An HOA Banned Him from Parking His Project Car on the Street—So He Found an Ungoverned Street Nearby
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When you live in an HOA, you’ll be expected to follow all of the HOA rules. The tricky park if you rent a home in an HOA is that you may not know what these rules are until you’ve violated one of them.
In this story, one man is in this situation. He has an older car that he considers his project car. He parked it on the street assuming that was no big deal.
Boy was he wrong! That’s how he realized how awful the HOA can be.
Keep reading to find out what he does to annoy the HOA as much as they’re annoying him.
The HOA doesn’t like my project car, so I’ve decided to park it legally in front of the neighborhood’s grand entrance.
For context, my family and I recently moved into a rental house while our new house is being built. The rental is in the back of a gated community on a mostly undeveloped street.
Yesterday, I received a letter from the home owner’s association informing me that I’m not in compliance of the “strictly enforced by towing” restriction stating that vehicles may not be parked on the street overnight.
In the letter was a picture of my project car (old BMW) parked beside our house on the street.
He suddenly realized how awful the HOA really is.
I decided to look up the HOA’s restrictions (which I haven’t seen before since I’m a renter) and discovered I’m living in HOA hell.
The street parking rule is just the beginning of a long list of restrictions including one warranting a hefty fine for “leaving the garage door open when not in use”.
This came as a huge surprise since several of my neighbors have parked their cars on the street without problem since I’ve lived here, so I assumed it was okay.
He doesn’t think he’s being treated fairly.
I can only imagine that they’ve singled me out because my car is 30 years old, however, in my defense, it’s very presentable and by no means junky.
Being singled out made me incredibly frustrated to the point where I started doing legal research.
It turns out my HOA has every right to tow my project car since it’s parked on a private street in the neighborhood.
But there is good news.
The good news for me is that the street just outside of the neighborhood is public, and it’s 100% legal to park on it for any amount of time.
Unfortunately for the HOA, the closest section of public street to my rental house is right in front of their nice gated entrance.
Ironically, my old BMW has now become part of their image, and there’s nothing they can do about it until I move out in a few months.
I’m sure the HOA hates that, but there’s nothing they can do about it. Well played!
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person would buy another car.
Another person has a suggestion.
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I wouldn’t say this is completely unrealted.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a college student who decides to send his university a counter-bill after they try to get him to pay “inconvenience fees.”
This person rants about HOAs.
HOAs are definitely not for everyone. I know they’re not for me. I’m sure they’re great for some people though.
He handled that situation with the HOA really well. I bet they’re regretting sending him that letter!
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