Home Owners Share Their Craziest 'I'll Never Live In An HOA Again' Story

Most of us can agree that we wouldn't want to live where someone else makes the rules and micromanages our lives.
HOA's are supposed to be there to improve everyone's living conditions - and the properly run ones can do just that. Unfortunately, HOA's have become a sort of stomping ground for Big Karen Energy.
One Reddit user asked:
Current and former residents of an HOA, what's your "I'll never live in an HOA again" story?
The intention may have been for homeowners to vent, but it turns out HOAs have managed to terrorize, annoy, harass and otherwise mess with plenty of folks who don't even live in them! So here are stories from homeowners, neighbors, employees, emergency service workers ... you get the point. There's lots of beef to be had.
They Won't Back Down
I'm being charged $400 because of a violation for a bush overhanging my walkway.
I don't have a walkway. Or a bush. The picture isn't even my house. They won't back down. I've had a lawyer on retainer for a year for other life issues. He says it'd be easy but it's not his area.
I told the HOA it wasn't my house, the complaint reappeared on my tenant portal. Then I got a second violation for the same bush.
I filed it as fixed with pictures and they came back saying that they accidentally put the wrong picture but that my bush is overgrown on my walkway. I'm currently waiting for them to respond to me pointing out that I don't have a damn bush or walkway. They're so dense and stubborn.
I also paid a fee for trash cans outside on the wrong day when the company dropped them off. Before I moved in. I want to move.
A Delightfully Boisterous Couple From Philly
We got a letter because one Saturday my mom had a wheelbarrow full of mulch on the driveway. While she was planting flowers.
We also got the police called the weekend we moved in because there were "too many cars in front of the house". Mostly because we were still unloading the moving truck.
I took great pleasure in the fact that when we did move my mom sold the house to a loud and delightfully boisterous couple from Philly. We loved these people. We were certain the neighbors would not.
We're Not Even In The HOA
My old house's backyard bordered an HOA community. Our house was built 30 years before the community was built so we weren't part of it. We used to get notices about violations and fines if we didn't correct them. Never did correct them . They finally sent legal papers to repossess our house. Went to court with a tax map that showed our property NOT part of the HOA community. Judge dismissed their suit against us and found them guilty of harassment. We didn't get awarded much, but I made sure to break every rule of theirs I could untill we moved
"Do You Know Who I Am?"
My daughter was a lifeguard at the pool in our community and they weren't allowed to give out certain equipment (it was for swimming lessons). One day the HOA president asks for equipment and my daughter says no as she was instructed.
The HOA president actually says "Do you know who I am?"
Then he proceeded to call her boss. She didn't lose her job, but she didn't go back the next year.
- TPhoard
I'm a lifeguard; I have no issues believing this. Hell hath no fury like someone told pool equipment is not available.
- siel04
Transmission Problems
When I was a kid my parents had a house in a nice cul-de-sac, but it was a working class neighborhood. The transmission in my truck took a doo doo so I replaced it in our driveway.
A few days later we got a letter citing a clause stating all improvements done on property must be done by a licensed contractor. It was a far reach but they stood by it as there was nothing in the CC&Rs against working on personal vehicles.
My dad made me pay him back for the fine but for awhile afterwards I'd go put some oil or coolant under the HOA presidents cars and hope he wasting money chasing a nonexistent problem.
Measuring Curbs And The Emu Upgrade
I was just learning to drive and parked my car too far away from the curb. Parents and neighbors didn't get along so neighbors measured the distance from the wheels to the curb and parents got fined.
Now I live in the country with pretty much no rules. We have goats and emus in our front yard.
Fines for parking too far from curb or emus in front yard? Not a tough choice.
"Lost" Paperwork
HOA "lost" paperwork for change of ownership when we bought our house. They sent us letters saying there would be a lien placed on our home if we didn't pay the overdue amounts - plus over $200 of late fees.
I had to call them 3 times to even get someone on the phone who knew how to help me. Then I contacted escrow who said they had already not only sent all the paperwork, but turns out we had already paid the fees.
Called HOA again and they were insistent that we hadn't paid or sent over paperwork. Called escrow again and requested they contact the HOA themselves to sort this out.
HOA still insisted we owed a late fee. Started losing my sh*t until escrow said they would pay the late fee.
A month later we got a letter in the mail saying we were being fined for leaving our trash bins out longer than necessary. Fck HOA.
