‘The head of the HOA was fuming’: Guy drives HOA board members crazy over the color of his house

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Mar 31, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

If HOAs want to enforce pointless rules, then they better be prepared for people to expose just how pointless said rules are. 

Here, we have a guy who just wanted to paint his house a light green color but did not realize that the HOA had to approve the color. When the head of the HOA came by to discuss the paint job, he purposely left out this reminder so that the resident could later be fined for not complying. 

That's when the resident decided to get petty in return. He proceeded to submit dozens of color requests, claiming to be constantly having to change his mind because of color availability. The HOA board members lost their minds over these incessant requests and eventually agreed upon the initial color request. 

Keep scrolling below for the full play-by-play. For more stories of HOA drama, check out this post about an HOA pizza delivery gone wrong.

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  • 01
    "They had to get the color approved by the HOA."
    via Joshua Colman
  • 02
    Annoying the Head of the HOA A friend of mine not too long ago painted his house. He lives in a development that has an HOA. He admits that he and his wife made the first mistake by not reading the HOA handbook close enough so they didn't realize they had to get the color approved by the HOA.
    via u/lawilde
  • 03
    On the first day of painting, the head of the HOA stopped by and talked to them, made small talk, talked about ways to make painting the house easier etc. At this time the HOA head knew they hadn't gotten the color approved because he sits on the three- person panel that approves the colors, however, he opted not to say anything to them. Instead, he waited until they had the entire house painted then told them the color was not approved because there too many other houses with a similar color (i
    via u/lawilde
  • 04
    So, faced with having to spend the time and money to repaint the entire house, he and his wife decided to get a little revenge.
    via u/lawilde
  • 05
    They submitted the form and color swatch for the new color and were approved. Knowing the panel had to take time out of their lives to meet every time they submit a color, they decided to submit another color swatch and form saying that they had changed their minds. This color was one they knew would never be approved. As assumed, it was denied. They had to submit again and again they submitted a color they knew would never be approved. Again, they were denied. They repeated this 4 or 5 times be
    via u/lawilde
  • 06
    and they needed to submit one last swatch, which, of course, was a color that they knew would not be approved. This time the HOA told them if they submitted another un- approvable swatch they would be fined and billed for the panel's time. He submitted another swatch that was a color he knew would never be approved and with it a photocopy of the page from the handbook covering the process of getting a color approved. He pointed out that there was nothing in there that mentioned any limit to a nu
    via u/lawilde
  • 07
    This entire process took a few months. After 8 or 9 swatches that were denied, the head of the HOA was fuming mad and showed up at their door telling them he wasn't leaving until they had decided on a color for the house. My friend pointed out that the handbook says the only way for a color to be approved was with a vote from the full panel. The HOA head called the other two people, they came over,
    via u/lawilde
  • 08
    and once they were all sat down he and his wife shuffled through about 10 different swatches of crazy colors before finally showing them one that was a light green color. Frustrated, they approved it and left.
    via u/lawilde
  • 09
    A few weeks later, the head of the HOA contacted him to see when they were going to paint and he told them they already had. The swatch that they had approved was the color the house was already painted. A week later he got an angry letter from the HOA
    via u/lawilde
  • 10
    and a bill for their time. He refused to pay and will fight it. A couple weeks after that everyone got a revised handbook in the mail with very detailed rules on how to get a color approved. My friend then called the head of the HOA and told him all of this could have been avoided if he had just said something that day when he came over and talked to them as they started painting, but he decided to be a so they decided to be back to him.
    via u/lawilde
  • 11
    to my TL;DR - HOA head is a friend so he and his wife get petty revenge by driving the HOA head and the paint color approval committee crazy.
    via u/lawilde
  • 12
    Edit - Well, this has blown up unexpectantly. Apparently, HOA's are a point of anger for a lot of people. Just a few follow-ups:
    via u/lawilde
  • 13
    1. I'm no expert on the lien/fine situation and how that all plays out. I was just going off something I was told. Apparently, if he doesn't pay the fine they can file a lien against him and they could foreclose on his house. When I told him this he explained that the handbook actually had a detailed procedure on how fines are to be handed out and collected. There are apparently a few steps the HOA has to take before they will file a lien and none of those have happened yet.
    via u/lawilde
  • 14
    The fine is $300 so if it escalates to the next step and they try to collect the money he will take action even if that means swallowing his pride and paying. He is going to double check just to make certain they haven't tried to file the lien on the sly.
    via u/lawilde
  • 15
    2. A lot of people are wondering how an HOA comes to be and why anyone would move into one. To make it short, the idea of an HOA is a good one. They help make sure the community stays nice and property values stay up so you don't have neighbors that move in, never cut their grass, have three broken down cars and a couch in their front yard and constantly throw loud parties,
    via u/lawilde
  • 16
    driving down your property values. They also often have community-wide benefits like a pool, workout room, etc. The problem is that some people get the slightest bit of power and it goes to their head and they turn into Based on the replies I have seen here, that seems to happen quite a bit. There are good HOA's. My brother lives in a place that has one that he has nothing but good things to say about, but it seems like there are many that are bad and go too far.
    via u/lawilde

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hoa petty-revenge-reddit neighborhood neighborhood-drama neighborhood-stories petty revenge petty entitled people karma entitled reddit thread Reddit entitled people
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