When you live in a neighborhood that has an HOA, you need to be careful not to violate any of the very specific rules that they have in place.

What would you do if you had just moved in, but you were already being told that you had over $4000 in violations racked up?

That is what happened to the homeowner in this story, so he researched the rules and found a way to stop the HOA dead in their tracks.

Florida HOA nightmare. oh certified mail for all communication? you got it

Posting this now because i no longer live in the house or neighborhood, but at the time i lived in a “lovely” cookie cutter neighborhood with an HOA.

These neighborhoods often lack personality, but they can be nice.

This was one of those neighborhoods where they finished like a 100 homes in the span of a few weeks and it was common to see 8 or 10 moving trucks on any given weekend.

The neighborhood went from ghost town to filled in literally a month. In Florida, most HOAs are required to use certified mail when notifying home owners of violations.

This would get expensive quickly.

My HOA took this a step further that all notifications to the board would be through certified mail; received a violation? Response in certified mail. Requesting a hearing? Certified mail. Want the bylaws? Certified mail.

Now this last one might strike you as odd, because how would you know to request the bylaws by certified mail, if you didn’t have the bylaws already you might ask.

Let’s put a pin in that one for now because upon moving in they were kind enough to provide the CC&Rs outlining what we could and could not do, but not the bylaws that told us how to handle violations and complaints.

Wow, this would be terrifying.

So, I move in and everything is great…at first. That is until about the third month when there’s a big packet taped to my door: a notice of intent to lien.

The packet explains that I was delinquent on a number of violations, many of them repetitive. On the list are things like:

This HOA is very picky it seems.

• Not keeping the garbage cans out of sight (we kept them on the side of the house like most neighbors)
• Standing water in between the sides of the homes (grading issue I was fighting with the developer over)
• Parking one of the vehicles in the driveway but over the sidewalk line
• Bushes not trimmed appropriately
• Unapproved modifications to the doorway (installing a Ring Doorbell camera)

That is a lot of money, especially so soon after moving in.

The list went on, but totaled $4,032.12 for violations, late fees, and legal fees.

I immediately email requesting more information, and don’t get a response.

I do this for a few days before threatening legal action in a admittedly hostile emails; to which I finally get a response indicating that “all communications regarding violations will only be addressed via communication methods approved in the bylaws.”

This HOA is just being unreasonable.

I request a copy of the bylaws. “all requests for the bylaws must be submitted via approved communications methods, as per the bylaws.”

At this point I’m about to go postal, but if Edmond Dantes could wait 14 years for revenge, I could take a breath and figure this out.

At least he has time to think it through.

The notice gave me 45 days and it had only been a couple days – I had time to figure this out.

Little known fact about developers and HOAs in Florida: The developer is the one that drafts the initial CC&R, bylaws, and legal documents then hands it off to the board.

My developer, who’s name starts with “D” and ends with a word that sounds like shmorton was already on my naughty list for a number of issues, including the improper grading.

At least they are being reasonable about this.

When I emailed my contacts requesting a copy of the bylaws, I don’t think they wanted to add to the growing list of stuff I was vehemently emailing them about already and I had a copy within minutes.

That’s when i found the certified mail language.

He is coming up with a way to get out of this.

Now, the wheels were turning, because it stated ALL communication was to be by certified mail. Each violation was to be filed separately, and delivered by certified mail, each notice of failure to cure and the late fee. Certified mail.

EVERYTHING.

Did he receive anything certified mail?

I had 8 unique violations, plus repeat violations over a period of 9 weeks. At a minimum, I should have received like 22 notices via certified mail…at around $7 a pop.

My revenge was two pronged.

He is tired of being mistreated.

My morality has developed to a fashion that if you want to wrongfully take from me, I am willing to spend just as much as you want, to fight you.

They wanted $4k from me…I was willing to spend a good amount of that just to mess with them. I took off two days from work and prepared a little game of FAFO.

Getting the whole neighborhood onboard is very important.

