When you move into an area that has an HOA, you need to be extra careful to ensure you follow all the rules or you could end up getting a fine from your neighbors.

What would you do if you got a notice that there were too many weeds in your lawn, and even got more notices after you removed them?

That is what happened to the family in this story, and they ended up getting fines even though they got their lawn completely weed free.

New in the neighborhood and already fined. How can I get them to leave me alone?

I moved in earlier this year and amongst the chaos of moving, COVID19, etc – I did not realize the lawn was not kept from previous owners at all.

It can be difficult to get rid of weeds.

There were BOATLOADS of weeds. We pulled them but not in time for our first notice.

That’s fine, the letter said we needed to fix it within 14 days of the letter, which we definitely did since the letter was dated the day before we cleaned it up.

The HOA should be happy that they are working on it at all.

Second notice was sent because we didn’t pull them well enough I guess. Well, ok, we will try again.

I saw a few visible weeds but nothing major but I figured ok sure let’s just comply.

This is getting excessive.

Third notice – at this point I have no idea what the they want from me. We pull any remaining weeds we see which were Maybe 2-3 strands and I went ahead and pulled literally anything that could be obstructive.

Fourth – fined. For weeds. The picture in the letter had no visible weeds.

What more could they possibly want?

I ran to the spot they snapped the photo of, and to the naked eye of where they took the pic you couldn’t even SEE weeds. When you get super close you can see maybe 2 tiny weeds. I am appalled.

At this point it just feels like we’re being scammed or harassed… that, and/or their standards are ridiculously high and unreasonable.

They might just be trying to get money via the fines.

Part of me feels like we’re being picked on for being new. But we’ve complied each time. The evidence of the pic is SO bad.

I’m scared to repeal because I don’t want it to put a target on our backs. But I also don’t want to pay for a fine that is absolute INSANE.

Very frustrating.

This is why I would hate to live an an area with an HOA. They have too much power and the rules are all very subjective.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Always document everything when dealing with an HOA.

This would be so frustrating.

Here is someone who went through something similar.

I agree with this commenter.

This is great advice.

Never move into an area with an HOA.

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