Imagine living in an HOA neighborhood, and the HOA schedules a repair that’s necessary but not an emergency situation. What would you do if they scheduled that repair for a workday and required every homeowner to be home that day to accommodate the repair workers? Would you be willing to take a day off work to sit at home and wait for the repairman, or would you refuse?

In this story, one homeowner is in that exact situation, and they don’t want to take a day off work just to humor their HOA’s poorly thought out scheduling decision. There is one other option they’re considering, but they’re unsure if that’s the better choice or not.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

HOA Strong-arming me to take a day off work

My HOA is requiring certain water meters to be replaced.

This seems to be within their rights since homeowners are responsible for the pipes while they are responsible for the meters.

The meters are in the garages.

It might be hard for some people to comply with this request.

However, they are only offering one day for this to happen: Tuesday between 8-11 AM. The middle of the work day.

They are saying you are subject to a $200 rescheduling fee if you can’t be available. So, essentially they are forcing you to take a day off work.

To be clear- the meters aren’t broken or leaking. There is no water emergency.

OP is trying to decide what to do.

In my 15 years of HOA experience I’ve never seen this scenario before, so I know it’s unusual.

Like most people, I really can’t afford to take a day off work or waste a sick day.

Thinking about just taking the fee and rescheduling.

It doesn’t seem right to force homeowners to take a day off work due to a repair that isn’t exactly an emergency. If the meters are in the garages, can the homeowners just leave their garage door open that day as a workaround?

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an apartment tenant who is being called petty for blocking her parking space with trash cans.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

That would be too easy.

One person thinks it depends.

Another person thinks this is ridiculous.

Here’s a vote for leaving the key with someone else.

Whoever made this decision is probably some old, retired HOA board member who doesn’t even consider the fact that most people have jobs that keep them out of the house during the week. Deciding to schedule a repair in the middle of the day on a weekday seems like a really bad idea. Charging a fee for rescheduling seems like a money grab. They’re probably hoping a lot of homeowners want to reschedule.

If I were in OP’s situation, I would either leave my key with someone else, or take a day off work. Depending on his job, maybe he could explain the situation to his boss and work from home that day, if it’s the type of job that could be done remotely.

If he goes with the option of paying the fee and rescheduling, there’s no guarantee that the rescheduled time would be a time that would be convenient for him. He still might have to take a day off work.

Situations like this are why people hate HOAs.