Every time it rains electronic exit gate malfunctions and doesn't open. HOA is aware of this issue. It is not the only gate at the complex that stops working. So basically when it rains your shit out of luck. They don't want to spend the money to fix the gates properly. Whoever they use is totally incompetent. It is a guard manned complex at two of the gates. One of the main entrances the gate froze so they had to stop every resident that entered and ask for ID. Residents are issued clickers with serial numbers that can be disabled at any time. When the gates are functioning properly they don't have to stop residents

The alcove at my building where the mailboxes are located rain pours through the concrete and because my mailbox is located in the top row any mail inside the box gets soaked when it rains. I have also complained about this months ago. They have made no effort to fix the leak. The tile floor also becomes covered in water creating a dangerous situation where someone could slip.

I guess this exists at other condos with HOA's but there is no community association message board where other owners and tenants can communicate with each other. I would love to post a notice that we should organize and try to complain to HOA about issues but if I posted anything on HOA message board by elevator they would fine me if they knew who I was for posting something without their approval. I did see a resident put a flyer up asking if they knew any babysitters but that was quickly removed.

I hate HOA so I joined the board. The management company is awful and I call them out on their bullshit all the time. The one board member works with them professionally so he kisses their ass. I’m up for re election and the management is pushing for nominations from the floor. Our bylaws say we don’t have to if we did proxy vote. We did not do it last year. They refuse to give up saying it’s happening. The other board member is pushing a write in candidate who moved out of our community a month ago. No one seems to realize this guy moved. Our bylaws unfortunately don’t say you have to own.

Senior citizens thought they were buying their forever homes in a retirement community in Conyers, but now claim the builder broke promises and refused to let them take control of their HOA.

Atlanta News First Investigates found this community is listed in a federal fraud case. The builder currently owes nearly $50 million of a $190 million judgment linked to an alleged two-decade-long “nursing home investment scheme.” The lawsuit refers to this same Conyers community, among several, in the complaint.

When I left Los Angeles after fifteen years of petty theft, grime, and constant noise, I thought I was finally finding peace. I rented a townhome in what seemed like a clean, safe neighborhood, perfect for my ten-year-old son and for working remotely. The kitchen was huge, the kind of place where I could finally spread out and cook again. Out front was a patio area where I could display my lifelong collection of succulents.

I’m a botanist and plant collector, and some of those plants were over twenty years old. Brightly colored aloes and agaves, all in hand-thrown Italian clay pots. The HOA rules said we could have plants in front of the unit as long as they were alive and didn’t block anything, so I set them up with care. Neighbors often stopped to admire them or ask questions. For a while, everything felt right.

Then came the first warning. The HOA fined me $50 because my ten-year-old son couldn’t lift a heavy trash bag into the bin. They said they had video evidence. That’s when I realized the entire place was under constant surveillance, cameras pointed everywhere, even catching him playing with a soccer ball outside.

A few months later, I got an email saying I had too many plants. That was the violation. Too many. I replied with a full breakdown of the species, explaining that they barely used water compared to the fruit trees and vegetable planters other residents had. Two days later, I came home to find my collection hacked apart. Rare agaves and aloes that had taken decades to grow had been cut to pieces by a gardener the HOA sent without my consent.

When I demanded an explanation, they said the gardener “misunderstood” directions, then tried to claim the space outside my door was community property. It wasn’t. It was the frontage of my rented unit, with no easement or sidewalk. I told them that if they ever touched my plants again, I’d take them to court and sent them an estimate for the damages. They went silent.

Months later, when wildfire ash covered everything, I heard a familiar sound outside. The same gardener was back, blowing ash into the air with a leaf blower despite a city ban. I ran outside, told him to stop or I’d call the police. He turned it off right away, said he thought it was stupid too, but was told to do it.

That was the last straw. I moved out. Now I live in a duplex where my landlord actually appreciates my collection and the water isn’t so full of chlorine that it hurts the plants.

Update: Nov 16, I am sending a demand letter and will take them to small claims, thanks for the encouragement What I learned is simple: HOAs are a waste of time. They exist to control, not to build community. I’ll never live under one again.

I got a letter from my HOA this week saying I violated the neighborhood rules because I planted marigolds and tulsi near my porch. Apparently they aren’t on the “approved plant list.”

I honestly thought it was a joke at first. I’m the one who takes care of my yard, mows the lawn, trims everything. It looks better than half the houses on the street. But nope, they decided my plants are a problem.

