What is worse than a homeowner’s association? Well, the HOA leaders of course! HOA leaders are sneaky and evil, and oftentimes only make decisions to benefit themselves, not the community as a whole. They sound awful, right?
However, every terrible HOA leader comes with a group of resilient residents ready to fight back. These homeowners share how they dished out satisfying revenge to their horrible HOA leaders. Folks, it’s about to get real!
Content has been edited for clarity.
“I Am Not Joining Your Stupid Club”
“About four years ago, a friend of mine, ‘Lucas,’ inherited his grandparent’s house. Lucas decided to live in the house for the time being until he decided what he wanted to do with the house. He grew up in the house, so he didn’t want to sell it.
A week after Lucas moved in, he got a visit from three members of the neighborhood homeowner’s association.
One of the members told Lucas, ‘Hi, welcome to the neighborhood! We’re here so you can sign your membership papers.’
The homeowner’s association members were extremely nosy and rude, and one of the members tried going into the garage at my friend’s house without so much as asking.
When Lucas stopped the member and asked him what he was doing, the HOA member dared to reply, ‘I need to check your garage to see if everything is in order. I have the right to check your home biweekly, and denying me is a fineable offense.’
Lucas then had enough of the HOA and kicked the three members out of his house. While doing so, one of the members shoved some papers into his face and screamed, ‘You need to sign these right now. You have been living here for a week without being an HOA member, and you were supposed to sign the papers before moving in!’
Once the members were gone, Lucas took a look at the papers. The rules of the HOA were ridiculous, and the contract gave the HOA unreal rights. For example, the HOA had a right to visit your home biweekly and check your garage. Homeowners had to mow their lawns every week, and snow had to be shoveled every two hours when it snowed in the winter. Plus, homeowners couldn’t have more than one car parked on their property, except for inside the garage.
A few days later, the HOA leaders came back and asked Lucas why he didn’t sign the papers yet.
One of the members asserted, ‘Oh, and we need to check your garage this visit.’
Lucas angrily stated, ‘I am not joining your stupid club, and I am not letting you in my house!’
To the HOA, this meant war. Within a week, the HOA sent Lucas fines totaling over one thousand bucks. Lucas didn’t take the fines seriously, and he used the HOA’s stupid letters to help fire his grill.
Then, the day arrived when the HOA took their revenge against Lucas too far.
When Lucas arrived home from work one afternoon, one of the HOA members had broken into his garage. The member was standing in the garage, looking around, and writing things down on a notepad. But, to top the situation off, the HOA was in the process of tearing down the two oak trees his grandparents planted in front of the house.
One of the trees was extremely damaged, and only the stump was left. The other tree, the landscape crew had just begun the process of tearing down. Lucas lost his mind.
Lucas screamed at the crew, ‘Stop tearing down the tree right now! I am the homeowner, and what you are doing is illegal!’
In reality, the landscape crew had no idea, since the HOA members claimed the trees violated the neighborhood rules. The HOA members even told the landscape crew Lucas had permitted them to tear down the trees.
Lucas explained to the crew, ‘Listen, I will overlook trespassing charges as long as you will be witnesses in court for me.’
Then, Lucas called the cops on the board members for trespassing and breaking. The HOA members used bolt cutters to enter his garage since Lucas kept it closed with a bike lock!
The trial between Lucas and the HOA was glorious. Not only did the HOA have to repay Lucas for the lock and tree damage which was around 50k, but they also had to pay an arborist to take care of the other tree until the damage healed properly.
The HOA went into the trial believing it was unfair and tried to fight it, which likely cost them an additional 15k in lawyers and court costs. All in all, the trial must have cost the HOA over 120k. Then, Lucas went to civil court and sued the HOA for emotional damage.
Lucas told the court how much the trees meant to him since his great-grandparents had planted them. He laid it on thick. Plus, Lucas added how he felt threatened by the HOA and could hardly sleep since he feared they would try to break into his house again. The court bought his schtick and gave Lucas 500k, plus the costs for a state-of-the-art alarm system.
Altogether, Lucas cost the HOA 750k. They had to file for bankruptcy, then get a person to check the books so Lucas would get his money.
The best part?
The mediator found out the three offending HOA members had been defrauding the HOA for well over ten years and gave out fines wherever they could to bolster their income. All three members had to sell their houses so they could pay out Lucas.
After this incident, Lucas practically became the neighborhood superhero. None of his neighbors were fans of the HOA, and they were practically forced to join the organization, too. To say Lucas and his neighbors were happy the HOA was finally gone would have been an understatement.”
Banned For Life
“Back in the 2000s, gas was cheap, cell phones were small, and I owned a Ford with amazing gas mileage. As my now ex-wife and I was struggling with paying our bills, she decided the easiest way to get back on track was for me to get a second job. Having seen the sign in the window of the local pizza shop advertising nice wages for delivery drivers, my wife badgered me into applying.
Fast forward a couple of months, and I have now settled into my mind-numbing routine of working 60 to 70 hours per week at two jobs. On this particular day, I was scheduled to work on Saturday, which was always hit or miss for earning good tips. The area I delivered in was very ‘nouveau rich,’ with neighborhoods of mansions next to trailer parks. Oddly enough, the smaller the house and cheaper the car, the bigger of tip I earned.
