HOAs are supposed to maintain order in a neighborhood, not to flex power.

One homeowner learned this the hard way when a new HOA president issued unfair violations on his property and tried to evict him.

But when the homeowner got in touch with a big city lawyer, it turned into a dramatic legal battle that would leave heads spinning.

Keep reading for the full story.

HOA Sell Non-HOA House

My friend and I lived in a small rural farming community that has been growing quite rapidly lately.

A lot of farmers are growing old and selling their farmland.

There are two typical ways farmers go about this.

They can either split it into lots and sell a piece at a time. This typically brings in more money but is a much slower process.

Then they can sell the whole thing at once.

Again, faster process, less money.

So when one farmer sold off some of his land, one buyer took advantage.

This particular farmer decided to sell his land in lots because it was in a developing neighborhood and he could make a much larger profit doing it that way.

My friend bought a few lots and built a very nice house on it.

Then a large company came in and bought most of the remaining lots and built a subdivision on the land.

After that, an HOA was soon established.

In order to keep everything in a consistent look, they themed the properties after my friend’s place.

His was a lot nicer, obviously. He didn’t cheap out on it like they did, but they had a similar style to his.

He didn’t mind because that just raised his property value even more.

Now it is important to note that my friend basically lived right in the center of the subdivision. He bought a place in the middle of the property because of its view.

The people who built the subdivision also founded an HOA.

The HOA tried to get this homeowner to join, but he was never interested.

My friend was invited to join on multiple occasions but always refused for obvious reasons.

Because of some legal clauses about pre-existing properties, he wasn’t required to join even though he was in the center of the subdivision.

He did maintain a pretty good relationship with the HOA president and some of the members of the community as well.

He was regularly invited to HOA events and sometimes actually took them up on the offer. He enjoyed it.

But when a new leader took over the HOA, things took a turn for the worst.

Then a new president took over the HOA.

I guess the new president didn’t really do any research because he just assumed that my friend was part of the HOA.

This new HOA president seemed to have it out for this homeowner.

He contacted my friend about several “violations” that he noticed, along with late fees due to the HOA.

When my friend tried to explain that he wasn’t part of the HOA, the new president just shooed him off and ignored him.

My friend obviously just ignored all of the fees, fines, etc.

So when this homeowner went away for several month, the HOA took advantage of the opportunity.

My friend in particular was a doctor who worked for a hospital here in the summer months and a hospital in the south in the winter months.

So it all worked out.

So saying this, you could probably imagine the horror on his face when he came home and found all of his locks changed and another family living in his house.

The HOA president knew that he traveled south every year, so waited until he was gone, then sent an eviction notice for all of his late fees.

He had a friend of his that owned a realty firm sell the house and moved in a new family, all while my friend was gone.

This homeowner decided they were going to fight back.

My friend contacted a lawyer friend of his from back in the south and started the process of suing the HOA.

Big city lawyer vs. small town HOA who is absolutely in the wrong—guess who won?

Oh, did I mention that the family that moved into my friend’s house joined in as well?

This lawsuit worked out even better than expected.

They also sued the HOA because they had to be relocated on short notice, and they had taken out a very hefty loan for that property.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know that the HOA president lost his house and skipped town.

I’m guessing he probably took the brunt of the attack.

Sounds like this HOA president got exactly what was coming for him.

What did Reddit have to say?

Parts of this story don’t quite add up for this reader.

Many non-Americans just can’t wrap their head around the idea of an HOA.

The whole concept of an HOA is actually pretty laughable.

HOAs really give some people a power trip.

All power trips have to come to an end one way or another.

This HOA president had finally met his match.

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.