'Your mailbox isn't shiny enough': 15 HOAs with ridiculous rules

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 15, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

We don't take kindly to silly HOA rules 'round these parts. You might say that this town ain't big enough for the two of us! 

Seriously though, HOAs are a giant pain in the rear for just about everyone who's moved into their territory. A lot of first-time home buyers will find their dream home, fall in love with the property, and move in ASAP. But then when they arrive, they're told they'll need to pay hundreds of dollars per month to the local Homeowner's Association (HOA). Hundreds! Every month! One person revealed that HOAs took $300 per month from them. That's enough for a car payment or a month's worth of groceries, and it's all going to the guy who's telling you you can't park your car in your own driveway. 

These people shared the reasons they hate their HOAs. There are a bunch of reasons, and all are ridiculous. You can check out these stories below. 

Next up, check out these DIY projects that should've never seen the light of day, like an unbelievably perilous-looking caravan parked off a cliff in New Zealand. 

Advertisement
  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10373688576
    via Martin Widenka on Unsplash
  • 02
    Reddit: what's your HOA's" story?
    via u/TexasFordTough
  • 03
    [deleted] California was undergoing water restrictions, some of which included not being able to water your lawn. That's fine with my mom, so we stop watering our lawn. HOA however sends us $500 dollar fine, every day when our lawn started to yellow. We go to court, and the court sides with us, basically saying that we cant be fined for complying with
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    state law about mandatory water use restrictions. Our nosey neighbor who did not like that ending, Not one bit. So she files a barrage of noise complaints. Cops even stake out the neighborhood for a night to see if they were real. She makes another noise complaint, cops on duty realize that the lady is making bull complaints. She is given a talking to, and told that if
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    she files another false complaint she will be charged with wasting police resources and filing false complaints.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    HOA's give people power trips. HOA president, HOA treasurer, off, mind your own business. Should be a rotating presidency, otherwise you just get people who want to micromanage other peoples lives over what shade of green is acceptable for your grass to be.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    Ma... I built my house 3 years ago, and obviously used whatever builders the developer sent there, I didn't really have a choice. They painted my mailbox post some shade of green.
    via u/Marcus_Brody
  • 08
    Last year I got a notice saying my shade of green was wrong and to fix it by going to Home Depot and asking for the color green specifically for my neighborhood. I responded that I checked the blessed covenants and the mailbox color section "did not clearly state the necessary color or color values, and it's language
    via u/Marcus_Brody
  • 09
    was ambiguous and open to interpretation by any reasonable person". I also pointed out there were at least a dozen other mailboxes that did not meet these same vague guidelines and there were multiple other things that needed attention that were far more detrimental to the neighborhood aesthetic than my mailbox post shade of green. I never heard anything back about it.
    via u/Marcus_Brody
  • 10
    Yes, I could have easily painted the mailbox post, but that wasn't the point. This was a petty thing, for some reason, and this is by no means an expensive neighborhood.
    via u/Marcus_Brody
  • 11
    cloud_watcher My "Your mailbox isn't shiny enough" letter.
    via u/cloud_watcher
  • 12
    grabthemcakes Not mine personally, never lived in a HOA. But they built a HOA development when I was a teenager a few miles closer to town from where we lived. There was a house of the main road, right near their entrance that was pretty run down. But it there years before the development and hence wasn't part of the land they
    via u/grabthemcakes
  • 13
    bought. They told the owner to fix it up and he rightfully told them to off. They asked him again and offered to pay part of it. Again, he told them to off. Finally, they offered to pay to fix up all of it. He agreed. This whole thing went on for over a year and there were people in town that he was somehow the
    via u/grabthemcakes
  • 14
    when he living there before they did anything. with the land. To the rest of us, he was a bit of a legend.
    via u/grabthemcakes
  • 15
    [deleted] You can only have Terracotta pots for plants....Like who care? Who decided that Terracotta is the best looking thing for potted plants and must always be used?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    Horiatius So the HOA in my parents neighborhood sent my mother a letter to take down her two pink plastic flamingos because "they clashed with the architectural aesthetic" of the neighborhood. Upper middle class sort of place, my mother formally complied, but made game flouting the rules after that.
    via u/Horiatius
  • 17
    There were no restrictions in the bylaws against any sort of temporary seasonal decorations. So the flamingos come out for every holiday imaginable, redressed for the season. Flamingo witches and mummies for Halloween, pulling saint sleigh for Christmas, football players for the all important Clemson/Carolina rivalry game. It has gotten to the
    via u/Horiatius
  • 18
    point where her flamingo dioramas are neighborhood institution with people looking forward them. On a related note, costumes meant for small dogs fit plastic pink flamingos pretty well.
    via u/Horiatius
  • 19
    vociferouswad Getting told I couldn't park my truck in my driveway. Apparently driving a restored classic truck is against some people's made up rules. You can a bag of was the response.
    via u/vociferouswad
  • 20
    All of the sudden it's not in my driveway it's in my yard, "a giant concrete driveway isn't my yard "Well it's just parked there and never get driven" I drive it everyday...
    via u/vociferouswad
  • 21
    They tried a few more things (always BS) and got told off, didn't bother us anymore. Funny part is none of them followed their own rules and hadn't in a decade, the HOA was nullified by their blatant disregard for the rules long ago.
    via u/vociferouswad
  • 22
    Funny part is even though we lived in the woods most everyone's house/yard was kept in good shape, but the hoa folks.
    via u/vociferouswad
  • 23
    kifferella My sister in law bought a house in a brand new development. The land was an old farm. The farmer still lived in his old farmhouse on the edge of the development.
