Imagine being banned from wearing camouflage clothing in your front yard, or not being allowed to grow anything edible in your garden. It might sound like a little dictatorship but in reality, it’s the way some people are being forced to live thanks to a few wild Home Owners Association rules.
HOAs are meant to keep neighborhoods neat and tidy, properties valuable, lawns uniformly green and pools sparkly blue. But sometimes they feel more like a proverbial judgemental cloud hovering over your home, just waiting to rain on your parade.
We is filled with stories about people having run-ins with their power-hungry HOA boards of dictators, many of whom seem to have mistaken a cul-de-sac for a small, sovereign nation. And we aren’t done yet…
Someone recently asked netizens to share the most outrageous HOA rules they’ve ever encountered and some of the answers read like the laws of a country that could be in need of a coup de tat. We’ve put together a list of the best of the worst conditions people have had to endure in their own homes. We also break down what your HOA is not, by law, allowed to do. You’ll find that info between the images.
#1
They launched a no dogs in the elevator about two years ago not because people had issues with aggressive animals but apparently too many people weren’t cleaning up if their pets couldn’t make it out on time and never went back to clean up.
I’m physically disabled, live on the 5th floor, and have a legit service animal and have been here for 12 years. Each infraction was a $200 fine. I racked up close $45k in fines until my lawyers threats became reality in an ADA suit. They still were dumb enough to want to go to court, confident they would triumph because they tried to play the aggressive animal angle but it’s a legit service dog, not an emotional security dog, so you could set off an air horn behind her and she is trained not to react. The court didn’t just dismiss it but ordered them to not just pay my legal fees but $20k in compensation for the mental and emotional stress that came with that BS.
Home Owners Associations are tasked with keeping neighborhoods neat and tidy, making sure property values stay decent and enforcing rules and regulations.
But as we’ve seen far too often, they tend to take their jobs far too seriously and forget that they too must abide by federal and state laws. There are certain things an HOA is absolutely not allowed to do. One of them is to keep you out of court.
“Snippy associations might make you think they’re above the law—but if you’re truly in a bind, you can sue your HOA,” advises realtor.com, adding that there’s a good chance you’ll have the upper hand in court, especially if the board of dictators, err directors, acted in an underhanded manner.
HOAs are also not allowed to hush up litigation. They must disclose pending lawsuits to residents.
“How much they disclose will depend on the community’s covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) and state laws,” notes the site. “So make sure you look into both if you feel like something has been swept under the rug.”
#2
An HOA I lived in had a rule where residents could not wear camouflage clothing outdoors. It was considered “Redneck” to go out in public in such. This guy racked up fines because he wore camo daily. No matter how many times he appealed, with a good reason, the fines would stand, even though he refused to pay them.
The fines were dropped after his unit commander attended an HOA meeting and tore into the board about their idiocy in fining a man for wearing a military uniform.
#3
Our first home in an HOA had a rule that limited home owners to no more than fifteen monkeys.
Fifteen.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the years, wondering “why fifteen?” That seems like a lot of monkeys. Even five monkeys strikes me as somewhat excessive.
Every one of these regulations came into existence because a homeowner caused a problem. Which means that somewhere there’s a guy who was doing perfectly fine with fourteen monkeys- but then everything went bum over teakettle when he brought home that fifteenth monkey. Was it just a bad monkey? Did it escape and rampage through the neighborhood?
If you’ve ever lived under the reign of a HOA, you’ll probably know many of them they love a good fine. And while it’s not illegal for them to dish out their pink slips, the fines “must be set forth in the association’s rules and bylaws,” reveals real estate lawyer,Barbara Jordan.
The team at realtor.com advises anyone with an HOA to check the community’s CC&Rs before complying with fines. “If thatfineisn’t listed, you might not need to pay,” they add.
If the HOA still goes ahead and digs their heels in, you can appeal the fine. To do this, gather all the evidence you have and present it at the next board meeting. Or, check the appeals process in your HOA documents and follow their specificinstructions.
#4
Not an HOA I was in, but one I used to mow lawns in.
They were not allowed to have flags with more then 3 colors. I assume to keep folks from flying rainbow flags?
