Some neighbors just can’t resist turning minor inconveniences into major problems.

What would you do if a homeowner’s association suddenly cracked down on something harmless because one neighbor complained?

Would you comply and move on with your life?

Or would you find a clever workaround that works to your benefit?

In the following story, one dad finds himself in this exact predicament and chooses the latter.

Here’s what he did.

Another HOA story

This was about 10 years ago, around 2010ish. My family lived in a very nice gated community with an HOA.

It was during the summer, and most weekends, we would bring our boat to the house on Friday nights, take it out on Saturdays, and then move it back to where we stored it on Saturday night.

The HOA had a rule that boats weren’t allowed to be kept within view of the street.

Our driveway ran up beside the house, and we’d intentionally position it to be as invisible as possible for the ONE night it would be there.

Basically, all that was visible was a small T-top over my dad’s truck.

Our HOA was actually pretty awesome. It was super laid-back and really only did anything when there was a complaint.

It was a relatively small neighborhood, less than 50 houses, and the HOA was really good at throwing monthly parties where we’d shut down a cul-de-sac, everyone would bring food and music, and we’d all have fun.

There’s always that one person who tries to put their nose where it doesn’t belong.

This was kind of what an HOA is supposed to be, in theory, a good thing.

Well, Karen had complained to the board about our boat and provided time-stamped photos of multiple violations (mind you, 1 night a week, but she’d claimed it was consistent).

The president came by to tell us, and it wasn’t there when he was.

We told him our side of the story, basically it was only there for about 12 hours on the weekend and he said he nor anyone on the board had ever noticed it, but since they had a complaint, they had to request we remove it. (I doubt they’d actually fine or do anything past asking, but rules are rules.)

Queue my father’s mastery of the art of malicious compliance.

His dad came up with a brilliant idea.

Well, an important bit of information about this piece of property is that when the neighborhood was built, my dad bought the house, as well as a property bordering the back of ours that was not a part of the HOA, or in the neighborhood, and originally had a small chain link fence between it and the house.

It was accessible through a small street with a few homes on it, bordering our neighborhood.

Well, My dad’s beautiful brain started thinking about, and for the cost and inconvenience of storing it at a storage place, he could probably just build a pad for it behind the house.

At this point, there was nothing more she could do.

He had a gravel pad put in the corner of the property with a shed over it, intentionally as close to the edge of the property so it would preserve the view out the back (or be very visible from the front of the house either one).

There wasn’t any real backlash about it. Apparently, Karen brought it up again, and the board politely informed her that they had no control over that property.

I think she admitted defeat. The board actually found it pretty funny and never had any other issues with them.

Karen moved about a year later, and my parents moved about two years ago.

Loved the neighborhood though, genuinely a positive HOA experience, just an annoying Karen to make life inconvenient.

Nice! That’s one way to turn that situation around.

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about this story.

This person doesn’t get why HOAs stress so much about boat parking.

Here’s someone who doesn’t understand how it’s malicious compliance.

This reader explains why it’s petty and malicious.

According to this person, they hope to have money like this someday.

That was well-played! And it’s always nice to hear someone with a positive HOA experience.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.