Imagine living in an HOA and knowing that your next door neighbor is breaking one of the HOA rules. Would you ignore it, talk to the neighbor about it, or report the neighbor to the HOA?

In this story, one homeowner is in this situation and does all of these things. Keep reading to see why he ended up deciding that he had no choice but to go to the HOA.

AITA for reporting my neighbor’s deer feeding to our HOA?

Fairly straightforward question. My neighbor is acting like I’m the straight up devil and I really don’t see how, but this is our first house so my fiancee and I aren’t particularly up to date on what’s considered the norm in dealing with neighbors and HOAs.

We live on a couple of acres in a gated community that is about as far out as you can go while still being “in town”, and in this neighborhood have both a fairly strict HOA and a pretty large number of deer.

There are pretty clear HOA guidelines about not feeding deer…

The deer feeder could potentially cause big problems.

Despite this, my neighbor has had a deer feeder set up in their back yard for a decent while fairy close to my yard, and it has made it where our yards are the deer hot spot of the entire neighborhood…

I by no means dislike deer. When we were looking at houses the fact that there were some deer roaming around seemed neat.

But at this point the neighbors bringing a constant swarm of deer around has virtually destroyed a decent bit of the landscaping in my back yard.

I’m worried that my dog is going to manage to get hurt trying to mess with one, plus there have been some bear sighting nearby recently and a lot of the information I’ve seen says they can be drawn to all kinds of feeders, and the deer hot spot in my back yard is bad enough without it also becoming a bear hot spot…

He tried talking to the neighbor about the problem.

I discussed it with my neighbor multiple times, and each time they were either extremely dismissive or went into a sob story about how their little kids just love deer so much, and being stuck at home from covid has been hard on them and the deer are one of the few things that help them get through it.

The last time we spoke I told them that I didn’t want to be unsympathetic but the deer had done thousands of dollars in damage to my back yard and were getting dangerously used to my dog, so if they didn’t do something I’d have to call the HOA, and made it very clear that i wasn’t just saying that.

So when they didn’t stop I called the HOA, and the HOA evidently got super mad at them…

Her reaction is making him second guess his decision to go to the HOA.

Since then she has left my like 3 voice-mails telling me I’m a monster, and going on about what kind of heartless jerk would take away a child’s one bit of joy during a pandemic.

She also keeps going on about how calling the HOA is a low blow because neighbors are supposed to stick together against the HOA.

When I was always under the impression that the HOA is a neighborhood sticking together, and it kind of defeats the point of paying almost $200 a month to it if you are going to do your best to pretend it doesn’t exist…

Anyway, rambling rant over. Think that pretty much sums up the situation… So what is the verdict on this one? Was I fairly reasonable, or is she right that I’m being a jerk on this one?

Considering he tried talking to her about it first, and considering she was clearly breaking the HOA rules, I think he was completely in the right to go to the HOA. That IS what they’re there for.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person understands OP’s perspective.

Another person points out the cost of the damage the deer were causing.

Here’s a suggestion to report the neighbor to more than just the HOA.

Everyone thinks OP did the right thing.

Maybe the neighbor should get her child a pet.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.