The worst part about an HOA is that you pay a lot of money to be told what you can and cannot do on your own property.

While some people must like HOAs, many people would probably agree that a good HOA leaves the homeowners alone.

In this story, a former HOA president shares how he became president, what rules he enforced and what one particularly Karen-like neighbor thought of these rules.

Let’s read the whole story.

HOA board campaign to do nothing

I lived in a small, 18-house, neighborhood that had a deed-restricted HOA.

We had a minimal common area along the main entry street that needed maintenance and some drainage infrastructure that needed to be maintained.

Not much work had to be done at all.

No one wanted to be on the board so I ran for the board with the slogan, “I will do nothing more than is legally required to fulfill the legal requirements of the HOA.”

This slogan was enough to get four more neighbors to run with the same slogan.

He really was a hands off HOA president.

We had the typical “committees,” all with the same members and with the same idea – leave everyone alone, fulfill our legal obligations and move on.

I was walking down the street one day and was accosted by a neighbor who said, “You don’t deserve to be president.”

I replied, “You’re right, I don’t deserve it.”

This really set her off so she started yelling at me about all the things I should be doing – planting a specific kind of flower, forcing her neighbors to do things unregulated by the HOA, etc.

He made a suggestion she didn’t like.

So, I invited her to run for president.

I told her that she could submit a petition calling for a special election and I could guarantee that everyone on the board would sign it and probably vote for her to take on the job.

This, of course, just infuriated her.

So she started writing letters to the board complaining about everything.

We ignored the letters, which, technically was a mistake. Our HOA documents required all letters to receive a response.

They did not respond to her letters the way she had hoped.

She continued to send letters that had nothing to do with the HOA so we crafted a malicious compliance response that read,

“Thank you for your letter to the HOA board. After careful consideration we have decided to ignore it.”

We then included instructions on how to call for a special election to have us kicked off the board and promised her the support of all board members if she chose to circulate the required petition.

She sold her house and moved.

This HOA sounds like a dream.

Our board continued with the same philosophy for the 12 years I lived there – nothing more than legally required and leave everyone the hell alone.

We would hold a homeowner’s meeting once a year which was nothing more than a pot-luck dinner.

We had to invite someone from the compliance company who worked for us to make sure we covered everything required for our annual meeting and reporting and we would always have an agenda item under new business: Does everyone promise to be a reasonable adult?

I’ve moved to a new, 14-house, neighborhood with an HOA. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll run for the board.

An HOA with a president who doesn’t try to control his neighbor’s lives is pretty rare and pretty awesome.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is a good point.

It is certainly refreshing to see a happy HOA story.

This is a good insight about buying a home that’s part of an HOA.

How do you disband an HOA?

A lazy HOA board is the best kind.

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