'HOA tried to steal my car': Top HOA Stories of the Week (July 18, 2024)

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jul 18, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

Homeowner's associations are where infuriating neighbors go to band together and be infuriating as a collective. That seems to be their one purpose in life: to make everyone else's lives more difficult and more limited. And on top of it all, they just seem to be collecting fines and fees as a result of their so-called "enforcement." 

This week, our top HOA stories range from unnecessary backyard inspections to parking drama to a stolen car. While the details of each tale differ, one thing remains certain: HOAs are a nuisance to the average resident. They are the institutional equivalent of a manager breathing down your neck during every second of the work day, except this is not supposed to be your work; this is supposed to be your life. 

Keep scrolling below for this fresh collection of entitled Karens, nosy neighbors, and unwanted institution intervention. For more, check out this list of lame reasons why people called in sick to work.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10375448832
    via CHUTTERSNAP
  • 02
    HOA wanted to inspect back yards of homeowners Happened years ago but may be valuable information for some in here. Lived in a cookie cutter neighborhood with HOA. The HOA had monthly meetings that residents were not allowed to attend and one annual meeting where residents could attend but
    via u/Federal_Pair5385
  • 03
    they never discussed anything other than election items at that time. Needless to say most people had no idea what they did. I had a close neighbor who was the treasurer but was not a part of the board. She did a pretty good job of leaking meeting info.
    via u/Federal_Pair5385
  • 04
    One meeting they decided they needed to go into people's backyards and "inspect" them. They felt they had the right because there were rules about visible items in the back yard that can be seen from the road. They felt this gave them the right to everyone's back yard. Apparently
    via u/Federal_Pair5385
  • 05
    trespassing was brought up and they said they have the right to go on anyone's property at any time. My neighbor asked what was going to happen if someone was bit by an aggressive dog or someone's pet ran away due to them going through fenced gates. Apparently animals who run away isn't there problem because, "they should be secured onto the property," and if they get bit they would sue the homeowner.
    via u/Federal_Pair5385
  • 06
    This is where people need to understand their state laws when it comes to criminal and civil actions. They are different. After my bout with the HOA I criminally trespassed all of them from my property. CC&R's do not allow board members to trespass and invade your privacy whenever they want. Push back on ridiculous HOAs, or any HOA for that matter.
    via u/Federal_Pair5385
  • 07
    HOA Failure to Respect My Parking Spot and Also Taking Away my Ability to Call Their Towing Service. It's Ridiculous.
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 08
    I've been fed up with the way HOA is handling my responses and the failure of them to protect my parking spot from other people parking inside of it. This is especially true when they hung
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 09
    up a sign to call the towing service but when I try to call them, the towing service don't give permission for me to use them because I'm not the "owner" listed in their database.
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 10
    Even more, when I ask HOA how should I deal with this situation after unsucessfully calling the towing service, HOA told me to just send them pictures of the van so they can "just write them a ticket" (which never happened at all). I don't want them to "write a ticket"; I want the vehicles to get out of my parking spot, my private property. I paid the HOA
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 11
    dues to live here so I am entitled to protect my parking spot from others parking in it (and I need it to park my own car, too; there's no other spots. I've taken numerous pictures of different vans/cars so I have evidences to present to the court).
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 12
    Therefore, I'm being forced to be helpless in kicking these unauthorized vehicles out from parking into my parking spot illegally. It makes my blood boil so much I think I want to litigate (maybe in small claims bc I went thru small claims cases alr??) but I am so not a lawyer or know what laws are on my side. Sigh, end of story.
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 13
    (Note: I might have frame it wrong last post but I just want to vent my frustration and my helplessness against HOA. If you have any thoughts or comments, I'd appreciate it but I'm here to vent my frustration and will take any comments with a grain of salt. Thank you.)
    via u/FragThemBozKids
  • 14
    As Far As I'M Concerned, HOA Tried to Steal My Car
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 15
    Background, I just moved into a trailer park last week with my SO and another couple who are good friends with us. We signed our lease 2 months ago, and we specifically picked this area because it had no affiliation with the HOA. HOA was a deal breaker for all of us when we were looking for a place to move to.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 16
    When we moved in, we found out that matenance did not do ANY of the work to prepare the trailer for us that they said they would do in the 2 months from when we signed the lease to the move in date. Smoke alarms broken and blaring, trim warping off the walls, bathroom sink constantly
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 17
    flooding the spare bathroom amongst some other things. Our driveway also isn't big enough for all of our cars. My roommates each own an SUV and my SO and I own an old '96 SC1 Saturn. Our car looks beat down but it runs great, the previous owner took great care of the engine, so personally I don't care about how it looks. The
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 18
    driveway has a small cement retaining wall between us and our neighbors yard, so we squeezed all 3 cars onto the driveway as best we could but even so only half of the third car can fit on the concrete. Since there was a "all cars need to be parked in driveways unless the driveway is full" whenever
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 19
