Moving In
Have you ever taken a stand against something that wasn’t right? What was the outcome? Although speaking up for others can be a daunting thing to do, you’d be surprised just how much of a difference it makes.
Just ask our friend, “Leland!”
After moving to a new neighborhood, Leland was excited to embark on his new journey of being a brand new homeowner. He was skeptical about the HOA, but seeing that they had the fewest rules and the lowest monthly fees during his job hunt, Leland decided to give it a shot.
Not even a few weeks after him settling in, Leland was surprised when he found a letter containing a notice for the dumbest violation he could ever imagine.
When the HOA denied his appeal and insisted he pay the fee, Leland quickly realized how corrupt everyone was. After hearing more horror stories from his neighbors trapped under the evil grasp of the wicked HOA, Leland knew he had to do something to free himself and everyone from their unfair rules and unrelenting, nit-picky ways.
After seeing enough, Leland vowed not to rest until the HOA’s reign was brought down a couple of notches.
~
Power Trip
On a chilly, February afternoon, Leland read over a paper detailing the violations he supposedly committed in disbelief. It was smack dead in the middle of winter, but the letter in his hands was a warning from the HOA about the “unsightly” discoloration of his lawn.
All his neighbors had browning grass as it was a natural occurrence that took place during one of the coldest months of the year.
As Leland read the letter more, the HOA also did not appreciate where he stored his trash bins. Leland was always careful not to leave his bins on the side of the road after the given time slot, despite how trivial it seemed. He would drag them to the side of his house because he saw everyone else doing it. However, the letter claimed that Leland’s trash bins were sticking out to the point that it was “aesthetically displeasing” to his neighbors.
Now Leland knew that had to be a lie. His neighbors not only had their bins in the exact same spot but have never confronted him about it. Wouldn’t they have consulted with him if it bothered them so much?
Fed up, Leland marched to one of his “displaced” trash bins and casually tossed the letter in its new home.
Leland forgot about the letter, but in the weeks that followed, he was about to have a rude awakening.
~
A Haunting Discovery
Around the middle of March, Leland opened his mailbox and was spooked by an unexpected ghost from his past.
An envelope that was identical to what he received weeks ago was waiting for him. After bringing the envelope inside, he sat down at his dining room table and ripped it open.
This time, the letter had bright red numbers under the violations. Leland’s stomach twisted in knots as he read out loud:
“Due to your failure of fixing the violations in the allotted time given, you will be charged a fine of one hundred dollars for the listed offenses.”
Two hundred dollars seemed like a bit much for a trash can and lawn violation. The letter declared that Leland had just two weeks to make the payment or additional late fees would be added to his new balance.
Leland had heard all the rage about how greedy and outrageous HOAs were, and he was not going to be their next victim.
The next day, he called the number at the bottom of the letter to give the management company that worked with the HOA a piece of his mind.
After a few rings, a woman answered. Leland immediately argued against the fines in the letter, but the woman cut him off. She apologized and informed Leland that all requests for an appeal had to be done in person. Luckily, an HOA meeting was coming up in just a few days, so Leland had plenty of time to prepare his argument for his outrageous two-hundred-dollar fine.
When the day of the board meeting finally came, Leland marched into the conference room. Leland looked around in awe at the number of people who showed up.
In their hands was the same envelope Leland received. An irritable murmur echoed throughout the room as Leland overheard other homeowners belly-aching about the ridiculous fines.
Using his charm, Leland quickly made his way around the room before the start of the meeting and introduced himself as the newest resident in the neighborhood. No one had anything nice to say about the HOA.
With some help, Leland identified, “Bernard,” as the vice leader of the HOA. Leland approached him and mustered a courteous greeting before inquiring about the fine.
Bernard was much older than Leland. His bushy gray eyebrows knitted together as he glared at Leland.
Leland quickly caught onto his attitude but continued to plead his case as politely as he could.
Suddenly, Bernard cut him off. “So, what’s your point?”
Leland was taken aback. “I beg your pardon?”
“You got a fine because of what?” Bernard asked with a sneer.
When Leland repeated the offenses, Bernard rolled his eyes.
“You should get fined for that. Young people like you not taking care of their homes is the whole reason I got on this board. Learn to be a better property owner.”
Without saying another word, Bernard stomped away, leaving Leland’s jaw on the ground in disbelief. There was no way he was going to pay the fines. He had to think of something.
Once the meeting started, Leland found a seat. A woman named, “Miriam,” introduced herself as the leader of the HOA. As she began her speech, Miriam made an announcement that gave Leland a brilliant idea.
~
Ground Zero
A lightbulb went off in Leland’s head after Miriam disclosed to everyone that they would be voting on new members to join the board. When Miriam asked if anyone else had a nomination, Leland stood straight up.
“I’d like to nominate myself,” Leland said, hoping his grin wasn’t too indecorous.
Bernard shuffled in his seat after Leland’s outburst. Miriam shrugged and asked why Leland would make a good fit.
Leland pulled a speech from thin air that talked highly of HOAs and their purpose in the community. He felt like he rambled on, but something about his lecture seemed to go over well with the other residents that attended the meeting.
Because he won in a landslide.
From the look on Miriam’s face along with other board members, Leland knew his victory was not expected, or desired.
The first thing Leland did as a new member of the board was attempt to appeal his violations a second time. Other members of the board decided to waive the fee associated with the trash cans but refused to do anything about the fine for his lawn because of the weeds in a certain section. Leland was once again annoyed but relieved he didn’t have to pay one-hundred bucks over a trash can.