HOA Hazing
Moved to Florida where every neighborhood is an HOA. Upon moving in I felt like I had joined a sorority or fraternity and I had to endure the hazing from the HOA.
The final straw was when they sent me a letter that my white mailbox was dirty. So I decided to walk down one street and took pics of mailboxes with no doors and mailboxes that were covered in mildew and I emailed them all to the HOA. I told them to not send me any more notices until these mailboxes were up to code.
I haven't received another notice in a year. I guess I passed my initiation...
My HOA bullied me like this. I gave up and moved out. Paying $800 monthly was not worth the BS.
Every Little Thing
No huge issues, just up-to-the-minute griping about every little thing.
We were in the middle of moving in and got a nastygram about some boxes on the side of the house, waiting to go out with recycle.
Got another one about our lawn right after it was scalped and winter grass planted. They apparently didn't approve of nature's time frame on growing grass.
Moved back to the old neighborhood; no HOA, and city code takes care of 90% of the BS (weeds, general eyesores/nuisances, etc.)
No HOA ever again. I have no plans of putting a weight bench in my front yard but dammit, I want the option.
This is a really important point, the solution to annoyances in your neighborhood should be local government, not setting up a barely accountable micro-fiefdom.
If you can't even persuade the members of your own community then it should be a huge red flag that maybe your insistence that grass over 3" should be illegal is more of a you problem that should just stay a you problem.
- kiyasu
Emergency Services
My grandparents lived in a old folks community with a zealous hoa. My grandmother had to go to the hospital, cause of her many health problems. Whenever that happened, my grandfather would go with her.
It happened once when I was visiting.
There was a knock on the door at about 10am. I opened the door and two elderly women with clipboards immediately jump into a speech about how the trash cans hadn't be brought in. I explained the situation.
One of them said she was in the hospital the previous week but still managed to bring in her trash can and handed me what looked like a ticket for $50. Fck. That. Sht.
I work in emergency services. I've had HOA board members try telling me we couldn't idle our fire engine or park our ambulance "there" as if I'd know the rules.
I'm usually professional, but the second time they tried to complain about the fire engine idling I responded along the lines of "Go fck yourself. I don't care what your bylaws say. Article 300 of Michigan traffic code says I can park wherever the fck I want."
We were there for a family with carbon monoxide poisoning and I truly didn't give a damn about anything else at that moment. We had crews up and down the road to treat and transport the entire family.
As much as we think we can get along with everyone, that's not always the case.
There are certain types of people you gravitate toward and making a connection with them is easy. But there are also those with specific personality traits you know very well to steer clear from.
Try as we might, we can't be friends with everyone. The best we can do is be the best version of ourselves and stay within a community of people who you vibe with.
Curious to hear from the types of people strangers online prefer keeping a distance from, Redditor KnownNormie asked:
"What type of person could you never be friends with?"

Some people like in the following examples should be put in their place.
Too Many Theatrics
"Someone who constantly makes everything dramatic."
– Anxiety_Ridden_Camel
Space Hoggers
"Someone who obviously doesn't care about anyone's boundaries."
– Jay4025
Embracing The Dark
"Guilt Trippers"
"Those who think its cool and edgy to be negative about everything."
– Stormflier
How can people who think the world revolves around them expect to maintain or gain friendships?
All About Me
"Self centered people."
–needtofreemyself
The One-Upper
"Yeah, that gets old really fast. I am a reformed one upper. I would also interrupt people. I was hard to take when I was younger. I didn’t learn to STFU until I was forced to take a sales job and discovered just how crap I was socially. The last twenty years I’ve gotten a lot better and now enjoy listening to other people’s stories more than telling my own."
– MobileAccountBecause
Not My Problem
"The one who always blame others."
– Reasonable-mcArdles
We could all benefit from personal growth.
They Wait For Life To Happen
"Someone who doesn’t want to learn more about life and its intricacies. I only want friends who think deeply about things and can have varied conversations on religion, politics, the world, and all of life. This life is too vast and insane not to seek depth in it.
– Glass-Philosopher302
Don't Take Life Too Seriously
"Someone who is always serious and can't take a joke. As well as someone who gets offended on the behalf of others."
– HoarderOfPaper
These are hard "no's."
You Can Bet Your Life On It
"a serial killer."
– LongjumpingReturn555
All Creatures Great And Small
"Someone who doesn't like animals."