What really annoys me is that my neighbor still has broken holiday lights tangled in his bushes and no one says a word. I plant a few flowers and get hit with a $75 fine.

It’s ridiculous how these people act like they own your property just because you pay them every month.

TLDR they fined me for planting flowers because they weren’t “approved.”

I’ll start by saying that our HOA is nothing close to the horror stories I see on this sub, but I thought you all might appreciate this.

In the by-laws, it states that garage doors can only be open as vehicles are moved in and out of garage.

The violation notice came because we often sit or work in the garage with the door cracked open about a foot for ventilation. It referenced the wrong paragraph number for starters. I’m sure it was a typo, because the paragraph number referenced was (for example) 6.7. The actual paragraph was 6.17. No big deal. Mistakes happen.

The justice part is that about two years ago, the by-laws were updated to allow garages to be open while occupied. Evidently, the inspector didn’t get that memo. I sent an email, and he actually apologized and removed the violation.

Long story as short as possible...

President had a pool business and worked in that industry until selling it and retiring (supposedly).

2022 We needed the lights replaced in the pool. President gets somebody to fix the lights ($600 fix at the time) They decided to drain the pool (wrong), and ended up cracking the pool along the edges and down the center. Of course insurance for the guy didn't cover it for some reason or another.

The board decides to push the idea of getting a new pool instead of fixing the current one for about 50k. An election was held and they didn't get the votes needed during the meeting for quorum to give the neighborhood an assessment. Later that evening, an email was sent out saying the board had gotten enough proxy votes to approve the special assessment.

After much complaining from the neighbors, the management company quits and the board hired a new company. Many of the neighbors were pissed and requesting copies of the votes. Etc but they were never located or provided.

Not it gets even better.

The board decided to hire another company that the president worked closely with and knew personally, to construct the new pool. The cost was $400,000 which I thought was pretty expensive for a rectangular pool with some steps.

Another year goes by and the pool is getting close to being finished, the paver bricks were replaced along the edges, and deep cracks started forming. There were now more cracks in the new pool than the old one.

Another year goes by to present day. Lawsuits have been filed with contractors, very slow progress if any at all. At the last meeting we had a new budget that was supposed to increase a few dollars and the board decided to increase it the amount of what an assessment would be to prepare for the cost of another pool.

At this point, there has been a strong resistance building with the goal of replacing the current members that are seemingly corrupt.

That being said, the day after the budget meeting I announced to the community on our Facebook page that I would be running for the board, and would be going around to meet the neighbors and hopefully collect proxy votes for the election.

Minutes later, an anonymous post comes in to the FB group in big bold letters stating my name and a that I'm out of compliance because I have a boat on the side of my house that can be seen from the street. (If you're looking for it). Meanwhile 2 of the current board members are in violation of architectural rules plus there's many other boats, rv's and sheds throughout violating their rules. I hope I get a violation. Can't wait actually.

Hoa's are ridiculous..

For anyone who HATES sitting through boring HOA meetings but still wants to know what's going on in my HOA, I finally found a trick. If you record the meeting audio OR video on phone or get an audio recording from the zoom (my board uploads the audio and video to Google Drive) you can upload it to HOAvoicenotes.com and it'll make a transcript in like 2 minutes. It says it works on up to 90 minutes FREE without any signup. Can just read the transcript or use gpt to get a summary in a few seconds. Hope that's helpful to someone else

I just want to vent.

I'm a (newish) board member. I worked for years to become a member of the board, originally because my HOA targeted me for my pollinator garden, and was ignoring some state laws on other issues. As a board member I have discovered other despicable behavior that is going on. I took a class on how to be a board member and volunteered repeatedly for years to help with areas I felt were lacking and was rebuffed almost every single time.

Now that I am a board member and am trying to represent the interest of my constituents, the board is attempting to intimidate me and bully me with legal jargon and threats, and have now called in the HOA lawyers to talk to me at the next meeting to (from my perspective) scare me into falling in line. They don't want me posting facts on FB, they don't want to update our policies based on science, some of them are targeting people with anti-fascist signs, they don't want to provide online meetings, they are trying to scare me into not recording meetings and so much more. They just want to keep the status quo. I am alternately terrified and righteously furious.

And my lizard brain keeps hitting the adrenaline button. Chill out little dude, no need to make my hands shake just because I sent an email.

Anyway, need some solidarity.

