January 26, 2025 at 10:49 am

HOA Informs Renter That He Can’t Park His Project Car On The Street, So The Renter Does Some Digging And Finds Another (More Irritating) Place To Park

by Jayne Elliott

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance/Shutterstock

What would you do if you felt like the HOA was singling you out and requiring you to follow the rules when you saw your neighbors breaking these same rules all the time?

In today’s story, one renter in an HOA neighborhood decides to follow the rules while getting back at the HOA at the same time.

Let’s read all the details.

The HOA doesn’t like my project car, so I’ve decided to park it legally in front of the neighborhood’s grand entrance.

For context, my family and I recently moved into a rental house while our new house is being built.

The rental is in the back of a gated community on a mostly undeveloped street.

Yesterday, I received a letter from the home owner’s association informing me that I’m not in compliance of the “strictly enforced by towing” restriction stating that vehicles may not be parked on the street overnight.

In the letter was a picture of my project car (old BMW) parked beside our house on the street.

He quickly realized how horrible an HOA can be.

I decided to look up the HOA’s restrictions (which I haven’t seen before since I’m a renter) and discovered I’m living in HOA hell.

The street parking rule is just the beginning of a long list of restrictions including one warranting a hefty fine for “leaving the garage door open when not in use”.

This came as a huge surprise since several of my neighbors have parked their cars on the street without problem since I’ve lived here, so I assumed it was okay.

I can only imagine that they’ve singled me out because my car is 30 years old, however, in my defense, it’s very presentable and by no means junky.

There is a solution to the problem.

Being singled out made me incredibly frustrated to the point where I started doing legal research.

It turns out my HOA has every right to tow my project car since it’s parked on a private street in the neighborhood.

The good news for me is that the street just outside of the neighborhood is public, and it’s 100% legal to park on it for any amount of time.

The HOA probably wishes this weren’t a public street.

Unfortunately for the HOA, the closest section of public street to my rental house is right in front of their nice gated entrance.

Ironically, my old BMW has now become part of their image, and there’s nothing they can do about it until I move out in a few months.

HOA rules don’t always make sense.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This reader suggests buying another car.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

Here’s another story about an HOA and a project car.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

A lot of people don’t like HOAs.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

It would be nice if there were a way to rate HOAs.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

This reader wants to know more about the project car.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

The HOA will probably be happy when he moves out.

But the feeling will be mutual.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.