HOAs are known for being awful, and one thing that makes them awful is that the worst kinds of people are often the people who want to be HOA president and on the HOA board. When the people with the power are the worst people to have any sort of power, there’s a lot to complain about.

In this story, one maintenance man at a townhouse association is fired by the newly elected HOA president simply because she doesn’t like him. In order to get his unemployment benefits, he has to go to court. Thankfully, he made a lot of friends while he was working at the townhouse association, and they have his back.

This is a great story that shows what can happen when a bad person gets the power but how she doesn’t have as much power as she thinks she does when everyone turns on her.

Keep reading to hear about this maintenance guy’s day in court.

Revenge on the Entitled HOA President

About 45 years ago, before I knew him, my husband (I’ll call him Harry) worked maintenance for a 40 unit high-end townhouse association.

The residents were mostly doctors, business officers and owners, attorneys, etc.

Harry’s boss was Mark, the HOA president.

He was a decent guy who treated Harry well.

Harry was on good terms with most of the homeowners.

Harry was only 20 or 21, but was a very hard worker, and he got along well with most of the homeowners.

A few would ask him to look in on their homes (on his own time) if they went on vacations and they would pay him very well for doing so.

Some would ask him to stop by after work and help move a piece of furniture or do other odd jobs and paid him generously.

The exception was Dotty.

Can we call her Karen instead?

She was a widow who had never worked a day in her life, but had the good fortune to marry into money and felt like everyone should kiss her ring.

Mark told Harry that she frequently got into silly disputes with the HOA, and if she didn’t get her way, they would hear from her attorney.

He said they spent more money on attorney’s fees fighting Dotty than they collected in maintenance fees the previous six months.

She was pretty universally disliked.

She had a lot of annoying demands.

She would corner Harry and demand that he snowplow her driveway first (he’d been told by Mark to start on the opposite side since two doctors lived there and it was important that they be able to get out in an emergency).

She would often try to go around Mark and corner Harry directly, but he would inform her that he took directions only from Mark.

She would also demand that he do odd jobs for her, but on the HOA’s dime.

Harry told her he couldn’t do that.

Dotty wanted even more power.

“But you do things for Larry, and Barb, and Bill! I’ve seen you!”

He tried to explain that they hired him after work hours and paid him separately, but she didn’t think she should have to pay for extras.

Dotty, therefore, did not like Harry.

A couple years passed, and Dotty ran for HOA president. Many residents were tired of hearing her constant complaining and decided to vote her in so they could start complaining to her and give her a taste of her own medicine.

This is awful!

Once she was in control, she fired Harry.

He filed for unemployment and she decided to fight it.

Harry ran into one of the homeowners in the grocery store who told him that he and many other residents were so sorry that he’d been let go, they hadn’t foreseen that and felt awful about it.

Harry said it was okay, he was just upset that he wasn’t getting unemployment pay and had to go to a hearing (back then, hearings were in person).

The homeowner asked when it was and wished him the best.

This is so unexpectedly sweet!

Several days later, Harry went to his hearing.

As he checked in at the reception area, a man came up to him and introduced himself and said that he was the attorney representing him.

Harry was confused and said, “But I don’t have an attorney…”

The man explained that Mark and some of the other homeowners had chipped in and hired him to represent Harry and make sure he got unemployment!

Dotty’s reasons for firing Harry were pathetic.

They stepped into the conference room where the hearing was, and there was Dotty, the judge, and two homeowners who came to testify on Harry’s behalf.

Dotty really couldn’t come up with a reason that she fired Harry just a day or two after she became president.

She did say that in the past he had refused to move boxes up to attic for her and had also refused to move flower pots from her deck to her garage.

It’s not looking good for Dotty.

The attorney showed the bylaws and what the fees did and did not cover (of course they did not cover moving boxes to the attic or moving flower pots from her deck to her garage, so Harry’s refusal proved that he was following the HOA’s rules).

The attorney also read a statement from Mark about Harry never being late or calling in sick and how pleased Mark always was with his work.

He also showed the judge a log of complaints that Mark had received during his four years as HOA president. There were three pages and all but five or six were complaints made by Dotty.

The only complaints about Harry were made by Dotty. All of them were marked as being unsubstantiated.

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It was so nice of the homeowners to testify.

Then the two homeowners in attendance testified.

One said how dependable Harry was, what a great worker he was, etc. He said he’d given Harry his house key whenever he went out of town and trusted him implicitly to look after his property for him.

The other, a highly respected director at a well-known company said similar things and added, “The only reason Dotty fired him is she’s a vindictive witch.”

Harry said Dotty turned red and it looked like she was going to swallow her dentures. Harry had a hard time keeping a straight face.

It worked out really well.

He was awarded unemployment benefits.

After the hearing, he thanked the two men for taking time off to show up and testify for him.

They told him they were not only glad to help him out, but they also got a lot of pleasure out of sabotaging Dotty and embarrassing her. They said they were looking forward to attending the next HOA meeting, which happened to be in a couple days, to spread the word of Dotty’s comeuppance.

The only thing that would’ve been better is if Harry had gotten his job back and Dotty had been so embarrassed that she stepped down as HOA president and sold her house. But, I guess that’s hoping for too much.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a betting shop employee who is asked the dreaded question “don’t you know who I am?”

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Her husband really does sound amazing.

I completely agree!

This person partially defends Dotty.

A former maintenance worker weighs in.

Dotty is a horrible person. Let’s just be honest about that.

It definitely says a lot about Harry that the people in the community pooled their money to hire a lawyer and showed up in court to defend him.

I agree with the commenter that wishes the businessman had hired Harry. That would’ve been a nice way to end the story.

I hope they were able to get Dotty removed as HOA president. Electing her definitely backfired. You don’t want the worst person in the neighborhood to be HOA president.