If you like your privacy, you probably love the idea of a good fence around your home.

What would you do if you lived in an HOA where you were told you couldn’t build the fence as tall as you wanted to build it?

Would you follow the rules, or would you examine the rules to find a clever workaround?

In this story, one clever professor is in this situation and takes the second option.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

HOA wants me to build a shorter fence? Got it!

This story was relayed to me by one of my favorite professors over 5 years ago, so my apologies if the details are foggy or inaccurate.

My professor was a very, very private person, the sort of guy who would hesitate to tell you his favorite color if you hadn’t known him long enough.

He had recently had an incredibly nosy couple move in next door and realized the flimsy four foot fence he had got for the dog wouldn’t keep out peeping eyes.

A taller fence will solve that problem.

So he installed a fence.

But instead of using a standard size, which he knew his neighbors would peer over, he built an 8 foot fence.

It wasn’t even a week before HOA was on him, threatening every fine they could and claiming he couldn’t have a fence over 6 feet tall.

So, being a dutiful citizen, he called the fence company to uninstall said fence.

I love this workaround!

While the fence was being taken down, he closely examined the HOA handbook on the precise definition of a fence.

He installed a new 6 foot fence that fit every single regulation, but with a 3 foot brick wall beneath it.

That was very clever! He has one smart professor!

Let’s see what Reddit thought of this fence.

This is clever!

I can agree with this comment.

These HOA rules don’t make any sense!

Nice!

Tall fences make even better neighbors.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.