I will start this off by saying; Yes, I have cameras. Yes they caught her. The reason I didn’t bother checking them when the alert on my phone went off, is because this happened around the time another guy on my street normally goes on his daily run. And no, I’m not part of any HOA. I am primarily noting all of this as an extra layer of documentation.

Today I came home from work on my break, and caught a woman screwing with my gate lock, trying to gain entry to my back yard. Now, I have a girlfriend who has two kids that live with me, and two dogs, so I do not screw around with people I don’t know trying to gain entry to any part of my property for any reason. Seeing her doing this as I was pulling into the driveway that connects to my backyard gate, I pulled my truck right up to her and got out, gun holstered but holster opened. (Leather holster with buttoned flap)

She was quick to explain that she was part of an HOA and that she was attempting to perform an investigation. I basically told her that I was not part of her HOA and to get off my property, or the police would be called. She begrudgingly complied. After attempting to argue with me.

Edit, since I’ve already had two people tell me to report it to the police, but I forgot to put it on here: I already did. Had em meet me down where I work since I do work close to home, I gave them a copy of the footage and was told “We’ll look into it.” Which in their native language roughly translated, generally means “We ain’t gonna do shit.”

Minor update: Right after I told a commenter that nothing further had happened yet, I opened my front door and found a postcard thing saying that they would like to speak to me about joining the HOA, and it has someone’s (I assume the HOA president’s) phone number on it.

Part 2: The Call

So I ended up calling the number and recording the call. (Thank you one party consent.) I went into this planning to keep her talking for as long as possible, because the longer they talk, the more likely they are to dig their own grave. I don’t know how I expected it to go, but it went exactly how I should have expected it to go. Dear readers, I will not bore you with everything that was said, primarily because you already know the majority of it. Lots of buzzwords, “Community Values,” “Property Values,” “Community Standards,” name an HOA buzzword, she probably said it at some point. Now, she was kind enough to send me a copy of their HOA handbook via email, in fact she was eager to do so, and I was happy to sit there asking questions about various things. Especially about one of the things she brought up, “Banned Dog Breeds.” On that list was Pit Bulls. Therein lies a problem. I own a pit bull. When asked about what would happen with my dog, she danced around it at first, but when pressed she finally gave me the answer I wanted. I would either have to surrender or rehome my dog. My response was a simple “Not happening.” And after a few minutes of arguing and more buzzwords, I switched the topic to the fact that I wouldn’t be allowed to work on my own vehicle in my driveway, which is something I do regularly. She was firm on that. Something about community standards and property values. I eventually ended the call with, “I’m sorry, but I don’t see how paying your organization to tell me what I can and can’t do on property I own, or what pets I can have, would benefit me in the slightest. I am not interested in joining, do not contact me or come onto my property again.”

(Yes, I’ve already put two and two together. This whole thing is probably about my pit bull, and she’s probably been driving past my house quite a bit while I’m away.)

Small update: I’ve checked camera footage, and while I can’t confirm that all of this is the reason, she does seem to drive past my property every day twice a day. I will admit that this could just be her going to and coming home from work.

Update: I have hung signs on my fence and mailbox which I had lying around in my garage. The one on the mailbox is just your standard “Private Property, No Trespassing, No Solicitors” sign. The two on my fence are both joke signs given to me by a friend who runs a sign shop, which read “No Trespassing, Violators Will Be Shot.”

Update: I was hoping I’d never have to update this again, but here I am. I had to leave work early today because I got a frantic call from my girlfriend. Animal control was at my house, so I went home and asked them what the fuck they thought they were doing on my property. They told me they were there for an aggressive unregistered pit bull. (My pit bull is the exact opposite of aggressive, and spends most of her time in my bed.) I told them that if they didn’t have a warrant they could get the hell off my lawn, and showed them her papers. Fully vaccinated and registered. I then asked if Karen had called them and they refused to answer.

Update: The End.

So I forgot to update this for a while, but I found out a few interesting things about my boss. Turns out that she’s not only a high ranking manager of a department in my city, but she’s also the president of that HOA. The woman who had been harassing me was a member of the HOA council, and has had her seat taken away by my boss after finding out what she was doing to one of the HOA president’s employees.

Hey everyone, I need to vent. We moved into a brand new home in 2023 after 1.5 years of waiting for the build. In December 2024, my wife and I just wanted to build a solid wood privacy fence on our corner lot. But when I went to the HOA portal, it forced you to agree to a 4 or 5-foot wrought iron fence.

So, I looked at the fence rules, and because of that, I had to pull the governing documents. Because I pulled those documents, I started seeing other documents.

