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Many people hate HOA’s becuase they can be so picky and petty about their rules.
That was certainly the case in this story, where a woman got approval to put up a white fence, but after it was installed, the HOA claimed it was the wrong shade of white based on the contractor’s paperwork. She tried to explain that it was the same color white but had a different name due to branding.
The HOA refused to budge, so the contractor took the fence down, edited the paperwork to have the approved color name on it, and put the exact same fence back up. The HOA never knew and never had a problem with it.
This just goes to show how petty and stupid many HOA’s can be. Read through the full story below and see what you think.
The fence is whiter on the other side
This story is something my mother did when they moved into the home they live in now.
Ok, this seems like a pretty standard setup.
Where they moved to was a commercial apartment/condo place with an HOA. To paint the picture, this place has large 6 house condo buildings that were all the same and standard 8 home apartment buildings.
All the rent to own condos have a porch area in the back that lead to a parking lot. Some of which my mother noticed has fences.
HOA’s can be very particular and hard to deal with.
My mother handled mostly all of the getting the house ready and dealing with the HOA. She learned pretty quick that you had to get permission to do just about anything here.
So, after we moved in, she sent in a request to put in a privacy fence, like many of the others in the area.
What’s the problem? She followed the rules.
With the HOA’s approval and guildlines, she finds a contractor (which she discovered was an old childhood friend, Suprise!) and has the fence put in.
Que HOA. My mom submits the contractor’s document stating the kind of fence and color and specs only for her to receive a letter stating her fence needs to be removed due to not meeting HOA standards.
This is just ridiculous.
Their reasoning was the technical term for the color white of the fence doesn’t match what they allow. Best example would be they allow “paper white” but it was labeled eggshell.
They stated they would fine my mother for everyday the fence stood. My mother attempted to explain that the specific brand only used that white.
Let’s see how this is handled.
To get the other white you had use a different, more expensive fence brand. My mother was peeved to say the least, she went as far to take pictures of all the fences hers included and demanded the HOA distinguish which was hers at a monthly meeting.
They couldn’t but still didn’t care; the paperwork didn’t match. Thankfully, the contractor was also her friend. She called him back and spoke with him about what the HOA said, and they hatched their plan.
What a waste of time and money. But at least she didn’t have to buy a whole new fence.
My mother and the contractor pull up the fence and the HOA watched as it’s taken away in a day.
The next day the SAME fence comes back and gets put in again, this time the paperwork says “paper white”.
This really shows just how petty some HOA’s can be.
It’s been years and my mother still has the same fence, the HOA never said anything farther.
Those fees where never paid but it’s fine my mom doesn’t use the pool anyway.
It is HOA’s like this that really give them all a bad name. Unfortunately, many of them have this exact type of attitude.
Read on to see what the people in the comments had to say about this story.
Pulling the fence up seems like too much work, though.
HOA’s really are the worst.
You know the HOA board was not following the rules, but that is common.
Here is a great idea.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a condo owner who replaced a whole a/c unit just to stop the complaints.
This would have been much easier.
This is a great example of why people hate their HOA’s. Even when the rules make sense, the way that they are enforced is just ridiculous.
In addition, you just know that the rules aren’t enforced the same for everyone in the neighborhood.