15+ Petty HOA rules that left home owners baffled: '[They're] not allowing vehicles... to be parked in the driveway for more than 24 hours'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 9, 2025 3:00 PM EST

These HOAs have some truly ridiculous rules — just ask the residents who have to abide by them, or face steep fines! 

HOAs are known for having totally ridiculous rulebooks full of "gotchas." They love to snag residents with little infractions that can add up over time, netting the HOA lots of money, while infuriating the residents. But some HOAs truly take it too far, as you can read about down below. 

One person discovered that for some reason, the HOA enforced a rule stating that no one can park their cars in their own driveways for more than 24 hours. That's just so insane! Why even have a driveway if you can't park in it now and then? That's irritating, but some people had HOAs that were quite literally invasive. Just ask the dude who had to get his neighbors' say on his choice of flooring before installation. That's right: the 2 next-door neighbors had to approve their floors. Uh… why would that ever be your neighbor's business? 

Perhaps the most egrigious story told here, though, is the HOA that banned dogs from riding in the elevators. The dogs couldn't hold it in, and kept making messes in the elevator, which is understandably a problem to be solved. However, this rule even applied to someone with a service dog. This person physically couldn't take the stairs, and wound up with $45k in fines! It's so ridiculous, but at least their case had a fantastic ending, which you can read all about down below. 

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  • 01

    'Share here the most outrageous HOA rules you've encountered'

    Cheezburger Image 10573577728
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

