HOA’s seem to be one of the most universally hated institutions in the world, but in most cases, there is nothing you can do about their inane rules.

In this story, however, a couple of teenage boys (and one Mom) decide to perfectly comply with the rules, in a very unusual way.

Let’s take a look.

Screw your HOA and its ridiculous rules!

Back in high school, I was all about my car. Don’t get me wrong it was a rolling POS, but it was my car.

It had a trade-in value of maybe $5, but it was my car.

I was learning how to take care of it, by which I mean I found where the dipstick was and how to pull it. (I hadn’t yet moved on to tire inflation. One step at a time!)

There is something special about the ‘relationship’ between a young man and his first car. It is nice to see him taking good care of it.

One day after school I drove over to my friend’s place.

We jump out, pop the hood, pull the dipstick, check the oil and it was fine so put the hood back down.

I had no idea what an HOA was nor what it meant, I was just a happy ignorant teenager eager to demonstrate how responsible I was with my wheels.

A couple of kids being responsible with their vehicle? Obviously, the HOA needs to step in to put a stop to it.

A few days go by and we’re hanging out at my friend’s place when his mom comes home.

She starts giving us the business in that “I’m annoyed but trying not to be” voice about a warning she received from the HOA regarding repairing cars in your driveway, complete with a photo of my POS with the hood up.

Really she was being pretty good, though clearly annoyed.

We explain that we weren’t repairing anything, that I was just checking the oil level, and didn’t even need any tools. (Picture just had the hood up.)

She softened quite a bit, and the focus of her annoyance shifted from us to the HOA since it’s entirely reasonable for anyone to check the level of oil in a car.

She finds her copy of the HOA rules and we all read them together. Sure enough there’s a bylaw that says you can’t repair a car in the driveway.

I protest that I wasn’t repairing anything, I was just checking the oil!

I have to admit, I’m pleasantly surprised that Mom is going to agree to go to battle with the HOA.

Reading the exact rules on exactly what was forbidden sparked an idea.

I look at my friend, raise an eyebrow, and say “Fight the power?” “FIGHT THE POWER!”

I propose my plan to his mom and ask for permission since she’s going to have to deal with the fallout.

She’s on board since she thinks this is supremely stupid, and we set in motion. Cue the MC!

Oh, these kids are too funny! Check out what they do next.

Every day after school my friend and I drove our POS machines to his place, parked in their driveway, raised the hoods, and just looked at the engines.

No tools, we weren’t even near them. We didn’t check the oil, we didn’t so much as touch them nor wipe them down with a rag.

All we did was expose them to the birds, the sky, and God above to just let them breathe.

After a while I got bored so I started setting up an easel and drawing my engine ten minutes at a time.

My friend had to one-up me, so decided he needed some tasteful artistic photos with his engine.

He judged the best photos would be him laying over the engine shirtless, stroking and fake kissing it. Just absurd over-the-top moronic high schooler stuff.

And right on queue, the HOA issues their fines to prevent these kids from having their fun.

Predictably the HOA was on us like stink on s***.

The warnings quickly turned into fines, complete with pictures of both vehicles with their hoods up.

Then more pictures with mine with its hood up and an easel in front.

Then even more pictures with my friend’s with its hood up, him laying in the engine compartment and me taking pictures of him with a camera.

Soon enough his mom let us know it was time for the monthly HOA meeting. Of course all three of us had to go in person to protest the fines!

So the motley pair of us show up along with his mom, and his mom’s stack of fine notices.

I bring along my engine drawing, and we printed some of my friend’s boudoir engine photos larger than normal.

Time to prove that these kids weren’t violating a single HOA rule.

After a while it was new business time, and my friend’s mom steps up.

I’m pretty sure they expected her to play the “my son and his friend are morons, please make these fines go away since I didn’t know what they were doing” sympathy card.

Nope, not a chance!

She politely but firmly attested that she was being sent fines for something that wasn’t in the bylaws, and asked the board to stop.

One of the board members spoke up saying that working on cars was against the bylaws, and clearly that’s what was going on since both hoods were up.

I would pay good money to see the reaction of the HOA board members.

Oh you should have seen their faces when she corrected them that the bylaw said no repairs were allowed, that there were no repairs going on in any of the pictures since no tools were visible, and that we were just doing art projects for school.

Even longer faces were seen when she showed my (truthfully completely terrible) drawing of my engine, along with the date-stamped-a-couple-weeks-ago pictures of my friend trying to seduce his engine.

The HOA president called for a five minute recess, during which the board huddled in a corner of the room.

After the recess, the President succinctly said “M’am, we are going to dismiss all your fines. Have a nice evening.”

We darn near danced out of that meeting!

Being the obnoxious s***heads that my friend and I were, we had to do the drawing/photo routine a few more times just to make sure they weren’t going to start sending more fines.

They wisely didn’t, and being victorious we soon found other ways to annoy them.

There is nothing better than sticking it to an HOA with its own rules.  Well done kids!

Check out what other Redditors had to say about this tale of malicious compliance.

This comment says that even if the HOA rules were reasonable, the kids weren’t violating them so why issue the penalty?

Good idea! Find out who is snitching and get revenge!

100% agree with this comment. The Mom is a real hero.

Nothing better than using the HOA rules against them.

We all love to see it.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.