– InterestingMall8958
It's complicated to categorize exactly the kind of person I would prefer to not to be friends with, but I know that one of my biggest pet peeves that can jeopardize how much effort I put into all kinds of relationships is a person's lack of punctuality.
It says a lot about an individual who is perpetually late outside of an acceptable window between 5 and 15 mins–with a heads up about their tardiness.
If they're always punctual in regards to work obligations and business meetings but very late to meeting up with you for a coffee date, you're clearly not important enough for them to make an effort to avoid keeping you waiting.
And I got no time for that.
There are numerous advantages to being bilingual.
Knowing the language of the country you may be traveling to, being able to translate for those who need help, not to mention, knowing what some people might be saying as they are literally talking behind your back.
Indeed, many people wish they could be fluent in at least one other language.
Though these same people likely also wonder, how exactly does the brain of a bilingual person work?
How easy is it to jump between multiple languages?
Is it really as easy as it looks to jump between languages?
"Bilingual people, what is a thing that non-bilingual will never understand?"
They All Blend Together
"The fact that I no longer 'translate' in my head when I use my second language."
"The fact that I can be unaware which language I am reading."
"I have a bit of a stutter in one language but not the other."
"Jokes that work in both languages are the funniest."- Mortlach78
"Speaking two languages at the same time."
"Usually because you forget certain words in one language but remember it in the other or because a word is easier to say."
"'Je n’ai aucune idée what the f*ck you’re talking about'.”- ctwheels
There's Not A Word For Everything
"Literal translations rarely work."
"A lot of monolingual people seem to think other languages are like their language but with other words, and every word as an equivalent."- TheAmazingKoki
Knowing The Language Doesn't Mean They'll Understand You
"Having an 'accent' regardless of which language you're speaking."
"Learning a language allows you to feel better understood as we interact and build connections with others."
"So it's frustrating when you feel as though you're not communicating as clearly as you would like to express yourself. It's been great to feel understood!"
"I've enjoyed reading through the comments and learning that there's a lot of people that are actively becoming multicultural."- Silv3r_lite
Less Gets Lost In Translation Than You Think...
"Translating is a whole different skill than speaking another language."
"When I first learnt English, I would translate things in my head to understand them."
"As I became fluent, I stopped doing that because I didn't need to."
"When someone speaks to me in English, I don't translate stuff in my head back to french to understand them, I just automatically understand it."
"Cue to if someone speaks English, and another person doesn't, and ask me 'hey, can you translate what he said ?'"
"I completely suck at it, I can ultimately do it but it means I need to take what was said in English, and reprocess it in French and find the most adequate words for translation and it's honestly not that easy to do."- Matrozi
Words, Words, Words
"How near-impossible it is to translate words when there is only one word for something in one language but multiple variants of it in another."
"For instance, the word 'cousin' in English is just 'cousin', but there are eight different words for cousin in Chinese, all extremely specific."
'Older male on maternal side, older female on maternal side, younger male on maternal side, younger female on maternal side, older male on paternal side, older female on paternal side, younger male on paternal side, and younger female on paternal side."
"There is no general cover-all term for 'cousin'."
"So when an English speaker says, 'I was having dinner with my cousin last week', how do you translate that into Chinese, for a Chinese audience, without knowing which of the 8 cousin categories it falls into?"
"It creates a '404 Error: Cannot Compute' in the interpreter's brain."
"If you are ever giving a speech in English to a Chinese audience and want to see a look of crazed terror on your interpreter's face, just use the word 'cousin' and watch the panic and despair unfold."
"Was an interpreter."- SteadfastEnd
There's No Simple One And Done
"That the way language is constructed is not straightforward."
"It's not just a different set of words and rules of grammar, it's kind of a whole different way of processing thoughts into speech."- Peanut_Butter_32
It Ain't As Easy As It Looks
"Real-time translation takes a LOT of mental energy."- selfawarescreen
What's The Word?
"Brain fog, when asked to translate, at a critical vocabulary moment."
"You need that one word to make the perfect translation."
"But it is not there."- toyoung
Forgetting Your Native Tongue
"Forgetting words from your native language if you are using the second language too much."
"I have lost count of how many times I knew what I wanted to say in any other language, yet I forgot how to say it on my own native language."
"I end up remembering them later on anyways, but it is such an embarrassing feeling."
