Listen, good neighbors are worth their weight in gold.
The bad ones, well…they can make you think about moving, despite the market or how much you love your home.
This person lived in a development with a retroactive HOA, and he was not a member.
Many years ago I lived in a development that formed an HOA 15 years after the development was finished.
So joining the HOA was optional as it wasn’t created when the development was. I opted not to join.
Still, someone kept reporting a truck in his driveway with a flat tire.
I had a truck, sitting in my driveway, that ran but I seldom used since I commuted to work and it sucked gas like Linda Lovelace.
It also had a tire with a slow leak so the minute the rim touched the concrete, I would get an “inoperable vehicle” notice from the city.
Which was stupid to start with, it was in MY driveway.
So I’d air up the tire and notify the city, and the notice would be filed under “unsubstantiated”.
The city was as annoyed as he was.
After about the 3rd or 4th time of this happening, I was on the phone with code enforcement and they were getting as annoyed with the complainant as I was.
So, when they let him know in a roundabout way who was responsible, he just happened to notice a violation in her yard, too.
While they couldn’t tell me who was filing the complaint, they hinted around enough that I knew who it was.
A neighbor whose BACKyard was adjacent to mine and lived around the corner.
She didn’t even live on my street. She was also the new HOA’s president.
She also had an abandoned water feature / fountain that would go stagnant after it rained, creating a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
You get what you put out there, Karen.
Making that call to the city then seeing the fountain cleaned out a couple days later was satisfying.
This is the kind of petty Reddit loves!
Some folks have too much time on their hands.
No one loves HOAs.
Other people offered solutions.
Seriously, why are people like this?
Some people never learn.
Seriously, people need to learn to let some things go.
Pick your battles, you know?
If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.