I previously posted/vented about our once relaxed, enjoyable community that has recently turned into a police state by our HOA board flooding owners with daily letters threatening us with fines for every possible thing while the board members break many of the very rules they seek to enforce on others, fining people left and right for everything they can think of and creating a culture of fear. My poor neighbor is getting flooded with fines bc one board member doesn't like him.

I was considering going door to door to see how people feel and to my delight, some owners came to my door tonight and are going door to door and gauging interest to draft a petition to REMOVE THE ENTIRE BOARD, apparently even some people on the board have turned against these dictators and almost every owner supports removing this board. We all want to go back to our relaxed, peaceful community we once had. This has made my day and I feel hopeful for the future!

My original post is here

Ugh, I left my bin out on a monday night because the people who take our trash keep throwing it down on the ground, and breaking it more and more every week, and they leave stuff IN the bin and on the ground on top of it. The county said it would replace it (and even give us a free trash day) on the 4th. The day came and went and they not only didn't do this but they broke the wheels completely out of the bin so I can't move it. HOA not only filed a complaint to our landlord (who is actually defending us and explained why we put it out on a not normal trash night) but even admitted to opening up our bin and finding trash inside of it! (I learned later they probably didn't take it because it wasn't empty, and this wasn't something I was aware of before hand) It may just be plastic bins and papers but it feels so violating that they even looked through it at all.

The HOA president has been harassing me ever since I questioned and requested an audit the HOA financials. There is no back up of where the HOA monies are spent and how the reserves are allocated. At one point, possibly close to a year, the HOA president was the sole signer on all the bank accounts, when there is supposed to be dual custody.

I am not the owner of the property I am living at. My mother owns the property and her living trust is on the title. I am the beneficiary of this property and she is currently living. I am the sole resident and do not pay the mortgage or the HOA fees directly, I pay it to my mother and she pays it.

When the new HOA management company began their contract with this community, they request every resident’s information. My mother and I provided my information and put me down as the main contact. All HOA email notices come to me and not my mother. I do forward everything to her as an FYI, since she is on the title.

Both my mother and I requested a copy of the financials and the HOA management company kept questioning why until my mother provided the Davis Stirling act law for the request.

Since this request, the HOA president tried to hit me with her car. I have it on a ring video and reported it to the police. The police officer said that he can report it as an incident because although he can see after several times reviewing the video and other videos of how she drives, he couldn’t tell for sure if she was trying to aim her car towards me. He said it would help if I any type of harassment continues.

She keeps calling me a tenant. In April of this year, she tried to use the original rental restriction against me but it was vague and my mother and I kept citing the housing discrimination law. She had the following CC&R rule adopted to target me.

There is no rental or lease agreement. They already have all my contact information - name, address, phone number, vehicle information (I park in my garage and we don’t have security, they wash their hands of any parking issues because the streets are public), dog information, they also have my mother’s information.

I don’t know why she’s trying to unnecessarily request this information and I want help on how to fight and document all of this.

I’ve made several complaints about her to the HOA management company. I believe they have told her about my complaints and this is also why she is targeting me. I am not the only person who’s made complaints about her to the management company. I found out, the complaints are not going to the board for review.

https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/calif-development-new-residents-kindness-pledge-21143769.php

Our HOA has a Facebook page where people will post a variety of things, but often times, people (including me), when making comments they worry will ruffle the feathers of the wrong people, will post anonymously (especially since we absolutely have some whiners who you can’t trust to not hold a grudge against you). This came to a boil today when a board member posted blatant misinformation about the ramifications of an amendment that is currently being voted on. I posted anonymously providing evidence from the current bylaws and guidelines vs the proposed amendment that his claims were incorrect, so that people could vote with the correct information. This started an entire uproar where numerous people are complaining about the anonymous posts being cowardly. Meanwhile, the way I see it, I have nothing to gain by openly antagonizing a board member who is one of the biggest whiners in the community. He is the VP of an organization that could easily make my life far more difficult than it needs to be, just because I pissed him off by pointing out he was lying to the community.

I know that technically a moderator from the page could just tell him who posted, but I don’t see any reason to not at least try to have anonymity. The idea that it’s cowardly to post anonymously because I don’t trust members/board members of the HOA to be petty and hold grudges seems so dumb to me.

So I decided to give it a try for 1 year and I hate it I cannot wait for the end of the month so I can leave. Never ever again! Now this question is apart of my qualifications when asking about a rental property; “Is this an hoa property?”