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

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    PowerSkunk92 An HOA I lived in had a rule where residents could not wear camouflage clothing outdoors. It was considered "Redneck" to go out in public in such. This guy racked up fines because he wore camo daily. No matter how many times he appealed, with a good reason, the fines would
    via u/PowerSkunk92
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    stand, even though he refused to pay them. The fines were dropped after his unit commander attended an HOA meeting and tore into the board about their idiocy in fining a man for wearing a military uniform.
    via u/PowerSkunk92
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    bearcub42 They launched a no dogs in the elevator about two years ago not because people had issues with aggressive animals but apparently too many people weren't cleaning up if their pets. couldn't make it out on time and never went back to clean up the piss.
    via u/bearcub42
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    I'm physically disabled, live on the 5th floor, and have a legit service animal and have been here for 12 years. Each infraction was a $200 fine. I racked up close $45k in fines until my lawyers threats became reality in an ADA suit. They still were dumb enough to want to go to court, confident they would triumph because they
    via u/bearcub42
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    tried to play the aggressive animal angle but it's a legit service dog, not an emotional security dog, so you could set off an air horn behind her and she is trained not to react. The court didn't just dismiss it but ordered them to not just pay my legal fees but $20k in compensation for the mental and emotional stress that came with that BS.
    via u/bearcub42
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    Actual-Error-1124 Tried to make me change the color of my drapes (dark brown) that were in my house and in the back to my patio. You can only see the drapes when standing on my patio.
    via u/Actual-Error-1124
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    KyleWhyZero4 No brown/dead plants - here's the kicker - enforced year round. I got a violation. notice for having a deciduous tree with brown leaves in my front yard...in. January...in the PNW.
    via u/KyleWhyZero4
  • 09
    hover-lovecraft Friends of mine are not allowed to grow anything edible in their garden. Ornamental plants only. Growing food is for poors, apparently.
    via u/hover-lovecraft
  • 10
    roxywalker New HOA President told me my 12 foot Palm trees were a height violation of the HOA rules and had to go. They were jealous of all the money we spent on our trees and landscaping. There was no rule. I double checked. Told them to pound sand.
    via u/roxywalker
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    Bigfartz69420 No pets over 10 pounds. I'm pretty sure every pet in the complex is over the weight limit, but luckily no narcs.
    via u/Bigf*rtz69420
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    salsafresca_12... OP Mine used to not allow any signs in the yard other than for sale signs. Then our state passed a law that HOAs have to allow signs for political candidates within 30 days of an election.
    via u/salsafresca_1297
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    My neighbor put up a sign saying "Save Our Libraries!" The HOA dinged her because it didn't have a candidate's name on it. So she went out with a Sharpie and wrote, "Vote Jane Smith and John Jones for Library board!"
    via u/salsafresca_1297
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    Baldy TheScot They tried to enact a change to no more than 3 houses being used as long term rentals at any one time. In a neighborhood of 130+ homes. The reasoning was, verbatim, "people that rent are typically lower income, lower education, and don't
    via u/Baldy TheScot
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    care about the look of our neighborhood. So they will drag down property values." I've never seen anything shouted down so quickly in my life.
    via u/Baldy TheScot
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    Finn235 We had an awful management company a few years back that got kickbacks for violation letters sent out. Like $0.75 cash for them per violation. They had a car go around literally every week and just pick random stuff for violation letters.
    via u/Finn235
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    Some examples: . Leaving garage door open during the day (the person was literally leaving their house in the picture) • Garden hoses visible from street (the person was actively washing their car)
    via u/Finn235
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    Poorly kept lawn (the person was actively mowing their lawn after 2 solid weeks of rain) We also had them crack down on dirty siding panels. - certainly had nothing to do with the fact that one of the board members had just started a pressure washing company, and he gleefully
    via u/Finn235
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    posted on the Facebook page offering group discounts if entire streets would schedule for the same day.
    via u/Finn235
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    smittymoose The best FU we ever had was when a property management firm tried to form a HOA in my neighborhood back in 2008. or 2009. The meeting was a riot. One of my neighbors directly asked them "why do we want to pay you to tell us what we can and can't do on our own property? What is it exactly you're going to DO for us that warrants that?"
    via u/smittymoose
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    The representative said "we want to maintain your property values and assure this stays a beautiful neighborhood for generations to come". Our neighborhood is about 40 years old, never had an HOA, and the way it's built, has no room for addition of amenities. Our roads and
    via u/smittymoose
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    garbage are all municipal maintained. It was a joke an a half, and was immediately struck down when put to a vote.
    via u/smittymoose
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    Onl... No vehicles with commercial signs on them. Like, if you had a normal pickup and on the door has "Bob's Lawncare " or something on it. Because having a job is low-class or something.
    via u/OnlyOnHBO
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    Not allowing vehicles of any kind to be parked in the driveway for more than 24 hours. Sneaky way to allow the HOA to control whether you renovate your garage, IMO. And of course, typical of HOAS ... classist as fuck.
    via u/OnlyOnHBO
  • 25
    Zu... No clothes lines has always been outlawed by HOAS as far as I know and that has always seemed ridiculous to me. It's way more eco friendly and some actually prefer the smell and crispness of naturally air- dried clothes. The complete opposite of the rest of the world. I grew up with clotheslines and it is actually quite nostalgic to me now.
    via u/ZugzwangNC
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    pandaleer I was in one that had zero lot homes with just small patios at the rear of the house facing the alleyway, where the garages were at (owner's garages faced each other). You could put up an ugly ass umbrella that didn't match the house color or aesthetic of the neighborhood, but in order to have a non-permanent
    via u/pandaleer
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    BBQ canopy I had to provide a request to "Alter the house structure", and said canopy had to match the house colors, or compliment them. (Note, it wasn't attached to the house, nor was it a structural change as it dismantles in less than 20 mins. And it looked 1000% better than some of the ugly, faded, torn, and broken umbrellas on patios).
    via u/pandaleer
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    RileyMasters This rule only lasted like six months twenty-something years ago, but there was a time in the neighborhood that I was living in the the HOA banned children from gathering in groups of four or more, unless at one of the designated park areas and with a party permit.
    via u/RileyMasters
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    Didn't matter it was four friends taking a bike ride or five siblings laying about the grass out front, instant fine. My friend's mom ended up fined when I walked past her house with my dog, and she was outside with her three kids, and I waved.
    via u/RileyMasters
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    Apparently it was to prevent gang violence (in an upper white middle class area where at the time the worst thing that happened was a Super Bowl fight over in like five minutes), but the parents finally had a cow about it and blew up. The rule got easily removed because only like two people on the HOA board actually
    via u/RileyMasters
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    showed up to the hastily announced meeting (the rest were retirees who lived up north for the warmer months, called snowbirds). We kids were still discouraged from grouping up outside those particular homes owned by said snowbirds, but nothing else ever came of it.
    via u/RileyMasters
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    Phillimac16 I managed a community that had a "No Parking in the Driveways" rule, but the thing is the community was built in a semi-rural area where everyone drove giant pick-ups and SUVs while the builder built the garages way too small to accommodate these large
    via u/Phillimac16
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    vehicles. Additionally these were 4 BR townhomes so there was bound to be more than 2 vehicles per HH. Made for a tense annual meeting...
    via u/Phillimac16
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    halfageplus7 I lived in an HOA that required your garage be free of clutter. The interior of your garage. Presumably this was to keep you from parking in guest spots. This was even enforced on a neighbor who was running a small, quiet import/export business. He had to move everything to a storage unit.
    via u/halfageplus7
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    Ziggity_Zac The neighbor next to me had to sign off that they approved the color of my new floors... inside the condo. (Both neighbors)
    via u/Ziggity_Zac

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