    one of use goes out of their car was completely on the cement, whoever was not completely in the driveway pulls out and takes their spot to be in compliance. It says in the least not to park in the street at all, so this is physically the best we can do. We checked in with the office and they said since our driveway is small making an effort to be in compliance is good.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 20
    Yesterday at 10:00 a.m. I was going to head out to get some more things moved and I noticed I had a flat tire. About a month ago my spare went out and we were in the middle of moving, so it was on the docket to get new tires after the move. My roommates
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 21
    took me around to get the tire rimmed when they got home from work, around 6:00 p.m. Since we were going out, before I took the tire off to get a new one rimmed we made sure the car was backed out and put all the way on the driveway.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 22
    When we came back, my car was gone, the tow truck just passed us on our way into the park with the car I was just working on on the back. We flagged him down and he said that "inoperable vehicles are in violation of HOA" and that if we give him $100 right now, he'll tow the car back up the street. Otherwise if he takes it to the lot, it'll be $300.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 23
    Neither my SO or I can even get to work without this car, so we had to borrow $100 in cash from our roommates since payday wasn't until the morning and by then the fees would have wiped out our paycheck. The tow truck just hept saying "it was in your lease" and no, it was not. He also claimed it was not his call to tow my car, he got pictures from the management to tow it but didn't have access them
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 24
    after he got the call to pick up the car? Our neighbors saw us arguing with him and said that just a few days ago the park got new owners and they were being ridiculously unreasonable.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 25
    I am beyond fix a . Can't thing in our place? But can literally wait until I go to get a part to fix my car to try to impound my car? A car that I can't pay rent without and you don't offer us a lot with adiquite parking? Let me explain what the tow truck driver said: in order to me to replace my tire and it be in HOA compliance, the vehicle must have someone
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 26
    INSIDE or STANDING NEXT TO IT while the tire is being rimmed, in a shop. So I have to take my tire off, have someone GUARD MY CAR and ask a third person to drive me TO A TIRE PLACE for my car to not be randomly impounded??
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 27
    Because they call it yard waste? This was on a 10 hour timeline, for the majority of which my car WAS IN COMPLIANCE, tire on, inside driveway. What the actual ??
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 28
    UPDATE We went to the office. Basically, nothing of note was said that actually helps. So, there are new notices about yard waste that were posted in the past few days,
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 29
    HOWEVER the office said that as long as the cars are mostly on the pavement (for example, one tire on the grass is not a violation). They also said that "non permanent changes to the property" are not a violation, so for example,
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 30
    we can cover part of the front yard with gravel so that there will be space for all of our vehicles. In the meantime, we can park at the visitors parking. I find this interesting, because in that parking area, there ARE signs posted "TEMPORARY PARKING ONLY VEHICLES PARKED HERE WILL BE TOWED AT OWNERS EXPENSE". We did ask for confirmation of this to be emailed to us, so we have
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 31
    documentation and are currently waiting for this to be sent to us. During the initial deposit, we were given a link to put our emails into management's system (which is separate to the contact emails we used when signing the lease?),
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 32
    but the link was broken and went to nothing. They gave us the link again, because they claim they have sent us things to "the email on file" but none of us have received anything from management after looking over our emails. We asked about the pictures/work order the tow truck driver said he had, but the person in the office has no such pictures or tow orders from
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 33
    our property BUT they do not have access to all the information from the park and that there is a possibility the manager has documentation. Basically, all we got was "idk man, I just work here. Ask the manager, but they won't be in until Monday". The person in the office didn't even know if we were in HOA jurisdiction.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 34
    We are speculating that something shady was going on, given that the tow truck driver kept giving excuses like "well, if the car was in compliance, I wouldn't have towed it" despite him saying he had no pictures showing it was in violation even though he was dispatched because there were pictures
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 35
    of it being in violation. To me, it sounded like he was going to tow my car no matter what, and he sounded like how cops do where they just give justifications for their actions which may or may not be founded. Also, him giving us the car back "if you pay $100 in cash right now or it'll be $300 if I take it all the way to the tow yard" sounds like some kind
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 36
    of bribe to me. The driver was wearing a ballistic vest and body camera, don't know if that's a thing with them now, and took a picture of my license when we paid him. He claimed he worked for the state, but the card he gave us if we didn't pay them and there was for a private tow company (which I suppose they could have a contract or some sort with law enforcement, I'm not sure how that works).
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus
  • 37
    In the meantime, new tire is on and we parked one of my roommates cars at their sister's trailer in the same park down the street. We will be talking to the manager on Monday to see what they say.
    via u/DuckysaurusArtifexus

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