'They want a $10 fee for overnight guests': 20+ HOA rules that were completely arbitrary

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 8, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

Home is supposed to be a sanctuary. We all want to have a place where we can kick off our shoes after a long day of work, put our feet up, eat dinner with our families, throw parties, play in the yard with the kids, and spend time with the ones we love. It's supposed to be the one place you can relax and be yourself… but not if these strict HOAs have anything to do with it. 

Homeowner's Associations are like the hall monitors of the adult world. Their whole job is to keep the neighborhoods looking clean and tidy. For example, if one person has decided to stop mowing their lawn and the grass is three feet high, a reasonable HOA could step in and dole out a fine. But there might be a good reason that person isn't mowing their lawn — maybe they're elderly or they broke their foot — and tossing a fine their way isn't going to help their situation at all. It's not very neighborly, is it? 

Even so, there are plenty of HOAs in the world that are just thrilled to be handing out fines left and right for the most petty reasons, as you'll see in u/cools14's post below. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10400285184
    via Ross Joyner on Unsplash
  • 02
    Members of HOAs, What's the Most Ridiculous Rule You Have to Follow?
    via u/cools14
  • 03
    SellSome In my neighborhood, we are not allowed to have blue trampoline covers. They must be green or black.
    via u/SellSome
  • 04
    [deleted] From the neighborhood I grew up in: You couldn't have an air conditioner that hung outside of your window. Not a big deal, right? Yeah, well, the guy who came up with the rule had a swamp cooler hanging out of his window.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    [deleted] they want a ten dollar fee for overnight guests, with an extra 5 if the person has to use parking
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    9IX The neighborhood only gets two garage sales per year, (April & September) and there is a dress code for certain neighborhood activities. So that means if there is any garage sale, birthday party at the park, swimming pool guests, etc, the residents and guest have to adhere to certain attire guidelines.
    via u/9IX
  • 07
    For garage sales, we have to wear striped orange Polos and khaki. ($30 Fine) You cannot share towels at the swimming pool, even if they are family. Everyone must bring their own. ($25 Fine) Must remove any holiday decorations after 3 days its holiday ($50 Fine)
    via u/9IX
  • 08
    Cannot use a different colored light bulb unless instructed by the HOA (That means I can't use a 5,000K Daylight color bulb, ($25 Fine)
    via u/9IX
  • 09
    yeah_habitual_liar Trash day is Thursday morning. Trashcans cannot go out on the curb until Thursday. 11:59pm Wednesday night is a $25 fine. 12:01am Thursday morning is fine.
    via u/yeah_habitual_liar
  • 10
    yeah_habitual_liar Company cannot stay over for more than 2 consecutive nights unless you inform the HOA in writing. But they're generous on holidays in case family is visiting- November- January it's 3 nights. Guests who violate this rule will have their car towed.
    via u/yeah_habitual_liar
  • 11
    cameronsheart My dad used the wrong color blue for his front door. He's lived in the same neighborhood for a decade. They still won't let it go!
    via u/cameronsheart
  • 12
    Wassamonkey My parent's house is in a HOA neighborhood and they have such fun rules as: • No parking on the street between midnight and 7am as it can lower the property value.
    via u/Wassamonkey
  • 13
    • Grass can be no longer than 4 inches, regardless of if it is visible from public property. • AC unit must be fenced in and no visible from the street or any other house. • All damage from hurricanes (This is in Florida) must be repaired within 1 week.
    via u/Wassamonkey
  • 14
    Each of these have associated fines, from $35-$200, though many of them are "suggested donations" and unenforceable.
    via u/Wassamonkey
  • 15
    _aladynevertells_ Got a fine for leaving our garage door open to unload groceries. :(
    via u/_aladynevertells_
  • 16
    sykocus I lived in a place that had a monthly newsletter. The month I moved in the whole back page, 8.5in x 11in, was on approved doorbell frames.
    via u/sykocus
  • 17
    From what I remember: "Novelty" frames were explicitly forbidden, e.g. Sports cars or golfing. Brass or bass colored were not allowed. Round was preferred but oval shaped was allowed. Square was not allowed unless it was rotated so as to be a diamond shape.
    via u/sykocus
  • 18
    roberta60 in 2013 in my condo HOA, they "cited" me for a clothes drying rack on my back patio which backs on to TREES - no people would even see my environmentally friendly method of drying clothes. that....I kept using it. This is in a state (Virginia) where recycling hasn't even caught on yet! Welcome to 1980!
    via u/roberta60
  • 19
    thedemonmaxwell oh man i posted this before, kinda long...but Disclosure Fees...basically when you sell your house or condo you have to get a disclosure or condo certification sent to the title company and bank and then the CC&Rs sent to the new owner. Thing is, they take about 10 minutes to do, but many companies are now charging fees
    via u/thedemonmaxwell
  • 20
    between 200 and 1000 dollars up front my cousin worked for a large community management firm where he processed disclosures for home sales for HOA's for about 75 communities. he said when the market crashed the company exxecutives were ecstatic because of how many he had to process and they ended up raising the
    via u/thedemonmaxwell
  • 21
