When you live in an HOA, there are usually a lot of rules to follow, and often, stories about people who live in an HOA paint the HOA as the bad guy. However, every once in awhile being part of an HOA can work to your advantage. If you have neighbors who are absolutely horrible and disrespectful neighbors, the HOA rules might force them to do better.

In this story, whether or not the HOA rules are good or bad depends on your perspective. One homeowner is breaking the rules. Another home is annoyed with the homeowner who is breaking the rules and decides to report them to the HOA.

Was that the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? Perhaps it was the right thing to do because rules are rules. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to do because HOA rules can be really annoying.

Keep reading for more details about what rule the homeowners broke and why their neighbor reported them to the HOA.

AITAH for Reporting my Neighbors to the HOA?

I live in an HOA community. There are rules about house color, plants, lawn care and pets.

Before you close on your house, you attest to the fact that you have read and will abide by the HOA rules.

This story is about some new neighbors.

Approximately 3 months ago some new folks moved into the house across the back. They have 4 kids under the age of 12 and 5 dogs.

The kids are fine, except for the occasional throwing of sticks at the birds.

It’s the dogs.

It’s not that he doesn’t like dogs.

I like dogs. I have a dog.

At our farm in upstate NY we have lots of dogs, mainly because people dump them and once you have 3-4 at the farm what’s one more?

They are all vetted and well taken care of, and a lot are adopted from the farm by our borders.

Here’s the problem.

The issue I have with these people is that they leave the dogs on their lanai unsupervised and let them bark.

They start at 6 am and it goes, on and off, until 10 pm.

I can’t go out into my yard without setting them off.

None of the neighbors can do yard work without setting them off.

There’s another problem.

They don’t have a fenced yard, and since I am on a corner lot, I am not allowed to fence my yard.

They “walk” their dogs by putting them on a leash and letting them do their business in “their” yard; note that their yard abuts the common area and pond so they take them down by the pond and let them go and they LEAVE IT THERE.

I have seen them clean up after the dogs once.

Here is where I might be the AH. Our HOA covenants clearly state that only 2 pets are allowed per household. After speaking with the neighbors and living with the barking for 3 months I reported them to the HOA, who sent out notices about the barking and compliance with the 2 pet rule.

The new neighbors are breaking the rules, and dogs barking all day would be really annoying. However, was reporting them to the HOA going too far?

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about neighbors who can’t get along because of a totally legal gate.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say.

Surprisingly, this person thinks he did the right thing.

Another person who hates HOAs agrees that in this case, going to the HOA was the right thing to do.

It doesn’t sound like they were taking very good care of their dogs.

Sometimes it means what it literally means.

While HOAs are often horrible, when neighbors are breaking the rules, it can be beneficial to live in an HOA. You definitely don’t want to be a Karen about it, but there are situations that deserve to be reported.

The new neighbors knew they were breaking the rules when they moved in. They knew they had more dogs than they were allowed to have. They never should’ve moved into their house with too many pets in the first place.

If the pets were well behaved, it may not be a big deal, but the pets are noise pollution to the whole neighborhood. That’s not okay.

Sometimes, living in an HOA can be beneficial.