Entitled resident ignores warnings from neighbor about construction plan, gets massive fine from HOA and the city: '[He] told my husband to mind his own business'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 14, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Going against the HOA is never a good idea. No matter how much you think you can get away with bending the rules, unless you found the perfect loophole or are some sort of legal expert, the odds are not in your favor. It's not that the HOA is in the right; on the contrary, most of these institutions are made up of stubborn, spineless entitled people who have nothing better to do with their lives than enforce lame policies. Still, double-crossing them is only bound to make matters worse for you.

With this in mind, if a kind neighbor with more experience with what will be approved or disapproved by the HOA swings by and gives you a friendly warning that what you're doing might very well come back to bite you on the behind, it's probably a good idea to listen to that person rather than dismiss everything they have to say. Some neighbors really are just trying to look out for you! This resident learned that the hard way.

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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • The author's husband became an expert in landscaping and construction policies with both the local HOA their house is a part of and the city at large. However, when he attempted to warn the guy next door that his backyard plans go against policy and won't be worth fighting, the guy told the author's husband to mind his own business. Well, that kind of unfriendly treatment didn't serve this guy well in the end… the best part is that the author and her husband were not the ones who reported him, despite his steadfast belief that they were!

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    Some background: my husband is pretty handy. Prior to C he had done several flip houses as a "fun" side gig (it's what he loves to do), and he became very familiar with a ton of city codes.
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    During C seems everyone was suddenly buying houses to flip out of boredom and prices sky rocketed, so he put that on hold. So then he started doing household repairs and upgrades,
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    building fences, etc. around the neighborhood as well. To get a better understanding of the neighborhood HOA bylaws and whatnot, he joined the HOA Architectural Committee. Through
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    that he learned all there was to know about what was allowed and what was not, how the process worked, how to work around things, etc.
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    Long story short, my husband was VERY knowledgeable in what to do and not do, and various processes with the neighborhood AND the city.
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    Our next door neighbor decided they were going to start landscaping their backyard, and they I guess planned to make theirs as similar to our backyard as
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    possible. Problem was, despite being next door neighbors, our land was quite different. For one thing, behind our house was a bunch of brush and pine trees
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    maybe 3-4' from the lake that's at the back of the house. We didn't have to do a whole lot to clear the area, but the brush on their property was about 1/3 of their yard (I'd say 10' from the water?).
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    Also, the way the houses on our street are, the land naturally made like a valley, where the house to our right is at the "top", we're in the middle, and the next two houses are at the bottom before it very quickly rises again.
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    First thing the neighbors did was cut down all the trees in their backyard. They were not small trees either, but 4 story tall trees or more. Husband and neighbor were talking about the backyard plans when my husband casually mentioned he was surprised the city gave him permission to cut down so many trees (in our city,
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    you had to have an arborist give permission to cut down any trees that were X ft tall. Neighbor first said it wasn't the city's business what he did with his backyard, then told my husband to mind his own business. Ok. Fair enough.
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    Then they started putting up the retaining wall to bring it up to level with our property, which would have been about 7-8' tall. Basically they were just stacking a bunch of cinderblocks. My husband uneasily
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    asked if their landscapers had ever done a retaining wall like that, and if the city approved it. City says that if a retaining wall is over 5' tall you need a structural engineer to come out. Neighbor said again it wasn't any of the city's business what he did to his yard, and for my husband to mind his own. business.
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    While they're filling up the backyard to bring theirs level to ours, the landscapers are dumping all the dirt, gravel, and sand in the street, blocking a little over half the road. Several of the neighbors
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    who had trucks would just hop the curb, but other neighbors with smaller cars were mad. Before my husband could ask if they could put the dirt and stuff in their driveway instead of the road (like everyone else), neighbor went off on my husband to right off.
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    Well ok then. My husband let them continue working, and didn't say a word as they started constructing a 10' tall fence (which was against HOA regulations, fences couldn't be taller than 6').
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    Between them starting construction 6 days a week before 7am and them blocking the road, I guess someone had had enough. Next thing I know city officials are out there putting a big- sign in the yard saying all construction
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    was to be halted until further notice. It wasn't us, but my husband found out through the architectural committee that someone had complained about the noise and the road blockage to
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    the HOA, who came out to investigate, saw everything they had done, and then reported them to the city. They got a hefty fine for every tree stump the city official found. The structural engineer said their retaining wall was not sound and had to be redone, and it had to have regular inspections during its build.
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    The HOA also told them that not only did they have to take down their 10' tall fence, but as they did not get prior approval and because it was not an "approved design" the HOA also hit them with a hefty fine.
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    Initially Neighbor came after us for tattling but we told them it wasn't us, as nothing they did affected us in any way (our kids are early risers, so even starting before 7 didn't bother us). My husband then said he tried to warn them this would happen but Neighbor told him to off and mind his own business and he did.
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    Landscaping had started on Black Friday, was shut down for 3 weeks while I guess they got things sorted out with the city and HOA. Their backyard is still not finished.
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    Edit: I truly want to say, it wasn't us that called the HOA or city. We just let him be. But he ¸ I off a LOT of neighors. When cutting down those trees, he had chainsaws and the woodchippers going off by 6:45. And the bobcat being used
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    by 7am six days a week. Other neighbors tried to ask him to put his dirt on his driveway instead of the street, he told them off to mind their own business too. And
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    a few people went ballistic on him when their car slid a bit after the rains we had turned the remaining dirt to mud.
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    The school bus could also easily have complained to someone about it too, as it was a big ordeal for them.
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    Also, there were other things he did to his front yard that we didn't warn him about either and he got dinged for, but I made this post mostly about him trying to go against the city. Although the changes he made to the driveway also got dinged by the city. And yes, from what I heard, the tree fines were painful.
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    Edit 2: no really, it wasn't us Although not going to lie, we almost ratted them out when they took out the beautiful oak tree in their front yard, put up a 20' flag pole, and put up a Chicago Bears flag (my husband can't stand that team). But we still kept quiet, and
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    that flag pole was taken down about a week later. It again, it could have been the HOA or city noticing on their own, or a neighbor reporting them because the clanging it made all day and night was awful.
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hoa hoa stories neighbors malicious compliance neighborhood neighborhood-drama bad neighbors neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors entitled people karma entitled people
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