" Also, another little thing."
"Accidentally switching languages in the middle of a conversation."
"I may be talking to someone in English, and when I didn't understand something, I would be like 'Qué?'(What? In Spanish), all without even thinking about what I did until I realize that I spoke in Spanish by mistake."
"It's not really common for it to happen, but I do remember each and every single time it does."- AruPeachy
"When some word only comes to mind in another language, and you just can't remember what that word is in your native tongue."- Acceptable-Damage43
Not All Sayings Are Universal
"The struggle of explaining / understanding sayings."
"Americans use a lot of sayings like “'et’s play it by ear', and in Spanish we also have sayings that don’t quite translate."
"Also when I’m too excited/ angry etc my brain switches to my native language and can’t quite express myself correctly the other language."- immigrantme
Humor Isn't Universal
"Some jokes make no sense in other languages."- Dukanduu
The Emotion Behind What You're Saying
"You have different personalities based on the language you’re currently speaking, and your native language has emotional ties that aren’t always present in other spoken languages."- P-Wizzl
One needs a fairly active brain to be successfully bilingual.
Though, one can only imagine that internally worrying about your everyday problems in French would likely make them seem a little more romantic.
"Qui sait?"
People Divulge The Real Reason 'That One Guy' Hasn't Been Fired From Their Job Yet
Much as we might try to deny it, who hasn't found themselves dealing with one of "those colleagues" at work?
The sort of colleague where work gets done in spite of them, who doesn't seem to possess any of the basic qualifications their position requires, who uses up all their paid sick days at the very beginning of the calendar year.
The kind of employee where we're often left wondering, "how did they get that job?"
Then, when we actually do a little digging, we might learn the answer to that very question.
Often resulting in our making a surprising, if not downright humbling, discovery.
"Why hasn’t that “one guy” at your job been fired yet?"
Unfortunate Timing
"He ended up leaving work the day management was going to talk to him about his behavior and got into a severe motorcycle accident."- eatsbrainz
Just Not Possible
"Cuz he’s the boss."- Hotline-Furi
A Little Manipulation Goes A Long Way
"Because his supervisor is in love with him."
"He’s 'charming, charismatic, and everyone loves him'."
"He’s really close to the manager and his mom used to work for the company as well."
"She left a path for him to walk on."
"As my co worker once said, 'he harasses us but gets rewards'.”
"If you were ever to meet him, he makes you feel like you’re the king of the world but he’s really scummy."
"He’ll make you believe you’re incredible and valuable but will talk sh*t about you to other people."
"It’s a shame because he’s taken advantage of a lot people and a lot of things at work."
"I thought he was the coolest guy around until I started observe him and his demeanor around others."- Low_Excitement_5339·
A Sign Of The Times
"We are so short-staffed and ratios need to be met in classrooms."
"A body is better than no body, in the eyes of admin at least."
"Some days I'd rather work short-handed than work around a useless/annoying person."
"I end up doing their job anyway."- quietly_anxious
Just The Way Things Are...
'Office politics."- defensiveminded2020
...Rather Not Answer...
"What if that one guy is you?"- dizzyrazor
Nepotism
"Because he goes to my boss's church."
"My boss has somehow hired at least 8 people from his church."- SparklesLuvsScotch
"She’s the boss's daughter."
"In the past 6 months, they have hired over 100 people, 3 of them are still working there."
"Every one of them quit because of her and very outwardly expressed that but no one will fire her."- Reddit
Do We Really Want Them To Get Fired?
"The one guy at my job just got fired 3 days ago, after years of doing nothing."
"Now I can't use his continued employment as my assurance of job security."- i_make_potholes
Who Knows?
"I legitimately don't know."
"I've been sending my bosses emails about her dropping the ball on many things and even causing several catastrophic failures for our customers."
"They promise me they are documenting everything and to be patient but my boss has his head in the sand and is not really doing anything."
"I think it's catching up to him though because corporate is starting to look at this office more closely."- CamStorm
"IDK, he sits and f*cking texts WHEN PEOPLE ARE IN LINE FOR THE REGISTER."
"Pisses me off."- Public_Living_3344
Charisma Overshadows Many Flaws
"He’s 'nice' and chatty and gets along really well with our customers."
"He will go into an office, not do anything or make something worse than it was before the repair, bill them hundreds of dollars, someone else will have to go in and fix it right and bill them more, and they’ll still request him."
