'When they passed this rule, I was livid': HOA passes vague policy about holiday decorations, neighbor tests rules and finds loophole

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 6, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

Sometimes, it feels like the whole purpose of an HOA board is for them to find the little things that bring people in the neighborhood joy and then take them away just for the demented fun of it all. When it comes to holiday decorations, what is the point of enforcing bogus policies? Unless neighbors are displaying dangerous material as a part of their decorations, no one is getting hurt. And if no one is affected, then folks who are members of the HOA can learn to mind their own business!

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/jaxmagicman, whose HOA decided to randomly enforce that holiday decorations can only be left out for a specified amount of time. What OP came to realize was that the HOA never specified which holidays and what can be classified as decorations. So he decided to purchase red, white, and blue lights and use them as decorations for the Fourth of July. By the time the decorations were meant to be taken down, he kept them up and found obscure holidays on the Internet that he could claim the decorations were meant to celebrate in the subsequent weeks and months.

Keep scrolling below to learn how folks responded to this and how drawn out this plot actually was. For more stories about HOA drama, here's one about a homeowner's parking debacle.

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  • 01
    Plant - "They never mentioned which holidays we could decorate for"
    via FilterGrade
  • 02
    Font - HOA passed a stupid decorating rule. M Our board was tired of seeing people leave decorations up too long after holidays ended so they passed a rule last July that we could only have decorations up 15 days prior and must be taken down 15 days after a holiday.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 03
    Font - Some people might think that rule is ok. But I like to decorate for halloween on October 1st to have the decorations up all of October. I don't think that is unreasonable. And I liked having Christmas up (it was a tradition) on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Everyone is out for the holiday. We make a big deal of it. And we'd take Halloween down the weekend after Halloween and Christmas came down the weekend after New Years. It isn't up all year.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 04
    Font - When they passed this rule, I was livid. I decided that they never mentioned which holidays we could decorate for so the first thing I did was go out and buy Red, White and Blue lights. I decorated for the 4th of July and you better believe I left those annoying lights up until July 19th.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 05
    Font - Problem is there really aren't major holidays from July on until October. BUT the HOA did not say it had to be a major holiday. After July 19th, I decorated for International Beer day which was on August 4th. How do you decorate for that? Well it was the same Red, White and Blue lights up for the 4th of July but I removed the sign that said "Happy Independence Day" and replaced it with a sign I made myself that read "Happy International Beer Day".
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 06
    Font - On August 19th I changed the sign to Happy National Aviation Day. I kept the same lights up though. Next was Labor Day. Yep. Just changed the sign again. On September 19th I started celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Because again, they never indicated which holidays we could decorate for.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 07
    Font - I removed Hashanah changed it to Happy Sukkot. But I went all out for that. I created a the Happy Rosh on October 1st and Booth out of my halloween casket decorations and put little figures (taken from my halloween decorations) into them. I kept his up over the holidays where I started with Veterans day after halloween and then went to Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 08
    Font - They board met March 8th, and they tried to pass a rule saying which holidays we could decorate for, BUT they couldn't get the vote when they tried to just include, New Years, Valentines, 4th of July, Halloween and Christmas. They didn't include any Jewish Holidays and our Jewish neighbors didn't like that. They didn't include any non-christian holidays like Ramadan and a lot of people voiced their displeasure with that.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 09
    Font - So they are going to meet again on April 10th and I think they are just going to change the rule to make decorations come down for the holidays in a reasonable time and not put restrictions on when we can start.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 10
    Font - wdjm This kind of micromanagement is what makes a HOA decrease your home's value. No one (sane) wants to put up with that Good on you for pointing out their idiocy to them. 1.4k Reply Share
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 11
    Font - jaxmagicman OP. I can sort of understand not wanting people to leave decorations up all year. You see a house with decorations up in March that were from Christmas time. But limiting when we could put them up is what made me upset. Especially since it isn't very fun to have decorations up just 15 days before a holiday. But there had to be a better way to make a rule about it. It's not like it was a problem. Maybe 1 or 2 houses left them up longer than most. But for the most part, you're p
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 12
    Font - [deleted] As much as I personally don't like seeing holiday decorations up early (especially christmas decorations before Rememberance day/november 11/ whatever it's called in the USA), this is an amazing way to deal with an HOA. Good for you. 107 Reply Share
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 13
    Font - JD good_sandlapper I once lived in a neighborhood where everyone was required to decorate for Christmas. I despise outdoor decorations. The roof came equipped with Christmas lights with a dedicated switch in the hall closet. I decided that I would turn on the lights for the month of December and do nothing more. That seemed to satisfy the HOA requirement. I thought it was hilarious that the Jewish guy on the end of the street always had the biggest and best Christmas decorations! The HOA
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 14
    Font - [deleted] My HOA spent more than 6 months emailing us about some dumb golf cart rule that I couldn't have cared less about. Constant emails. Constant mailers. It drove me nuts (admittedly my annoyance was irrational), but I found my outlet via NextDoor. I kindly asked on one of the countless posts about the stupid golf carts what the pros and cons were of the proposed rule because I was new to the neighborhood. That bickering went on for weeks. It made me happy.
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 15
    Font - Ohuma Why do people live where there are HOA...seems like a lot more stress and problems than the benefit they get
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 16
    Font - virtualchoirboy No restrictions on start date, huh? No, no, HOA board members... these decorations are for NEXT year...
    via u/jaxmagicman
  • 17
    Font - PainterCat Brilliant! I like the way you think! I thank my lucky stars I do not live in a neighborhood with a HOA. I don't want people dictating what I can and cannot do with my own house. It's like my neighbor across the street who painted her house bright turquoise. That would never fly in the HOAS around here... it is all some variant of BEIGE or another. BORING!!!
    via u/jaxmagicman

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