John And The Horrible HOA
What are homeowner’s associations good for? Sure, HOAs may offer community support, maintenance, and access to neighborhood amenities. However, most of the time, HOAs are flat-out awful! From expensive monthly dues to controlling and demanding leaders, HOAs are the bane of many individuals’ existence. Nobody is more familiar with a horrible HOA than our buddy, “John.”
John lived with his father, and the HOA in their neighborhood always had a bad reputation.
The HOA would snoop around people’s homes, and hand out false accusations to homeowners without any prior research. Talk about annoying!
One morning as John and his father were leaving to go grocery shopping, they noticed his father’s smashed truck. Upon further inspection, they found someone had thrown a rock inside the truck and busted the window. When John looked at the rock, he knew it wasn’t just any old rock on the ground. It was a polished, decorative garden rock, and John knew only one resident in his neighborhood owned anything like it. Suspicious! John had a bad feeling about the situation, and he felt as if his father was being specifically targeted by the HOA. If he wanted to solve the mystery and take down his HOA, John knew he would have to take matters into his own hands.
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The Vandalizing Villain
John and his father resided in a neighborhood with an awful HOA. What made the HOA terrible? The leaders were lying, sneaky, and downright evil. Typical HOA! The leaders knowingly gave false accusations to homeowners with the main goal of getting people in trouble. Most recently, one of John’s neighbors received a violation notice from the HOA for not getting approval before re-shingling her roof. The problem? John’s neighbor hadn’t re-shingled her roof in over ten years and had no plans to do so. Whether it was a mistake or pure malice, the HOA had its nose in other people’s business when it shouldn’t have been.
One morning, John and his father went to the grocery store. Upon walking outside, they found his father’s truck completely smashed into with a rock. John called the police, and upon investigation, they concluded that the rock came from a home down the street. The rock was a polished, unique, garden fixture, and John positively knew nobody else in the neighborhood owned anything like it. Unfortunately, the police couldn’t get the neighbor to admit to the crime, and they couldn’t prove the neighbor committed the crime. After the incident, John bought a security camera and installed it outside of his father’s house. The vandal wouldn’t be getting away next time!
Only two days later, John’s father received an HOA violation notice for a “vehicle eyesore,” that needed to be removed from the driveway.
Those pesky HOA leaders are up to something!
John wondered how the HOA knew about the truck so quickly, and he suspected foul play.
The next day, John and his father heard a knock at the front door. Was it the supposed vandal, or the HOA seeking their wrath once more?
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Code Officer Complaints
When John answered the door, a code inspection officer was standing outside. The week wasn’t over yet, and the HOA already called an officer about the truck! The parts to fix the truck were not delivered yet, so John and his father couldn’t do anything about the truck sitting in the driveway. Plus, the truck still ran fine.
The code inspection officer turned to John’s father and said, “Any vehicles not running need to be removed from the driveway.”
Just as John’s father was about to reply, both men stopped and said, “Wait, don’t I know you?”
As it turned out, the code inspection officer attended the same spiritual services as John’s father, and they already knew each other! Small world, right?
The code officer told John’s father, “I’ll make you a deal. Show me the truck starts, and I will write it up as being in code.”
His father started the truck, showing the HOA leader it worked perfectly fine.
“Well, everything appears to be okay,” the code officer stated, “Sorry to bother you. Have a good day.”
John and his father were furious, as they were beginning to suspect the HOA set them up. None of John’s neighbors had security cameras, so they didn’t have proof as to who destroyed the truck. A little further down the road, another neighbor had their car broken into, but the camera on their house didn’t catch anything. Whoever the vandal was, they knew the neighborhood like the back of their hand.
As an extra security precaution, John installed a dash camera in his car. The camera used a small amount of power off the car battery and automatically activated it if something bumped the vehicle.
Luckily for John, his dash camera picked up a surprising sequence of events only days later.
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The Dash Camera Catch
A few days after John installed his dash camera, his father received a violation notice for his mailbox being crooked. Despite the mailbox being barely at an angle, John remembered it looking out of the ordinary. The mailbox could have easily been fixed, but John knew something was suspicious about the situation. He decided to investigate the situation further and figure out if someone had pushed the mailbox over, or if it had fallen over on its own.