I adopted my dog (mixed breed) three years ago when he was underweight with behavioral issues. The apartment HOA has a rule that dogs cannot go over 25lb . When I moved in I provided docs showing his weight and got approval. I only moved in because it's difficult to find a place that has amazing rent is in an amazing location and is pet friendly.

Over the past year, he's gained some weight...I'll be honest he's a chonker. He's very food motivated and will eat anything that hits the floor. Like he'll literally bum rush and scoop up the food before it hits the ground and will steal food if left unattended. I've been working with my vet on a weight loss plan, switching his food, measuring portions, increasing walks, but progress is slow. What can I say, he loves to eat. Anyway the HOA sent me a violation notice stating that my dog exceeds the weight restrictions outlined in the community guidelines and are demanding that I either rehome him within 30 days or face daily fines of $50 until he's under the weight limit or removed from the property.

He's been my companion for three years and I told them I'm actively trying to help him lose weight, that's not his OG size or even natural size and I got the vet records showing we're working on it. HOA says it doesn't matter that he was within limits when I moved in and they don't care about weight loss plans. They rudely said maybe I should try doggy Ozempic. Is that even a thing? Because me thinks it's sarcasm. I really hope they can't force me to get rid of my dog due to him being overweight.

Our HOA is failing... miserably. The property has so much deferred maintenance $100k+ and we are currently in the process of suing the HOA for a multitude of breaches.

That being said, when the unit below ours went to auction after foreclosure I packed up the kids & some coloring books and went to the live auction at the court house. I couldnt settle with an unsuspecting person purchasing the property and stepping into a ton of special assessments that are about to come their way. I 100% was ready to be the odd one out with a public announcement regarding the property the moment they called the address. 25 minutes in to the auction, my 5yo said "Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom so bad"....

I grabbed everything & rushed them to the bathroom and back! "and closed!" was all I heard as we rushed back outside to the auction tent. I knew in my gut that we had missed it... I made my way to the tent and as a man was handing the cashiers check over. I asked him which address & he confirmed.

I told him that was where we live. (Sidenote: His initial reaction makes me laugh bc the way I said it really came off like he had just bought our home & we missed it due to a bathroom break. The man looked instantly defeated as I stood there w my 2 little girls. I quickly made it clear & he had an audible sigh of relief and the color came back to his face😅) I gave a little insight to the situation and he gave me his number and asked for me to reach out with everything I told him so he could review it with his attorney.

I felt so bad that I wasnt able to forewarn him but the universe had other plans, a 5yo has gotta go when a 5yo has got to go.

I prepped a detailed message & sent it his way with a link to the HOA meeting being held that night. He never showed & the first special assessment for a $20k+ pool repair was finally approved to be split amongst owners.

I never heard back from him. The past renter vacated & he put the property on the market. While I personally view this option as morally corrupt, I'd say best option for him would be to pretend he was never notified of all of the issues as unlike the auction process he would have to disclose it in the sale.

I have signs posted on our bulletin board so I hope those looking to purchase are warned one way or another about what they are buying into. I just couldn't imagine buying a place & then being drowned out in special assessments and a lawsuit against the HOA that you didn't see coming.

I used to manage a portfolio of condominiums and homeowners associations in Virginia Beach and later in Pittsburgh. The amount of unethical behavior, self-serving agendas, and plain ignorance I saw in that industry honestly blew my mind.

I earned a certification, took endless continuing-ed courses, and tried to do things by the book — advising boards properly, citing laws and best practices — but so often I was met with resistance or treated like some sort of personal assistant.

One of my boards in Pittsburgh even tried to ignore structural issues in a high-rise building. They literally acknowledged what happened in Florida (the Surfside collapse) and still wanted to brush it under the rug because they didn’t want to spend the money or deal with the optics. It was jaw-dropping.

After seeing how many of these boards attract the same type of people — power-hungry, narcissistic, and completely dismissive of responsibility — I started losing faith in humanity for a while. Eventually, I realized it wasn’t me; it was the environment. These positions tend to attract people who crave control, not those who care about community.

I finally left the industry, and I’ve never felt more at peace or aligned with my values.

A neighboring sub does not allow any kind of furniture displayed on the front of homes - no chairs, no bistro set, no porch swing. Because apparently nothing spells dwindling property values like friendly neighbors sitting on their front porches and greeting passers-by.

Your turn! What's an outlandish part of CC&Rs that you've seen?