"They’re actually more likely to complain about the guy who went in and fixed it correctly and would have billed them half as much and been done in trip had they started the job."- makenzie71
Fear Of Feelings Getting Hurt
"Because his boss avoids conflict."
"So we get to deal with the sh*t for brains creeper instead of him being thrown out on his a**."- No-Patient1365
Hopefully, Just A Matter Of Time...
"You don’t get fired for being bad at your job, you get fired for making a scene."- sleekandspicy
Everyone deserves a second chance.
But if people are incapable, or worse unwilling, to learn, is there really any chance their work will improve?
When "that employee" is your boss, then the question is ultimately irrelevant.
Audiences today are too savvy and unforgiving.
There are so many cinematic aspects that leave so many of us irritated.
And one of the big reasons is that they know they can make them better.
Give me a quick million, you won't be disappointed.
Redditor Ecstatictobehere wanted everyone to vent about everything wrong with movies and Hollywood, so they asked:
"What pisses you off about new movies these days?"
I'm exhausted with the lack of originality.
There are too many talented out there for this.
Turn it down...
"The disparity in volume, explosions are so loud that they hurt and conversations are whispers... I stopped going to the cinema and started waiting for them to be available at any streaming service so I can turn it down or up and so I can enjoy it."
hollowntolerance
LOLs...
"Forced Comedy."
ThorHammerscribe
"I have a bone to pick with comedy in general. I felt that ever since the Anchorman era, we just decided that comedy movies were in the line of sketch comedy."
"Create funny situation, let a comedian riff for 20 minutes, take the best take and move on to next funny situation. Which is why comedy movie plots have SUCKED since the early 2000s."
"Sure I love Kristen Whiig, Will Ferral, John C Reilly, Mellissa McCarthy, etc, but damn, I can't help but think that some comedies that have come out int the last 20 years would be memorable if they wrote a funny script instead of making a 120 min sketch show."
ReferenceError
Appeal
"Most movies are getting watered down for the sake of mass appeal. I get why, but it just sucks."
Apprehensive_Set300
"Some say this is a result of streaming platforms. People used to be able to take risks on movie making because if they didn't do well in theatrical release, there was still a chance for it to become a cult classic and make money with DVD sales down the road. That is no longer an option because everything is streamed for free so now making a movie that doesn't immediately appeal to a large audience is a bad investment."
KrispyKremeDiet20
Lost in Translation
"Not just movies but TV shows - they take a book that's got great reviews, make a poor job of translating it on screen and then flip the ending so it's the opposite of what happened in the book. Proceeds to blame the audience when they pan it for being crap."
MissionSorbet2768
Blah
"Lack of originality and a reliance on franchises."
811545b2-4ff7-4041
Enough with franchises and reboots. Lord.
Some light please!
"How dark they are. Like literally dark. It's difficult to see what's going on, especially for those of us with vision problems."
Raloris
Break it Down
"For horror and mystery, everything having to be explained."
"A movie like the original Alien would be lambasted by online critics if it were released today, for the simple reason that by the end of it you know next to nothing about what happened. What was the creature? What was the derelict? Why did the company want it, really? The movie has stood the test of time precisely because it avoided answering those and other questions."
stratarch
Too Much Redo
"The overuse of cover songs. Recently been a lot of classic rock songs covered by an artist who recorded a slowed version of it. Just saw the trailer for the new Ant Man. It also does this."
bromygod203
"This has been bugging me lately. They do it in commercials too. The cover is slowed way down with a melancholic, reverb-heavy voice. Extra points if you take a classic 'happy' song and add minor chords to it so it sounds threatening."
fairygenesta
Too Many Cooks
"A lot of movies feel like they were written by a marketing department. It feels like they got 10 execs in a room and everyone wrote down ideas, characters, plot-points, etc that they know will sell - and then tried to organize them into a narrative structure."
"There's no vision. There's no plot progression. Its just one random event next to another random event, and characters delivering sh*tty one-liners. Like writing madlibs. Even B-movies from the 80's and 90's have better narrative structure and story-telling than half the new movies out today."
Ganglebot
Giveaways
"Trailers. They're always about 4 minutes long, give away the entire plot, show all the best scenes and jokes and basically ruin the movie before you've even watched it."
IJustStoleYourWaifu
Do better filmmakers.
We're watching. Sadly...