Suddenly, John remembered his dash camera pointed straight at the mailbox. Score!
John thought, “Wait, it probably didn’t record anything. The dash camera will only record if there is a bump.”
John decided to check the camera just in case it caught any evidence. John took the memory card out, only to discover that the camera had been recording the entire time! He didn’t configure the camera correctly, and it never went into sleep mode. Sometimes, mistakes do pay off!
John put the memory card into his computer and watched the recordings captured by the dash camera. He had to do a double-take at what he found on the recordings! John saw the HOA investigator walk up to his father’s mailbox, push it over, then write a violation report on his tablet. John was appalled about what happened, but he finally had the proof he needed to take down the HOA! Let’s go, John!
Since John now had proof of the vandal, he was on top of the world. Now, it was time for John and his father to present their evidence to the HOA in a board meeting. They didn’t mention a word about their video evidence, and they kept it under wraps until the time was right in the meeting. Call it petty or call it genius, but John and his father were about to give their HOA the sweet revenge they deserved.
John and his father went to the board meeting, sat down, and waited for the chaos to begin
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Board Meeting Backfire
In the board meeting, the HOA hired an outside company called, “Barry Management,” to do the difficult work. Barry Management’s representative, ‘Karen,’ would present her case on behalf of the neighborhood’s HOA.
As minutes passed by in the meeting, John and his father had the opportunity to discuss the strange occurrences at their home. They presented precise timelines for every sketchy situation, and all of their evidence was organized in a clear, understandable manner. Afterward, John explained to the board how his father’s truck was smashed, and how they received a letter from the HOA about the truck just two days afterward. Although John’s evidence was convincing, he knew he had to press Karen for more answers.
John asked Karen, “Do you know what days and times your investigator was out working?”
Karen refused to answer as she rolled her eyes and looked away.
She argued back ignorantly, “You and your father need to take better care of your belongings. The entire situation is your fault. I don’t see anyone else in the neighborhood complaining.”
Then, John brought up the mailbox incident.
John directed his stare at Karen and stated, “We have reasons to believe your investigator is the individual who is causing damage to my father’s property and harassing us.”
Karen cackled and shook her head, saying, “Impossible! I know the investigator personally.”
“Is that so?” John asked.
“Yes, why?” Karen replied.
Suddenly, John whipped his laptop out of his bag. He opened up the laptop and already had the video evidence loaded and ready to play.
John exclaimed, “Enter exhibit A!” as he pressed play on the video.
A few short minutes of video evidence would discredit John’s HOA forever.
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The HOAs Humiliating Downfall
As Karen watched John’s video evidence, her face turned bright red.
She argued, “This can’t be my investigator in the video.”
Then, John pulled out the violation notice about the mailbox, which was signed and completed with the date. The date matched the time stamp on the video, yet Karen still tried to argue her way out.
“It’s just a coincidence,” Karen responded, “You have a vandal, and it isn’t us.”
John let the video play, knowing Karen was digging her own grave. In the video, you could see the investigator was wearing a shirt with a “Barry Management” logo on the front. Undoubtedly, Karen knew the person in the video.
The board turned to Karen and questioned, “What do you have to say about this?”
Karen didn’t respond.
John then proceeded to bring up a previous case where his father received a violation for the grass beside his home. The area the HOA fined his father for wasn’t visible from the sidewalk, which meant an investigator stepped foot on the property illegally.
John asked Karen point blank, “Has at any time, your investigator walked on our property, illegally trespassing?”
Karen muttered, “No, of course not, with her head down.
John explicitly asked Karen again, hoping she would crack under the pressure.
Then, one of his father’s neighbor’s stood up and said, “Actually, she is lying. I have witnessed an investigator walk between our houses.”
It was over for Karen.
Afterward, the board proceeded to apologize for the incident and explained, “We will have to discuss what is going to happen about this in the future.”
A month passed, and John surprisingly received a letter in the mail. The letter explained how a new leader would be in charge of Barry Management, and there would be new neighborhood investigators. This meant Karen, who formerly worked for the HOA, was fired the night of the meeting!
John’s father occasionally received a rare error mistake from the HOA. The error would be immediately corrected, and the HOA didn’t bother John’s father much anymore.
What started as a dash camera mistake, singlehandedly helped John and his father take down the HOA once and for all.
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