Imagine renting a condo in a small building where everyone else owns their condos. Would it hurt your feelings if one of your neighbors looked down on you because you’re a renter instead of an owner, or would you not really care?

In this story, one family is in this situation, and they don’t really care, but years later, the situation changes, and they make the annoying neighbor eat her words.

All the drama starts with a reserved parking spot, but it escalates to applause for the new HOA President. Let’s read all about it.

Oh i just rent here? Well now I am president of this HOA and owner of this unit!

From 2015 through early 2018, my wife (then girlfriend) and I moved apartments constantly, which got old fast.

Then, in May 2018, luck struck as a condo owned by my best friend’s parents, Dan, had a tenant moving out after a decade.

Since Dan is my best friend and I also do his parents taxesI kept I snagged first dibs.

This condo was sentimental to me because I spent middle school and high school hanging out there with Dan, so moving in felt like returning home, but this time, I’d be building new memories with my wife.

He already knew the neighbors.

The condo building has eight units, each assigned two parking spots, And of course being a condo, there was HOA and common charges, common areas etc.

My unit was the only unit being rented…the other seven were owner-occupants, the same ones I remembered from my childhood visits.

One neighbor stood out, let’s call her Karen, the resident no one liked because she always made things either difficult, awkward, or unpleasant. She lived alone, which also meant she always had an empty second parking spot.

Karen didn’t want anyone parking in her parking spots.

One day in October of 2018, Karen rapidly rang my doorbell, demanding to know if a random car in her empty spot was mine or anyone’s i know…

It wasn’t, and I told her so, but she still seemed distressed before awkwardly leaving. Odd, but whatever.

Then, in October 2018, my wife dropped me off at the airport and returned home to find a lime green Jeep with oversized tires parked in her (my wife’s) assigned spot.

However, my wife noticed that Karen’s second parking spot was empty..and CONSIDERED parking there, but ultimately decided against it seeing as how dramatic Karen was the last time some random person parked in her empty spot…

Guess who owned the lime Jeep?

So rather than trying to track down the owner by ringing 7 different doorbells, my wife instead decided to park directly behind the Jeep in a T-shape, essentially blocking the Jeep..and left a polite note: “I parked behind you—come to Unit A, and I’ll move my car so you can leave.”

A whole HOUR goes by and then guess who aggressively starts ringing our doorbell again??the one and only Karen.

She immediately started yelling at my wife. “You are SO immature! That’s my friend! She was only here for FIVE MINUTES! You couldn’t wait?! You do best to remember that YOU.JUST.RENT.HERE.”. Then stormed off.

Now Her friend (owner of the jeep), instead of simply asking my wife to move, drove over the shared front lawn ruining the grass and flowers. And all the while, Karen’s empty second spot sat UNOCCUPIED!!!!

Things have changed over the years.

Fast forward to what has happened since the day, she said those words “you just rent here”.

• 2019- my girlfriend and I got engaged.
• 2021- we got married.
• October of 2021- almost to the day of the incident, we became homeowners, officially purchasing the condo from Dan’s parents.
• 2022- the HOA president of 20 years stepped down, and five minutes later, I was voted in to be president(obviously Karen did not vote for me).

Upon accepting my nomination in front of the HOA, I couldn’t resist but say “Well, so much for just being renters here.”

He finds the situation very satisfying.

All the other unit owners laughed a little and clapped, except for Karen, she seemed in disbelief…idk if it was of what i said or the fact that i became president of the HOA having lived there for only a few years compared to her decades of living there…

And to this day, the look on her face lives “rent-free” in my head 🤣.

Of course i didn’t all of this just to get back at Karen, that would be sad. But it is pretty sweet that any time we cross paths or my wife and I see her, we get to smirk now and give her the fake “hi how are you”..she never answers or says hi back but we don’t care because hey we just rent here 😎.

Fyi she has not rang our doorbell since, and our parking spots have never been taken by another car since.

Karen sounds awful, but it’s great that he was able to buy the condo that holds so many memories for him.

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 how Reddit responded to this story.

I’m not sure if they could do this since so many years have passed.

Very true.

One person has a question.

That would be awesome, but I doubt that it happens.

Maybe Karen will mind her own business now and leave OP and his family alone. After all, I would assume you wouldn’t want to pick on the HOA president for no good reason. Retaliation would not work in her favor.

Honestly, this seems like a pretty chill HOA story compared to a lot that I’ve read. Hopefully, it stays that way.