If you feel like someone with some sort of power is abusing their power and doing something wrong, telling your story to the news can be a good way to bring attention to the problem and pressure the people with power to change their minds.

Imagine being on the opposite end of the negative news. You’re the one responsible for the problem the person is complaining about. What would you do if you felt like the story wasn’t completely accurate or you weren’t really responsible for the problem?

In this story, an HOA board member is in this situation. She voted that a renter needed to remove a Christmas decoration since it was well after the holidays, but she didn’t actually go over to the renter’s house to see what the Christmas decoration looked like.

Now, she’s worried about the consequences of this bad press. Let’s read the whole story.

AITA because I voted to remove a cross?

I am on my HOA Board. We get a monthly list of violations.

Last month we got “Holiday Decorations still up”. I voted to send a violation.

The renter emailed in saying it was not a holiday decoration it was a religious symbol.

I voted to allow it as it’s now a lawn ornament not a holiday decoration.

Yikes!

A few days later the renter went to the news and there was a broadcast saying the HOA is forcing her to take down the cross and now her landlord is evicting her.

The news said the HOA would not return their calls.

None of the HOA nor the PM were contacted.

She’s really upset.

I’m now upset saying if people find out I’m on the board they could cause me problems at home and work saying I’m against Christians.

My friend said I started this by voting to have it removed because I should have drove by the property and examined it before allowing the violation to go out.

I don’t think I did anything wrong because I voted on a bylaw violation based on information given.

I guess the rest of the board members didn’t side with her.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a family living outside the HOA who refuse to remove their tree or lights despite their neighbors hating them.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

This person thinks the friend is right. OP messed up.

Another person thinks HOAs in general are the problem.

This person urges OP to “do better.”

Another person hates HOAs.

I personally don’t live in an HOA, and I wouldn’t want to. It’s situations like this that give HOAs a bad name. The rules are crazy and annoying, and a lot of people who live in HOAs seem to like to enforce these annoying rules by ratting out their neighbors.

The renter did the right thing by going to the news. I hope she gets the rule reversed. She should leave up her cross. That’s not even a Christmas decoration. It’s more like an Easter decoration. And more than that, it is a religious symbol that she should not be told to take down.