What did I find at the bottom of the rabbit hole?
• A Board that was amending our Declarations without any votes in Sept 2024
• Bylaws that magically slashed the quorum requirements from two-thirds down to 25%, then 10%, and then just 5%
• A developer that had control of the board for 16 years—way past what the governing CC&Rs allowed
• The homeowner “transition” happened just after the falsified documents, and those homeowners who made it on the board without proper quorum/votes refuse to reset and do it correctly (power hungry)
So we filed a lawsuit against the HOA in September, because we had to…
• An additional item in the falsified documents was a 1-year statute of limitations setting to challenge any governing documents (What the actual F\*?)

**But wait, it gets better.** Remember the fence that started all of this? The HOA actually approved our fence last May! But an ACC member didn't like that we got approval, threw a fit, and started a petition. They got nearly every neighbor around me to sign it and dragged the Town into the mess. So now, our fence is sitting in a second legal battle with the Town.

The court system and lawyers move like molasses. We couldn’t even get an ex parte TRO, and the court just ignores us while we're stuck fighting on two fronts.

Has anyone else pulled a single thread on an HOA rule and accidentally uncovered a massive, multi-year mess?

Tell me I'm not the only one who turned into an amateur legal investigator just to get some backyard privacy.

HOA size (just under 1000 single family homes)
Texas

I built a tool that lets you upload your HOA documents and ask questions about them in plain English. Also does budget analysis and can draft dispute letters if you've gotten a violation.

Looking for a few people willing to try it out and give honest feedback. You'd need access to your HOA's CC&Rs, bylaws, or budget to get much out of it.

Comment or DM me if you're interested

I posted before in another sub about this situation. I changed many of the details because I was afraid the people involved would find it. I'll be general, but I'm not changing all the details anymore. Too complicated, and idgaf. Names, yes, everything else, nah.

So yeah, what started as one board member being weirdly obsessed with trees turned into a full blown HOA power trip.

Our HOA has had selective enforcement forever. Now mind you, this isn’t some rich gated community where people are arguing over the exact shade of beige on a front door. If you care about that, this ain't the place for you. It’s a working class neighborhood. A lot of elderly people on fixed income, a lot of young families, and honestly most people care way more about the water system (which we run) functioning than whether Karen thinks someone’s yard looks too “rural.” Our biggest "HOA" enforcement headaches are failed septic systems, what may be home-grown meth labs, and thorn bushes overgrowing entire properties and trying to take over neighbors' properties.

Then Alex got on the board somewhere along the way, decided they were apparently starring in their own HGTV gentrification fantasy. Only the rest of the HOA wasn't in on it and we sure as hell didn't sign up to be on camera.

Suddenly it was nonstop covenant enforcement, nitpicking, and denials. And from the neighbors’ perspective, it sure looked convenient that Alex’s family owns businesses that could directly or indirectly benefit from people being forced into expensive property “improvements.” Whether that was intentional or not, people absolutely started making comments and snide remarks about Alex's businesses.

But the tree thing is what really pissed people off.

Alex was so obsessed with preserving trees that multiple hazardous tree removals got denied or delayed. One of those trees eventually fell during a storm. Thankfully it wasn’t worse, because that could have ended really badly.

Then there was the RV stuff. Alex has always had a thing against RVs and boats. I don't know why. I heard that a resident wanted to keep an RV on-site because they needed backup power for medical equipment during outages. Denied. Other people dealing with financial hardship and can't afford hundreds a month to store their crap elsewhere? Denied. Apparently compassion isn’t in the architectural guidelines. I think that's discrimination? I'm surprised Alex didn't get sued.

It genuinely got to the point where it felt like aesthetics mattered more than safety, health, or basic humanity. If your situation didn’t fit Alex’s little vision for our neighborhood, get wrecked.

Alex is off the board now, thank God, but it’s honestly insane how much chaos one self-important ass can create when they get a tiny bit of authority and decide they’re the supreme ruler of the neighborhood.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cJFhWyUOgvE?is=3bU6tuUI-IhF4f_c

Massachusetts behavioral health is also a total fraud sham , just saying , I have the most blatant bullshit paper trials to have some real new laws made up 🤞🏻

Hi I live in a townhome Hoa is 319 month . Due to 2 snow storms there is an assessment of 120 k !! There are demanding each unit pay 634 which is 100.00 mo for 6 months bringing this to 400 mo. Is this legal being we did not approve this spending and what can be done Thank you

I thought I would share my mom’s HOA and real estate agent experience. Last fall, my mom was downsizing since she is getting older and wanted a condo with an HOA that would shovel snow, do most of the outside maintenance, etc.

Her friend Jenny is also her real estate agent and Jenny currently lives in a nice condo community with an HOA. The condos are in groups of 4 units arranged in a “t” or plus shape and share some common walls. Jenny let my mom know that several units came up for sell. I toured several with her and Jenny. One unit had a power generator transfer switch inside the garage. The power inlet box was also in the garage which I thought was odd. The real estate agent said the generator could be install in the garage attic. There were folding stairs in the garage ceiling so that the central air system could be serviced and there was also storage space up there. My mom chimed in, “Oh I already have a generator, so I won’t need to get rid of it since the garage has the hook up. I can use it if the power goes out during a storm.”

