with rich retired folks that just make up fucking rules. Wrote a rule that you had to put up a fence around your backyard. So I did. They didn’t like my fence so they changed the specifications for the fence.
I got irritated and had a friend give me a dead feral hog to hang on a post in my front yard. The dogs in the hood loved me.
It didn’t solve anything but since I had a dog door I would sometimes wake up with 15 dogs around my bed who came in during a storm. I was the crazy redneck, but the dogs loved me and I like them more than humans.
I’m the Treasurer of our HOA. We pay $250 a year to cover road maintenance. We make sure that is all we worry about. We get Karens at meetings all the time complaining. We politely tell them we maintin the road and that is it. We have 18 laid back neighbors and 2-3 Karens.
OMG! So many things! These are modern day fiefdoms that have no use in decent society. For the connivence of having an admin hire undocumented people to clean the pool and cut the lawn I traded hundreds of $$$ per month, and the final say in things like what flowers could be in the yard, what windows could be installed, who I could sell my condo too, etc. Oh, and if there is a nightmare neighbor partying ALL night and leaving beer cans and cigarette butts on your deck and threatening you that’s your problem to work out with them and feel free to call the police when your safety is in danger. NEVER again!
Based on the other comments here I have a question… Tf is the point of an HOA? Seems like the only thing they do is annoy people.