HOAs often exist for community harmony, but they’re just as good at enabling busybodies.

So when a nosy neighbor decided to weaponize HOA rules over a homeowner’s backyard chickens, one couple taught them a valuable lesson that the rules go both ways.

And it didn’t end the way the neighbor expected.

Keep reading for the full story!

Neighbor used HOA against me. Two can play that game.

Roughly six years ago, my wife and I decided to move, back in pre-2020 times when everything was still cheap.

Long story short, we couldn’t find any pre-existing houses that we really liked, but we did find the neighborhood where we currently live and built a house with the developer.

As people do, we drove by every so often to look at the progress they were making on the house.

One night, we stopped and went out to look at the hole in the ground, as they had just gotten ready to pour the concrete for the basement walls.

That’s when they got the first glimpse of a neighbor who would soon prove to be quite problematic.

Here comes SS, acting like a concerned neighbor because “materials have been getting stolen.”

We explained that we’d be the new neighbors and had a brief conversation where he commented that he and another neighbor were the “unofficial neighborhood watch.”

We missed that red flag at the moment and left feeling warm and fuzzy because the neighbors seemed to look out for each other.

Unbeknownst to us, SS was really just an overactive nosy Nellie looking for ways to mess with people.

This neighbor had done quite a few questionable things in the past.

A bit of foreshadowing: some things he had done to other neighbors included letting his dog go to the bathroom wherever she wanted without cleaning it up, looking through neighbors’ trash cans, and asking about a neighbor’s doorbell camera and how far it could pick things up.

I know I’m being a bit nitpicky here, but it tracks for him.

He’s also a scavenger and scrapper, so who’s really stealing those materials, Steve?

The homeowners soon decided they wanted to adopt some chickens, and as far as they could tell, this was fully within their rights to do so.

One day, I decided I wanted to start being a bit more self-sufficient and picked up some chickens to raise for eggs.

I’m really not the kind of guy who wants to annoy my neighbors, but the area we live in is surrounded by farms and is very “farm-themed.”

I did my due diligence and checked town ordinances and the HOA guidelines we were given and found no rules or ordinances against having chickens or poultry on your property.

The HOA hadn’t been overly helpful in providing these rules upfront.

Backtracking slightly, when we signed our contract and went to settlement, we only received a one-page flyer that went over some basic items restricted by the HOA.

No grilling in the front yard, no permanent basketball hoops in the street, no boats or RVs on a permanent basis, and so on.

There was no mention of anything about what types of animals you could or could not have.

So the homeowner got to work in setting up a habitat for the chickens.

Working under the assumption that I was in the clear, I bought some chicks and began raising them.

Since I had a kennel at my old house—we rented from my in-laws for a couple of years until we were ready to move—I decided to go pick that up and set it up around my coop so the chickens could have some free-roaming space.

The kennel had four fence panels that I could move on my own, but they were heavy.

I backed my truck up to my fence where the kennel was going to go in the backyard and started heaving them over.

Much to their surprise, the neighbor offered to help.

SS saw me doing this and offered to lend a hand, so I figured, why not?

He asked why I needed a dog kennel if I already had a fence, and I told him it wasn’t for my dogs, but for the chickens.

I should have known he was going to cause issues, because the next thing he asked was, “Your HOA allows chickens?”

The homeowner tried to explain, and the neighbor expressed his disappointment.

I told him I didn’t see anything in the paperwork provided to me regarding chickens, and that was that.

Until the next day.

SS came over with a loaf of bread from his mother’s bakery that he occasionally helped at and made small talk before bringing up the chickens again.

This time, he only talked to my wife about it, mentioning that his HOA didn’t allow chickens and how bummed he was about that.

That’s where the story should have ended.

This is where the trouble really begins.

About a week later, I got a letter from the HOA.

“It has come to our attention that you have chickens on your property. Per bylaw ‘X,’ that is not allowed, and you have 30 days to remove them from your property.”

I was perplexed.

The homeowner doesn’t understand how this could have happened.

How on earth did they find out about the chickens, and why wasn’t I provided a copy of the HOA bylaws when I signed the contract for my house?

The day after receiving the letter, my wife and I were on our way home from some errands when another neighbor we’re friendly with flagged us down.

“I don’t know if you know this,” he said, “but SS went up to your fence and was taking pictures of your backyard.”

For context, there was an empty lot between SS’s house and ours, but everything finally clicked.

They soon realized who was truly at fault.

SS had reported us to the HOA.

Me being me, I wasn’t going to take this sitting down.

Some HOA nonsense—the developer’s so-called “maintenance corporation”—wasn’t going to tell me what I could or couldn’t do on my property.

Spoiler alert: they absolutely told me what I couldn’t do.

It was time to take a closer look at the rules.

After a bunch of back-and-forth with the HOA, I finally got a copy of the bylaws and started combing through them with a fine-tooth comb.

I found out that someone had sent in seven pages’ worth of pictures documenting HOA infractions, including a photo of my chicken coop.

I should also mention that I’d previously been in hot water with the HOA when we installed our fence because it wasn’t a split-rail fence with chicken wire, so it didn’t match the aesthetic the developer wanted.

The homeowner got to thinking about fences.

They never said another word about it, though, and I ended up being the catalyst for everyone else doing whatever they wanted with their fences.

Also, since I’m being petty, any fence made of white vinyl is technically against the HOA bylaws.

The rules state fences must be split rail, a maximum of five feet tall, and made of wood.

And this is where the petty revenge finally comes in.

They realized the neighbor’s fence was under violation.

SS had an area of his backyard blocked off with a wood privacy fence that was not split rail and was much taller than the five-foot maximum.

Oh, and there was also some unsightly plant growth that violated HOA guidelines about what plants are allowed on your property.

So they decided to make their own report to the HOA.

I figured it was high time the HOA heard about these glaring infractions, since we were all supposed to be following the rules.

So I snapped a few pictures of the privacy fence, the eyesore plants, and the static line he used for his dog in the front yard.

I initially felt bad for the dog, but SS would leave her out for hours, and she’d run into the street chasing cars.

The static line was long enough for her whole body to get past the curb, and I can’t tell you how many near heart attacks I had thinking I was about to run over a dog.

Finally, the neighbor was forced to make some adjustments of his own.

About a week later, SS got his own nastygram from the HOA, informing him that he needed to move the static line and remove the privacy fence.

I watched with absolute glee as he took down his privacy fence.

Sounds like SS got his just desserts!

What did Reddit think of this story?

The very concept of HOAs is pretty unbelievable to some people.

This homeowner has sworn off HOAs altogether.

HOAs tend to attract the most power hungry people.

Every homeowner should have the opportunity to know exactly what they’re getting into.

If their coop had to come down, then so would the neighbor’s fence.

Petty? Maybe. Balanced? Absolutely.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude cusfacetomer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.