I grew up in a house with wall to wall carpet. The first apartment I rented had wall to wall carpet as well.

But I prefer hardwood floors. The last apartment I rented and every home I’ve lived in since has had hardwood floors. They’re so much easier to clean than carpet.

Imagine living in a condo that has hardwood floors, but you decide to replace the flooring due to water damage. What would you do if the HOA later claimed you needed to install carpet?

In this story, one family is in this situation, and they feel like it’s discrimination since they know some of their neighbors have carpet. However, they’re not sure how to get the HOA to back off.

Let’s read all about it.

Selective enforcement from HOA – should I sue them?

My HOA condo has been discriminating against us for years.

My partner used to be on the board but eventually quit because of the time commitment and having to deal with so many neighbor disputes and constant issues.

When we bought our unit, our condo HOA rules did not state that we had to have carpets. It isn’t written anywhere.

The unit had floors. We changed out the floors to new ones as they were not leveled and had water damage.

This doesn’t seem fair.

Then the HOA told us we had to change them to carpet.

It’s been a few years and now they’re saying we have 90 days to change them to carpet.

Most of the units in our condo building have floors – can they enforce a carpet rule on us and not others?

The HOA is being pretty ridiculous.

Our HOA keeps asking us to show copies of our permit for changing the floors because our neighbor complained that we have unpermitted work in our unit.

We checked with the management company, and the building department, whom all say that this kind of flooring change is superficial like new cabinets and is exempt from permitting. They will not issue a permit.

The HOA still keeps claiming we have not shown them a copy of our permit.

What do we show them?

They are the youngest family in the buidling.

There has been a pattern of discrimination against us as we are a young family and one of the only owners with children in the building.

Our neighbors are mostly baby boomers or Gen X, and they are single/don’t have kids/empty nesters.

We are the newest owners in the building (Millenials) and we feel since they all have decades of living together and friendships already formed, the board members keep siding with each other.

She’s not sure what to do.

Can we sue them? Is it worth the effort? What would we get out of it?

My only objective is for them to stop bullying us and leave us alone. The board has no money to go to court. Our HOA is underfunded.

Has anyone successfully sued their HOA for harassment and selective enforcement? Is the threat of suing enough for them to stop?

How can I continue to go about living here with their constant harassment about installing carpets (not a rule that applies to others, even on top floor units) and asking for us to obtain a permit that the building department will not issue? It all seems ridiculous and the rules are made up.

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If it’s not written in the bylaws that they have to install carpet, they don’t have to install carpet. But, how can she get the HOA to back off?

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

This person offers some advice.

A lawyer might be helpful.

Another person shares two steps to take.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a renter who receives a text saying his landlord has passed and asking for checks to go to a different account, but he’s not sure it’s real.

This person would want to see the rule in writing.

It’s not enough for the HOA to simply say they need to replace the flooring with carpet. Where does it say that in the bylaws? They can’t just make up rules as they go. If they do, they can’t actually enforce that rules.