HOA files multiple complaints about visible trash cans, so homeowner maliciously complies by turning theirs into a decorative bush: '[He] apparently walked right past my trash bush and didn't notice'

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
May 31, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

Homeowners Associations (HOAs) can feel like the neighborhood version of a tyrannical middle school hall monitor, just with more fines and fewer hall passes. They're supposed to maintain property values and keep the neighborhood looking nice, but sometimes it feels like they exist solely to make your life slightly more annoying. My mom lives in an HOA-run neighborhood, and I kid you not, if she wants to repaint her mailbox, she has to walk down to the HOA president's house and borrow a communal paint can containing the approved shade of beige. Beige! As if the fate of the neighborhood rests on uniformly dull mailboxes. Non-Americans could never understand (and we envy them).

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  • When a homeowner in another HOA got cited for having his trash cans “visible from the street,” they found a loophole so clever it deserves a slow clap. Instead of moving the bins, he camouflaged them with a cover that looked like a bush and the HOA actually thanked them for “beautifying the property" after they overlooked the trash bush. Iconic.

  • Cheezburger Image 10511988736
    via Toa Heftiba For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subject is a model; the image does not depict the actual subject of the story.

  • "HOA Said My Trash Cans Had to Be ‘Out of Sight’ at All Times."

    So this happened last summer, and I still chuckle about it. I live in a pretty cookie- cutter suburban neighborhood with a notoriously annoying HOA. They're the kind of
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • people who will measure the height of your grass and fine you $50 if it's "over regulation." Now, I've always kept my property neat, but we had this one board member, Rick, who took his job way too seriously. He'd
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • Cheezburger Image 10511988992
    via Kobby Mendez For Unsplash+
  • do these random patrols around the neighborhood, taking photos of violations like some kind of parking lot vigilante. One day I get a notice in the mail: “TRASH CANS
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • VISIBLE FROM THE STREET - MUST BE KEPT OUT OF SIGHT AT ALL TIMES." Mind you, I kept mine at the side of my house, next to my fence. Not on the curb, not in the front
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • yard-just barely visible if you were really trying. But apparently, that was too much for Rick. I called to ask for clarification. I asked, "You mean just not on the curb except on trash day,
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • right?" "No," Rick said. "They must not be visible from the street at all, regardless of where they're stored." Alright, Rick. If it's total invisibility you want... cue malicious compliance.
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • I went online and bought a giant trash can-shaped cover that looks like a hedge. Yes, they exist. It's basically a fabric wrap with printed shrubbery on it. Then I placed it exactly where it was before-side
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • of my house, slightly visible-but now camouflaged to look like a bush. About a week later, I get another note. But this time? It was a thank-you from the HOA
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • for "taking initiative to beautify my property." Rick apparently walked right past my "trash bush" and didn't even notice it. I left it there for months. Eventually, Rick must've
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • caught on because I saw him stop his car, back up, and just stare at it. He never said a word. But the rules say "not visible," and, well... if he can't tell it's a trash can, then it isn't, right?
    via BIind_Uchiha
  • Sometimes, playing by the rules is the most fun you can have.
    via BIind_Uchiha

  • This homeowner isn't the only one who's gotten creative when sticking it to the HOA. Read this story next: Homeowner's tree gets cut down without permission by neighboring HOA, so he rebuilds it with PVC pipe and covers it in lights: 'I did it ugly too' 

  • Awhile9722 Should have been a trash can cover made to look like a trash can
    via Awhile9722
  • Fyler1 I would never agree to live in an HOA. I don't need some Karen or Carl coming by fining me for some "regulation" of section 6 clause 12b. Sheesh
    via Fyler1
  • DiligentCockroach 700 I must say that as a British who lives in the UK, we don't have anything even resembling HOAs over here, I find these organizations rather preposterous! How did they ever come into being?
    via DiligentCockroach700
  • SparkleSelkie Every story on here about an HOA further convinces me that I would go absolutely feral living with one
    via SparkleSelkie
  • great_extension Considering this is malicious compliance, I honestly expected them to stay on the kerb, but have the bush camouflage placed over them so they're not visible anymore.
    via great_extension
  • MithHeruEnLisyul Aren't HOAs run by the owners? And issues are decided by vote? That's how my HOA works. Most
    via MithHeruEnLisyul
  • people don't get involved because these things are mindnumbingly boring. If enough people cared the idiotic rules would not exist maybe?
    via MithHeruEnLisyul
  • -DethLok- I would have wondered how the garbage truck was going to collect trash cans if they were 'not visible from the street at all times'.
    via -DethLok-
  • Where would you put them out for collection if they had to be not visible from the street at all times?
    via -DethLok-
  • ThirtyMileSniper How did any of you get. trash collected if no one can ever see the cans?
    via ThirtyMileSniper
  • Just pointing out the abject absurdity of his position. You could have stalked his house and got your own photos.
    via ThirtyMileSniper

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humor hoa neighbors malicious compliance fine mailbox homeowner yard neighborhood-drama comedy property trash can funny entitled people
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