I’ve made it clear in the past that I don’t like homeowner’s associations and I’m not the only one.
Many of them have proven themselves to be powerful breeding grounds for power-tripping busybodies who seem hell-bent on putting their rules before even the most basic considerations for human decency.
When their aggressive enforcers are convinced that even the pettiest of their neighborhood’s affairs will negatively affect their property values, that gives them a relentless zeal to their concerns about the length of your lawn or how you decorate your house.
One man’s story of holiday humbug shows that some homeowners associations will push their rules even if they don’t apply.
The man we’re about to hear from lives in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association and his house was built before it existed.
He explained in a post that he is exempt from both the rules of the homeowners association and the rules of the real estate attorney.
He said that the most recent incident he’s been through with the homeowners association serves as a perfect example of how they tend to react to him.
A woman told him that the Christmas lights he put up to delight his nieces and nephews violated the rules of the homeowners association.
He put them up too early for their liking and he had more up than they were willing to accept.
He said, “I told her that we been over this before that I am in no way beholden to their policies and don’t care.”
The guy liked the people in that neighborhood, but he didn’t want to follow the rules of the association he didn’t belong to.
He told her that he would leave them up until Christmas.
He mentioned that this didn’t stop the woman from trying.
The guy stated, “She told me that me breaking the rules upset other members and that I should respect their rules even if I don’t follow them because I technically live in the neighborhood.”
He threw the flyer in the trash after she told him to get off his property.
The guy is wondering if he should have tried to meet her halfway.
Most of the commenters who read his story told him he wasn’t obliged to do that, but they strongly advised him not to.
One Redditor asked “What part of ‘I’m not a member of the HOA’ does she not understand?” which led another to say, “It kills them that somebody could possibly exist that isn’t beholden to their rules.”
The consequences for doing so were laid out by another person.
As the Redditors say, “Don’t you dare agree “out of respect” or for any other non-legal reason to ANY of their rules. If you do that, you may set up precedence in behavior that could potentially make you legally bound to their rules.”
