A Man Reported His Neighbors to the HOA Over a Massive Bouncy Castle Waterslide—Igniting a Backyard Neighborhood War
Shutterstock
Many people dislike HOAs. Many people who live in HOAs dislike HOAs even more.
But here’s the question. Is it ever right to report your neighbor to the HOA?
In this story, one man reported his neighbor to the HOA, and everyone is telling him that was a bad thing to do.
Keep reading to find out what drove him to make this decision and to decide if he really should’ve handled it differently.
AITA for calling the HOA on the neighbors for installing a 25 foot tall bouncy castle/water slide in their back yard?
I never thought I would be in this position but I am the one who sought out the 75 year old members of the HOA board for assistance.
Having said that, I feel like I was very patient and accommodating but just got pushed too far.
But still anytime you “call the HOA” you might be the jerk.
Here’s how the problem started.
My neighbors started out in February/March with a bouncy castle in their yard. I could not see it but I could certianly hear it when the kids would start bouncing at 4:30/5 am.
It honestly seemed that the kids would wake up really early and the parents would send them outside so they could sleep.
But it was incredibly loud.
I had a polite conversation with the parents and they assured me the bouncy castle was temporary.
It got worse.
I put up with it for probably 3 weeks, nearly every day until I explained that I work nights and I was being woken up right as I was getting to sleep.
To their credit they stopped jumping early in the morning and everything was fine until 3 weeks ago when a huge bouncy castle suddenly appeared in their back yard. It was at least 25 feet tall..it completely blocked my view of the mountains.
I could see the kids were able to look right into my bedroom window from the top.
Unfortunately this coincided with a shift change for me and now the kids were up until 11-12, even 1am on some nights and now I had to wake up at 4:30.
Eventually, OP contacted the HOA.
I didn’t even realize it was also a waterslide until i realized that probably hundreds of gallons of water had run under our shared fence and actually pushed all my dog’s waste up against by back door.
I went over and talked to them and the dad essentially said “we were polite enough to change our schedule for you the first time and this is our backyard–forget you”
I decided something had to be done because potentially my house could be damaged, let alone the sleep issue.
So I called the HOA and however the machine works, my neighbor had been called in front of a board meeting, fined about $1000 dollars for covenant violations as well as been ordered to pay for damages to our joint fence.
Nobody is on his side.
I thought everything was good except for some dirty looks from the neighbor but literally EVERY one of my family and friends are saying I’m the jerk for going to the HOA.
While opinions vary, the general gist is I’m now the crabby neighbor ruining kids fun. That I should have got some noise cancelling headphones and ignored it and they would have popped the slide at some point anyways and it would have taken care of itself.
The idea I guess is that I tattled and got my way by unleashing a bunch of busy bodies with too much time and too much undeserved power.
AITA?
I can see why he was upset about the bouncy castle, and it does sound like it was a violation of the HOA rules. However, was it wrong to rat out the neighbors to the HOA?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person is on OP’s side.
Another person thinks going to the HOA was the right thing to do.
A former HOA resident weighs in.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who finds his parking spot at a hocket game in jeopardy from a rude driver.
This is a good point.
This is why people live in HOAs, to prevent neighbors from doing crazy things like this. It’s not like he reported the neighbors for their grass being a quarter inch too tall.
This was an on-going issue that got worse over time. He also tried talking to the neighbors about it, and they weren’t receptive to his perspective. Going to the HOA was the logical next step.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
