Nothing brings out a person’s petty faster than a power tripping HOA.

So when one HOA president watched a couple paint their house without approval and said nothing until it was too late, he thought he’d won.

But he didn’t realize they were about to unleash the most annoying color-swatches marathon the neighborhood had ever seen.

Keep reading for the full story!

Annoying the Head of the HOA

A friend of mine not too long ago painted his house.

He lives in a development that has an HOA.

He admits that he and his wife made the first mistake by not reading the HOA handbook close enough so they didn’t realize they had to get the color approved by the HOA.

From the start, it was clear it would be a laborious process.

On the first day of painting, the head of the HOA stopped by and talked to them.

He made small talk and talked about ways to make painting the house easier, etc.

At this time the HOA head knew they hadn’t gotten the color approved because he sits on the three-person panel that approves the colors.

But the HOA chose to make things as difficult as possible for the homeowners.

However, he opted not to say anything to them.

Instead, he waited until they had the entire house painted then told them the color was not approved because there too many other houses with a similar color (it was a lighter shade of green).

But these homeowners weren’t going to take things lying down.

So, faced with having to spend the time and money to repaint the entire house, he and his wife decided to get a little revenge.

They submitted the form and color swatch for the new color and were approved.

They decided to drag out the process as long as possible.

Knowing the panel had to take time out of their lives to meet every time they submit a color, they decided to submit another color swatch and form saying that they had changed their minds.

This color was one they knew would never be approved.

As assumed, it was denied.

The same process continued.

They had to submit again and again they submitted a color they knew would never be approved.

Again, they were denied.

They repeated this 4 or 5 times before the HOA head contacted them and told them the first swatch they submitted was still approved and not to submit another swatch for approval.

They were tired of playing games.

But the homeowners weren’t done yet.

He replied telling him that it turns out that color is no longer available and they needed to submit one last swatch, which, of course, was a color that they knew would not be approved.

This time the HOA told them if they submitted another un-approvable swatch they would be fined and billed for the panel’s time.

He submitted another swatch that was a color he knew would never be approved and with it a photocopy of the page from the handbook covering the process of getting a color approved.

He pointed out that there was nothing in there that mentioned any limit to a number of swatches a person could submit.

This entire process took a few months.

Finally, the HOA had enough.

After 8 or 9 swatches that were denied, the head of the HOA was fuming mad and showed up at their door telling them he wasn’t leaving until they had decided on a color for the house.

My friend pointed out that the handbook says the only way for a color to be approved was with a vote from the full panel.

The HOA head called the other two people.

A decision was eventually made.

They came over, and once they were all sat down he and his wife shuffled through about 10 different swatches of crazy colors before finally showing them one that was a light green color.

Frustrated, they approved it and left.

But that’s when the homeowners made the big reveal.

A few weeks later, the head of the HOA contacted him to see when they were going to paint and he told them they already had.

The swatch that they had approved was the color the house was already painted.

A week later he got an angry letter from the HOA and a bill for their time.

He refused to pay and will fight it.

The HOA then took a long, hard look at the handbook.

A couple weeks after that everyone got a revised handbook in the mail with very detailed rules on how to get a color approved.

My friend then called the head of the HOA and told him all of this could have been avoided if he had just said something that day when he came over and talked to them as they started painting, but he decided to be a jerk, so they decided to be jerk back to him.

The HOA played a silly game, so they won a silly prize!

What did Reddit think?

Some HOA rules don’t even make any sense.

This commenter would have handled things a bit differently.

If there’s one thing HOA busybodies hate, it’s non-conformers.

HOAs pretty much strip a homeowner of all agency.

That’s what the HOA gets for playing paint police.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.