On this Saturday, a local homeowner’s association threw a pizza party for the residents. The HOA members were celebrating the last house in the neighborhood being sold, and they ordered a ton of pizza. So much pizza, my manager had scheduled extra kitchen staff solely for the HOA’s one order. He even gave the HOA a discount on the pizzas since they ordered so many. There were so many pies, it took me and another driver at least two trips to deliver it all.
When we got the last boxes of pizzas delivered, the HOA leader wrote the check for the total. It was a couple of hundred bucks and some change, only rounded up to the nearest dollar for my ‘tip.’
So, I left and went back to the store.
My manager excitedly asked, ‘So, how big of a tip did you earn?’
I replied, ‘Eighty-seven cents.’
My manager didn’t believe me, so I showed him the check.
‘Are you messing with me?’ my manager asked in disbelief.
‘Nope!’ I angrily responded.
My manager lost his mind. He walked over to the phone, called the HOA leader, and cussed them out.
My manager screamed, ‘I can’t believe you had the nerve to not tip, even after I gave you a discount and scheduled extra staff just for you! I am entering the entire subdivision as a ‘do not deliver’ zone. Don’t even try to order pizza from here anymore, because it won’t happen!’
Then, my manager slammed the phone down, opened the cash register, and gave the other delivery driver and me twenty bucks for a tip.
To this day, I’m still unsure if the subdivision can get pizza delivered.”
The Fed-Up Farmer
“I lived in a rural area on my family’s farm. Unfortunately, the farm next to ours was sold to a developer who built a subdivision full of mini-mansions with a homeowner’s association.
After the developer built the mansions, they backed up to my family’s farm. At least once per week, I received letters from the HOA complaining about the tractor sitting in the field on my property. Sure, the tractor could be seen from the street. However, it was on my property, and I was working in the field. The tractor was completely necessary. The HOA also complained about my barns, outbuildings, and the sound of my tractor while I seeded.
One time, my grandfather saw people he didn’t recognize checking out the barn. He went outside to see what the people were doing, and it turned out they were HOA ‘inspectors’ who declared their ‘right’ to inspect the property to ensure it met HOA standards. My grandfather was not the politically correct type, so I was surprised he didn’t chase them off the property. After all, our property was fenced and posted.
Only days later, I was informed by the HOA about how they were going to fine me one thousand bucks per day until the offending farming machinery was removed.
I went to the HOA and stated, ‘My property is not a part of the HOA. If your inspectors set foot on my land again, I will have them arrested or let my grandfather loose to chase them off. You decide.’
As expected, the HOA went crazy and called the sheriff’s office. Having lived on the farm for generations, I knew the town sheriff fairly well. When the sheriff visited and asked what was going on with the HOA, I told him. The sheriff also visited the HOA and heard their demands that he take immediate action to ‘protect’ their inspectors.
The HOA members were less than happy when the sheriff stated, ‘Since his property is posted and fenced, he is well within his rights to not allow you on his land. He also isn’t a member of the HOA, meaning he has no requirement to allow you on his land.’
Afterward, I received a letter from the HOA’s lawyer. The letter stated how I needed to cease my operations until the HOA received a court date because they were suing me for, ‘damaging their property value.’
I forwarded the letter to my lawyer who, after he finished laughing, was amazed. First, the HOA’s lawyer couldn’t issue a cease and desist letter. The court needed to issue a cease. Second, my family had been farming on this land for four generations.
I spoke to the HOA board and told them to leave my family alone, or else we would be more than happy to play the ‘our lawyer is better,’ game. I was later informed that the developer of the mini mansions assured the HOA I would eventually cave and sell my land. However, the HOA was more than a little surprised when I told them I was already training the fifth generation of farmers to take over the land. I had no intention of selling my farm, period. It seems the developer left the HOA with the idea I would be selling my farm like my neighbors, only to make his money and run.
Have mercy on overzealous HOAs.”
“Her Insensitive Response Resulted In A Shouting Match”
“The community I lived in was fairly new. Less than two years old, to be exact. The neighborhood developer recently handed over control to the homeowners. Everything went well until our old homeowner’s association leader sold her house and moved, only to be replaced by another absolutely wicked woman, ‘Karen.’
Karen would walk around weekly and do inspections. One singular weed in front of a flower bed? Written warning. Grass barely too long? Written warning. My neighbors and I received written warnings for nearly every little ‘violation.’
At a recent HOA meeting, Karen brought up some ridiculous ideas that everyone in the community heavily opposed except for her. For example, Karen wanted to take the nature preserve area behind my home, tear it down, and build a community clubhouse. Karen also wanted to have a community pool installed, among a long list of other things residents in the community didn’t care about. For reference, most of our neighborhood was on the younger side, and we just wanted to be left alone.
A neighbor chimed in and asked, ‘So, how is the community going to afford these changes?’
Karen snidely replied, ‘Everyone living here is rich, so they can surely afford the increase in HOA dues, right?’
Her insensitive response resulted in a shouting match and the meeting was adjourned shortly after.
The neighborhood became so fed up with Karen, we submitted a recall petition signed by nearly every resident. There was a special meeting to validate the results, and Karen and the rest of the HOA board resigned afterward.
The leaders of the recall petition took over neighborhood control. All everyone wanted was to keep the common areas landscaped, and more or less to be left alone. Needless to say, it was a huge win for everyone involved.”