So step 1 was to draft a single page, no personal details, but explaining my situation and warning any neighbors going through something similar what the bylaws indicated and that all homeowners should immediately request a copy of the bylaws via certified mail.

I provided the board address, the language to include (which stipulated that the response from the board, even if it was a copy of the bylaws) was to be by certified mail.

Printing and sending that many papers could get expensive.

Meaning a printed copy of the bylaws, which was 29 pages. I also encouraged anyone fighting infractions or having received a notice of intent to lien what to do.

I printed about 150 copies because that’s how many houses were in the neighborhood. Roped in a few close neighbors and we stuck a notice on about every door.

Good idea, fight everything separately.

Step 2 was to fight each violation…individually.

I drafted a template language indicating that I was refuting each violation. Some more boiler plate language on why is was refuting it, and the coup de grace, a final addendum formally requesting copy of receipt of delivery for each notice having been delivered via certified mail, as per the bylaws.

He is willing to go all out on this.

I customized each one specific to the violation, and copied in any specific language from the CC&R that proved I was not in violation. and sent 23 certified letters…22 for violations and an extra one that was a notice of contest for the lien.

Here’s another little tidbit about Florida law: HOAs operate under something called rebuttable presumption, meaning any request for official records had to responded to within 10 business days. I sent the letters on a Thursday, and each letter included a request for official records and a copy of the record of delivery. They had two weeks.

An email isn’t going to cut it.

About a week and a half later, i got a VERY strongly worded email basically saying all of the violations were valid and that i had another 25 days to comply or they would pursue the lien.

I responded tersely: “All communications regarding violations must be done in approved communication methods as per article 9, communication methods, as per the bylaws.”

The deadlines are approaching.

They had a few days to draft a response AND include the records i requested, and mail them to me, certified, and individually as per the bylaws.

They never did; so I sent 23 more follow ups indicating they had violated the Florida Home Owners Association Act, breach of the bylaws, and intended to pursue legal action if they did not cease and desist.

He may not have details, but he knows it was a hassle for them.

I wish I could tell you I know what happened to them, during that time frame or what it was like for them but we heard from a man married to one of the board members, that something like 100 of the homes requested a copy of the bylaws via certified mail; on top of the fact that they had active liens on several homes for violations, as well as 20 more homes that had been issued a notice of intent to lien.

Everyone was now fighting them, via certified mail.

A change of members is the minimum that they needed.

In the end, the HOA had a change of members that resulted from the legal fees and expenses incurred by having to respond to each violation via certified mail drying up the reserve.

Turns out that the board hadn’t sent a single notice of violation via certified mail, and in most cases had never notified the home owners at all and assumed the threat of a lien would just get them to pay whatever fines there were.

They were basic ‘not in my back yard’ type of people.

Why were they doing this you might ask? Simple, there was an undeveloped lot of land at the front of the neighborhood facing a main road, in front of the homes of the first people to move into the neighborhood.

Coincidentally, this is where most of the board lived. The developer had held onto the plot and was intending to sell it to a commercial developer but had offered to sell it to the neighborhood at a premium.

I mean, I can’t blame them.

These scumbags didn’t want a gas station going up in front of their homes and were racking up violation fees from their neighbors to afford the purchase through the HOA.

The lien on my home never materialized, and while I never admitted it was me, word must have gotten around because within two weeks, the developer, who had been dragging their feet for months on my complaints, did EVERYTHING.

They knew he meant business.

My entire house was regraded on both sides, with French drains put in for added measure, the sides were completely resodded, and everything else taken care of.

I only stayed there for like 8 months total before an offer came in that made me give the finger to short term capital gains and peace out.

Money well spent.

All in all, I sent 46 certified letters; I think I spent like $350 and two days of PTO…best money I ever spent.

Getting one over on an HOA is always worth the effort. They deserve to get put out of business.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this.

Fighting an HOA is noble work.

I don’t understand how people put up with HOAs either.

Hopefully they had to disband.

People everywhere hate HOAs.

Lots of people refuse to buy homes in an HOA.

Shut that HOA down forever.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.