    fees and then making it an upfront fee which was the first company in their region to do it and caused a huge fuss because it was needed to complete sales. Basically, my cousin had to field hundreds of calls a week of being threatened and screamed at by banks, realtors and homeowners, lawyers coming to the office, calls from Attorneys generals office and much
    via u/thedemonmaxwell
  • 22
    more because of it. A lot of them also were people that were trying to avoid foreclosure but really couldnt spare the extra almost 400 dollars for the disclosure. The execs didnt care though, because theyre bottom line was padded with hundreds of thousands of dollars in "admin fees"
    via u/thedemonmaxwell
  • 23
    His anxiety went through the roof dealing with it day in and day out, since it was only him and he finally quit after a couple years of it. Crazy smart guy, really good with people and finance but he rarely even will answer his phone because of that job and even switched careers so he doesn't have to mess with people's money. He's making decent money with what he is doing
    via u/thedemonmaxwell
  • 24
    now, but after seeing all of that its actually scared him. away from buying a house in this state and still has anxiety issues.
    via u/thedemonmaxwell
  • 25
    [….. We had a two story house. The satellite dish on the top of the house had a white cable running down the side and into the house. We got a letter from the HOA saying we had to paint it brown in order for it to match the color of the house...
    via u/[deleted]
  • 26
    [... Ok, I live in a small suburban neighborhood. The new half has an HOA, but we live in the old away from that crazy There is a street that bisects our neighborhood as well, and I am on one side while the "Others" are literally 50 feet away. In fact, the head of it is right across the street. They always send me stuff trying to get me to
    via u/[deleted]
  • 27
    join. They stupidly included a copy of the rules, I'll break it out. 1. No Parking on the Street or in the driveway between the hours of 12am and 12pm 2. All houses must have at least one brick in their facade.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 28
    3. No music above 70 Decibels may be played at any time in any place. (This means even within insulated rooms) 4. No Iron fences with spaces over 4 inches. (A friend of ours had to get new fences put in on all sides for this.... )
    via u/[deleted]
  • 29
    5. At no time may a minor be the sole occupant of a residency (Yeah.... off) 6. At no time may Garage doors be left open for more than 5 minutes 7. Landscaping equipment may not be left out of the garage
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    Basically, they're stupid. Me and My bud will play our music if we want and his parents will leave us home if they well please. Apparently that's supposed to make me want to join....or something.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    jmcrutch We cannot park any kind of pickup truck in our driveway. Disregarding that I live in Florida where nearly half of all passenger vehicles are pickups, and that lots of these pickups are really nice and expensive (aka not work-trucks). I joined the HOA board in
    via u/jmcrutch
  • 32
    order to change this ridiculous rule, fought the good fight with reasonable arguments, but was unanimously opposed with seemingly the only explanation is that is some sort of slippery slope to letting undesirables move into the neighborhood.
    via u/jmcrutch
  • 33
    [deleted] I can understand grass height regulations, or noise. codes, but some of the stuff I've read is absolutely absurd. I'll never live in an HOA. I'll buy a plot of land and build a house on it if that's what it takes.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 34
    JAQMN Mailboxes. The neighborhood I grew up in required either wood or fancy, ornate, metal mailboxes. We moved from a tiny rambler and brought our black plastic mailbox with us. They told us to get a new one countless times but we still have a plastic one. Ours was the only one that wasn't shattered by the baseball- bat wielding teenagers.
    via u/JAQMN
  • 35
    BadGirlSneer "Keep outdoor cats on a tether."
    via u/BadGirlSnee
  • 36
    DrMcAutopsy There's a guy at the HOA were I live who complained about the sprouting pine trees by the group mailboxes, and that there are sometimes skunks around. A few things to consider:
    via u/DrMcAutopsy
  • 37
    1. Heat makes pine cones drop 2. Rain makes them release seeds and grow 3. This was the wettest, hottest year on record 4. We live in the largest ponderosa pine forest on the continent.
    via u/DrMcAutopsy
  • 38
    5. In case you missed it in number 4, WE LIVE IN A ☐ FOREST. This is not an exaggerated way of saying there are planted trees about, you drive a mile from downtown and you're in the woods. I took a wrong turn coming back from Target and ended up on a US forest service dirt road.
    via u/DrMcAutopsy
  • 39
    The tree 3 feet from where I park my car is like 90 years old. 6. THERE ARE GOING TO BE PLANTS AND ANIMALS AROUND זי YOU KNEW THAT WHEN YOU MOVED INTO A → FOREST. SITTING IN A BUILDING SURROUNDED BY TREES AND COMPLAINING ABOUT
    via u/DrMcAutopsy
  • 40
    THE EXISTENCE OF TREES IS ABSURD
    via u/DrMcAutopsy
  • 41
    mojojo_jo Can't have privacy fences... They literally forced a family to take one down. you can only have stupid 4ft tall fences that have a certain arc to them. They also limit the amount of trees and bushes you can have in your front and back yard....
    via u/mojojo_jo

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hoa house home owners association driveway home parking housing neighbors neighborhood mailbox paint neighborhood-drama apartments neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors complaint apartment
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