Entitled 70+ year-old HOA member demands neighbors take down Halloween decorations, sends a cease and desists order: 'HOA Karen reported my Halloween decorations'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 7, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

This HOA is so serious about their holiday decorations that they're handing out flyers!

People love decorating for the holidays: whether it's Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, or St. Patrick's Day, people love to deck out their homes with cute decor. A lot of folks make it into a family tradition, bringing everyone together to unpack all the decorations and hang them up while eating special treats and listening to a soundtrack to match. 

Halloween can be especially fun! I love getting those balls of cobwebs that you pull apart, and stringing them all across the house and/or garden. Window gels are a great choice for a fast and easy decoration session. And who could forget carving pumpkins, which is a classic Halloween activity for those who can't wait to light up the night with a creepy (or silly) jack o lantern smile. 

These people pulled out all the stops with their giant spider web decoration! It was hanging from a tree in their yard, alongside a human-sized object cocooned in the faux spider web. It looks great, I think! It's very cute and silly and perfect for the season. So of course the local HOA members were apoplectic about it! One older woman "power walked" up to this person and their wife, and she couldn't wait to lay down the law. Ugh. When will these HOA people learn that no one wants to pay money to an HOA just to be told that they can't do fun stuff on their own property? 

Next up, read about the way that this basketball team executive pulled a bait-and-switch on a group of musical performers: "Stop wasting the time of valuable performers." 

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  • 01

    'HOA Karen Reported My Halloween Decorations'

    Cheezburger Image 10561496832
    via barbara keer on Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    Caption encapsulates most of it. Took my wife and I about an hour to put up these decorations. Just when we were wrapping up, some 70+ y/o lady power
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 03
    walks up to the two of us and in a stern voice says, "you need to take down your decorations." No hello, no hi I'm so and so with HOA, just straight to business.
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 04
    Mind you, we've never met this lady, have lived here three+ years and our neighborhood goes pretty hard with Halloween decorations every year. Her reasoning
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 05
    was our HOA insurance went up and they are going door to door informing homeowners decorations aren't allowed based on the memo they sent
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 06
    out. The memo in question is the second image. The exchange with the lady gets pretty heated but I ask for a copy of the memo, she shows it to me
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 07
    and I said which of these am I breaking? She takes the paper from me and points to whole thing and says this is a common area. Yeah no sh anything outside our house is
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 08
    a common area. Our official cease and desist was in our email inbox 1 hour later. My wife and I are thinking it could be worth it to fight the order since
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 09
    California passed the HOA $100 law and just pay the fine Let me know if I'm missing something here
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 10
    Cheezburger Image 10561271552
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 11

    Here's the rules! Sigh...

    Holiday Decorations Just a reminder that many Rules exist because of insurance liability for the HOA. 7.3 Seasonal Decorations. Seasonal decorations which do not create a health or safety hazard or constitute a nuisance (by, for example, shining bright lights aimed at neighboring dwelling units) are welcome and may be displayed for a period of thirty (30) days prior to and thirty (30) days after any particular holiday. • Practice good extension cord safety. Never run cords across sidewalks or st
    via u/esotericinformer
  • 12

    They're really trying to get people not to use any lights on their trees or bushes

    Plug outdoor lights and decorations into "GFCI" grounded outlets. To reduce the risk of fire, don't overload a circuit. Do not drive nails, staples or tacks through wiring insulation or attach to any HOA wood or stucco surfaces. Lights on common area vegetation pose a significant hazard to landscape staff and our master insurance liability. No decorations are allowed on any roofs.
    via u/esotericinformer

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halloween decorations hoa neighbors entitlement house halloween neighborhood home owners association driveway neighborhood-drama neighborhood-stories entitled home parking entitled people
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