As secretary, Leland didn’t have much power, but he was able to vote against absurd policies the leader and vice-leader proposed. He spent as much time as possible observing the nature of the other people on the committee to see how his plan for revenge was going to work.
Months into his new role on the HOA board, Miriam shared how she wanted to send out a fine to one of Leland’s neighbors because she planted flowers in her yard that were not a “neutral color.” In reality, the color of the flowers had little to do with the reason behind the fine. Miriam made an additional comment about how she just simply did not like the way the flowers looked, so she wanted to skip over sending out a notice of violation and fine Leland’s neighbor.
Leland was flabbergasted by Miriam’s claims. However, he decided to go with it as part of his plot for revenge. Once he got home, Leland started a private chat between himself and other members of the board. He asked them to honestly share whether or not Miriam’s reasoning for sending out the fine was justified.
Within moments, everyone in the group chat came to an agreement that the fine seemed excessive and inconsistent with the HOA’s policies.
That was all Leland needed.
The next week, Leland put the HOA board leader on blast. Miriam desperately tried to justify her claims. But thanks to Leland and other members of the board, voted in favor of relieving Miriam from her duties.
Bernard took her spot as HOA leader, and Leland promptly convinced one of his neighbors to take the next opening on the board. It was glorious for Leland to see his plot for revenge coming together.
“One down,” Leland thought to himself. “Three to go.”
~
Another One Bites The Dust
After the end of Miriam’s leadership, Leland came after the treasurer and director on the HOA board committee.
Most fines found their way to the mailboxes of unsuspecting residents during the transition between Winter and Spring. Discolored grass and other lawn violations were simply an act of nature, but the treasurer and director didn’t see it that way.
Leland waited patiently for the beginning of March before he made a fake social media account to act out his next move.
Once he saw complaint after complaint pile in amongst the page for other residents within the HOA, Leland pounced on the opportunity to cause chaos. Using his fake account, Leland replied to almost every complaint and listed the name of both the treasure and director.
“If you’re mad about these fines, why don’t you take it up with these two at the next HOA board meeting? They’re the ones responsible for sending these out.”
A week later, over fifty people showed up at the HOA meeting targeting the treasurer and director. As soon as the meeting started, almost every resident spoke out of turn to grill them.
Each time they tried to defend themselves, an attendee cut them down with more choice words and accusations. It caused a domino effect as each resident spoke out of turn to insult the treasure and director and their practices. Bernard even tried to step in to regain order in the meeting, but his attempts in defending them were also in vain.
At the end of the board meeting, both the treasurer and director were so distraught, Leland had to hold back a laugh at seeing their bewildered faces.
“You know what might help?” Leland said while leaving the conference room. “You should consider stepping down. That should crack down on all the hostility toward the HOA committee.”
They resigned the next day.
First, Leland brought down Miriam, the former leader of the HOA. Then he convinced the treasurer and director to step down after sparking a neighborhood-wide witch hunt against them.
That just left one person due for payback.
~
Last Man Standing
Four out of five people on the HOA committee had been replaced all thanks to Leland’s patience and persistence. Obnoxious rules enforced by power-hungry old farts have never been good for communities that just wanted to live their lives.
As weeks turned into months, the only remaining original member of the board was mean old Bernard who couldn’t stand his new teammates. Out of spite, Bernard continued proposing new and unfair policies to raise the revenue of the HOA through fines. Leland and other members of the board held firm against his attempts by voting against him.
Leland was at a loss on how to get rid of Bernard. He was as stubborn as a mule and headstrong in his position as HOA leader.
Then one day, the HOA switch to a new management company to keep a record of everything and that had a much better approach to managing the properties in the neighborhood. Leland appreciated how organized the company was because he was able to do some more digging into the community’s records.
Soon after the new management company released the first fines report, Leland finally found Bernard’s dirty laundry.
Bernard owed over ten thousand dollars in past-due fines.
Apparently, the previous management company hid Bernard’s balance from everyone else because of his history with them. Due to Bernard’s fines being over three thousand dollars, the HOA’s bylaws stated that a majority vote of the board could start an HOA foreclosure on the home.
As a precaution, Leland gathered all the evidence and met privately with a representative from the new management company to confirm if their calculations were correct.
As soon as he had the green light, Leland called for an emergency board meeting and presented the information to everyone on the committee. Bernard’s protests were drowned out by the uproar from everyone attending the meeting. Not much was said before everyone voted in favor of starting the foreclosure process immediately.
After the vote was final, Bernard stormed out of the conference room. This stunned Leland and the others. However, they soon rejoiced with the realization that they were finally free from Bernard’s awful hold on the community.
Leland couldn’t wait to finally give him a taste of his own medicine, but Bernard had other plans.
~
All’s Well That Ends Well
A few days after Bernard’s abrupt resignation, Leland and other members of the HOA committee received some bitter-sweet news.
To avoid foreclosure, Bernard paid his fines in full and put his house up for sale. It wasn’t quite the ending Leland hoped for, but at least he accomplished his goals from day one. Standing up to the HOA was not an easy task, but in the end, Leland not only demolished everyone’s position on the committee one by one, but he also became the president of the once-corrupt HOA and changed things for the better. Once he became the official leader, Leland cut all fines in half and extended the green grass policy through May.
Standing up for himself and others in his new neighborhood was the best thing Leland has ever done.
~