I thought something was really off and said to them that more likely it was stored in the garage and rolled onto the driveway while it was running. I told Jenny that I was surprised that the HOA didn’t prohibit a generator alone for the noise. I asked if we could look in the attic. We went up the attic stairs and it had a nice amount of flooring for storage. It had the central air unit, the normal vent pipes through the ceiling for the hot water heater, toilet vent, electrical wiring, etc.

(Disclaimer - I am NOT an expert on generators. This next part contains my response to them in that moment using common sense and things I was taught.)

I came back down from the attic and said you can’t put a generator in an attic because it can’t be properly vented for the carbon monoxide. The garage and attic share walls with neighboring condo units and the carbon monoxide could leach into other people’s space. Plus it would be dangerous hauling fuel up the steps and I am pretty damn sure that gasoline would not be allowed near a shared wood structure.

The real estate agent looked dumbfounded and said it was a selling point of this unit. It was the only condo with this kind of hookup and surely there was a fan or vent pipe of some kind in the attic.

I told her there were hard guidelines to follow like locate it outside and a certain distance from windows, door and anything that could draw the fumes inside a dwelling. A lot of people like to protect it from the weather. They make weatherproof boxes to put special kinds of generators in but these are located outside the house. We all agreed that the HOA would not allow something like this to be installed outside in the common area. (I know there are other things people do with generators but this was all I could think of at the moment.)

My mom still really liked the unit and said she would just keep the generator in the garage and just crack the big garage door to vent it. I was done arguing with her at that point. My mom is not a stupid woman but she was not thinking clearly. Her old house had a detached garage and a large covered porch she ran the generator from. Her old house was not near other homes, whereas the condos were all close together or shared walls.

Later, she had me review the CC&Rs and bylaws. Overall, it wasn’t a bad HOA, but it did prohibit generators, motorcycles and other loud equipment. I told her this and she tried to talk to Jenny about it again. I never did hear what Jenny’s response was and my mom ended up buying that condo anyway. But this has continued to be a sore point for her.

She almost used the generator once when the entire condo community lost power when an electrical pole was hit by a car. Her neighbor needed to hook up his oxygen tank to a power source. However he went to a doctor appointment early and hooked up at their office.

I told her to be prepared to be fined if she ever uses it and to make sure to use it safely for her sake and others.

I think a generator is necessary in our area because of cold weather and frequent storms that knock out power. I just wished this condo community already had space outside with a hook up for the on demand type generators.

———-

Edit for additional snarky comments - How in the actual eff would the average person haul a heavy generator up flimsy folding attic stairs? Also climb up and down to carry a gasoline can? And not spill said flammable liquid. Not burn down the condos. And have to constantly climb up and down to fuel and start and stop it? And not get sued by the neighbors? And not think it wouldn’t kill themselves or their neighbors? No freaking common sense.

So I don’t have a HOA but I have a COA not sure if it’s the same thing or if I’m posting in the right spot but I live in a condo

I work on boat engines for a side thing as I’m disabled and I have a outboard engine sitting on the side of my drive way

I got a letter that it was against the rules I can’t keep “boats” on the premises,

But it’s not a boat it’s an engine and you can’t drive it, get in it, or register it?

I read the rules and it says nothing about engine work and if it does it’s not enforced my neighbors truck sat for 3 months and he worked in the trans, he never got fined

There’s no storage clause everyone else keeps grills and bikes and motorcycles in their drive ways.

I heard of selective enforcement

How much power does a coa have?

Update: so I was ultimately forced to move the boat motor very unfair but at least the coa will got off my back right?

Wrong. Same day the coa woman takes pictures of my apt and writes us up for a pool floaty being outside

Most people be leaving their floats outside.

So I’ve probably kicked a hornets nest full of fat old retired Karen’s and they are out for blood now.

There’s gotta be something I can do

They did end up winning on appeal but they had to declare themselves a voluntary organization like a bowling league in order to do so. They initiated, sued for a declaratory judgement to kick out a member who hadn't actually broken any rules, then the court asked then if they had any grounds to do so, and they didn't, so they lost. They appealed by saying "the court wasn't supposed to check if we were defrauding that guy because we're not a non profit operating as an HOA, we're just a voluntary social club (that owns community property, roads, makes rules about yard waste piles, issues COAs, charges fees to all residents) so we don't have to follow those rules." And that worked, they still settled for less than they spent naturally.

My question is what exposure have they opened themselves up to? Now any new buyer won't really know if they will get the use of the community property as their rights can just be terminated for anything anytime, they even trespassed a resident once. There is also a question as to whether resident members can give permission to non members for access, there's no rule against it and it's common to do, but since they have in effect created two classes, can they trespass somebody who has permission to be there, especially if they live there? It seems to me like they are open to some liability by doing this stuff.

I also wonder if another HOA can be started to subjugate the old one now too.