    via u/kifferella
  • 24
    So he decided to reside his house. The HOA found out a d sent him their swatches of "approved colours". He was like, "I don't give no shits. I ain't part of no development."
    via u/kifferella
  • 25
    So he went to a couple of home improvement stores and got all their leftovers. I figure this is what he did because that house was a crazy patchwork pastiche of every god-awful colour known to man. What a glorious, beautiful eyesore. God bless the USA and freeeeedom (house is in the states and I am not american).
    via u/kifferella
  • 26
    Marveezy Our neighborhood is on a hill, and has a pretty long driveway. They added a speed bump at the top of the driveway, right before the first house. It's the worst place speed bump in existence.
    via u/Marveezy
  • 27
    The head of our HOA says it isn't bad if you go 5mph, but you could go 2 mph and it'll still mess with your suspension. There's already major scratches on the bump from all the hits from the undercarriage of cars, and it's barely been there a month.
    via u/Marveezy
  • 28
    Everyone just goes around it, so fuck that guy for being a piece of shit and not fixing the bump...
    via u/Marveezy
  • 29
    michmichboo I used to have an estate liquidation business and many HOAs wouldn't allow estate sales in their gated communities or would require an appointment for every buyer. So if it was a "no estates sales allowed" community we would throw a "party" and tell all of our customers to tell the guard they were
    via u/michmichboo
  • 30
    there for the party and we provided email invitations. If it was allowed "by appointment only" I would put a staff member at the gate and they would record the customers names as they pulled up. They never said how many people or appts we were limited too.
    via u/michmichboo
  • 31
    I worked hard for my clients and I'd be damned if they were going to prevent these homeowners that typically lived in these communities for 20+ years and paid their dues to not be able to sell their shit in order to sustain a decent quality of life!
    via u/michmichboo
  • 32
    × [de... The one time we lived somewhere with and HOA you werent allowed to have certain plants in your garden. My friend planted some lovely hydrangeas and as soon as they bloomed they were torn up. Id like you to meet the Greenbriar theyre basically impossible to get rid of (trust me, I had to pull those bastards up for 18 months) and they choke
    via u/[deleted]
  • 33
    out all other plants around them. I went around at about 2 am and threw handfuls of their seeds around the HOA board members yards. They sprouted rapidly. Last I checked theyre still trying to get rid of them (poison doesnt work and neither does cutting them down ya gotta dig up their tubers or burn em.)
    via u/[deleted]
  • 34
    [deleted] Ours is generally reasonable, actually. But there's a parking issue. MIL lives with us and has a car. Wife and I each have a car too. Due to everyone having to go places at different times, we could park 2 cars in the driveway, 1 car along the street opposite the house.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 35
    Then they said, no cars parked on the street. But you can park it on the driveway sideways, blocking both cars. Ok fine. So we did, but it meant constant car juggling.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 36
    Then they said the 3rd car was not allowed at all, except in a garage. So we had to clear out the garage, and put one car in there, and continue the irritating car juggling, made worse because our automatic garage door broke and we don't have the money to fix it. Anyway the MIL is too disabled to drive now so the car juggling is over.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 37
    jaxrose9 they sent us a notice to clean our driveway or they'll send us a fine. literally all we had were fallen flowers from the trees above our driveway. i didnt know fucking nature was considered messy. i felt ridiculous having to broom dirt and flowers outside.
    via u/jaxrose9
  • 38
    throwaway4norea... Story from my grandpa. He received a letter from his HOA saying that his shed did not match the color of his house and that he needed to paint it.
    via u/throwaway4noreasons
  • 39
    My grandpa's shed is behind his house in the backyard, impossible to see from the street. He called up the HOA and completely went off on them. I believe he told them he didn't even have a shed. Turns out they had the wrong address. His next door neighbor had a shed on the side of his house that didn't match. My grandpal went off on them even more and they ended up just hanging up on him
    via u/throwaway4noreasons
  • 40
    msnobuddy My HOA fee for my condo costs $300/mo and as far as I can tell, they do nothing. No landscaping, no property improvements, no trash, nothing. They can only account for 1/3 of their revenue, the rest going into a "fund." But for some reason, I would bet my life's savings if there were a problem with the roof or something, we'd be hit with
    via u/msnobuddy
  • 41
    a hefty assessment. No one that lives here is on the board, its a "management company." So were basically paying rent on a property we pay a full mortgage on. They refuse to update the common area carpets, even though the carpet is 25+ years old and moldy. Wouldn't have bought if I knew.
    via u/msnobuddy
  • 42
    sSquared19 Two unbelievably stupid instances stand out... 1. After stating that the neighborhood was pet friendly, we got a talking to from someone saying how "we shouldn't have our dog outside on the lawn because it will ruin the grass."
    via u/
  • 43
    2. They told us our Christmas lights were distracting. On Christmas. We had one set on the porch, everyone elses were on the roof, fence, etc. Personally I think that the HOA had a vendetta against us.
    via u/
  • 44
    racemanspiff I had a satellite dish installed in the front of my house due to trees in the back that blocked the signal. A few years later, I get a violation for not having approval for said dish. I informed the HOA manager that the FCC restricts the HOA from not allowing me to place the dish in a spot where it can
    via u/racemanspiff
  • 45
    get a signal and I have no problem filing a complaint, if needed. The HOA then agrees to drop the fines if I have DirecTV come out and fill out a statement that the only spot for my dish is in the front of the house. What a waste of my time and the satellite installer's time…..
    via u/racemanspiff

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

hoa housing neighbors house neighborhood home owners association driveway neighborhood-drama apartments neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors home parking apartment
Scroll Down For The Next Article