One of my houses had a pink triangle flag out of pure spite.
#5
I had an HOA president tell me that “We reserve the right to use force to enter your home if we need to. It’s in the covenants.”.
I chuckled, looked him straight in the eye, and said “And that will be met with overwhelming shock and awe. We will all be on the news.”.
#6
Not a rule but the the HOA below me (that I have to drive through to get to my house) a couple years back apparently got the red folks breaking their imposed 15mph speed limit.
Their solution was to install speed bumps on a rather steep section of the road which remains snow covered for most of the winter. That alone would have been bad but in choosing said bumps they instead opted for parking stops because the would be more “effective”.
This caused many going up to lose momentum slowing for the enormous bumps and spin into the ditch. Those coming down would try to break for them and slid into the ditch on the other side.
I left three messages for the HOA president in a week… none were returned.
Two days after the final call, a friend and I pried them up in the middle enough to get a tow strap under them and yanked them out of the road with his F250.
We left them stacked neatly in front of the HOA president’s driveway.
HOAs are not allowed to discriminate, though many of them do it anyway. All HOAs must comply with theFair Housing Act. They can’t stop you from buying a house or living somewhere based on your ethnicity or the color of your skin.
“It also can’t kick you out because members of the board hate your religion, because you have children, or because you wear a Yankees hat on a regular basis in deepBoston,” adds realtor.com. Some U.S. states have additional protection for homeowners, so it pays to check your local laws.
#7
No brown plants – here’s the kicker – enforced year round. I got a violation notice for having a deciduous tree with brown leaves in my front yard…in January…in the PNW.
#8
New HOA President told me my 12 foot Palm trees were a height violation of the HOA rules and had to go. They were jealous of all the money we spent on our trees and landscaping. There was no rule. I double checked. Told them to pound sand.
#9
The best FU we ever had was when a property management firm tried to form a HOA in my neighborhood back in 2008 or 2009. The meeting was a riot. One of my neighbors directly asked them “why do we want to pay you to tell us what we can and can’t do on our own property? What is it exactly you’re going to DO for us that warrants that?” The representative said “we want to maintain your property values and assure this stays a beautiful neighborhood for generations to come”. Our neighborhood is about 40 years old, never had an HOA, and the way it’s built, has no room for addition of amenities. Our roads and garbage are all municipal maintained. It was a joke an a half, and was immediately struck down when put to a vote.
Some HOAs might want to stop you from putting a “for-sale” sign in front of your property. But apparently, they’re not allowed to – in most states, anyway.
“The Federal Fair Housing Act considers this an infringement on the homeowner’s right to sell their property and prevents any restrictions to this,” notes property site orchard.com.
But they may be allowed to have guidelines regarding the size, location or design of the ‘for sale’ signs.
#10
Friends of mine are not allowed to grow anything edible in their garden. Ornamental plants only.
Growing food is for *poors*, apparently.
#11
HOA said our planned 6ft pool waterfall slide was not a play structure and could not be higher than 3 feet. Argued all the way to lawyers who agreed with us that a slide is something kids play on. Built it 8 ft high.
#12
This rule only lasted like six months twenty-something years ago, but there was a time in the neighborhood that I was living in the the HOA banned children from gathering in groups of four or more, unless at one of the designated park areas and with a party permit.
Didn’t matter it was four friends taking a bike ride or five siblings laying about the grass out front, instant fine. My friend’s mom ended up fined when I walked past her house with my dog, and she was outside with her three kids, and I waved.
Apparently it was to prevent gang violence (in an upper white middle class area where at the time the worst thing that happened was a Super Bowl fight over in like five minutes), but the parents finally had a cow about it and blew up. The rule got easily removed because only like two people on the HOA board actually showed up to the hastily announced meeting (the rest were retirees who lived up north for the warmer months, called snowbirds).
We kids were still discouraged from grouping up outside those particular homes owned by said snowbirds, but nothing else ever came of it.
According to Orchard, HOAs also can’t restrict the number of visitors you have. Some tend to do so to limit visitors from parking on community roads or sidewalks.
But the property site reveals that HOAs can only dictate how many people visit you if there is a valid reason related to safety or any other critical community standard. Not just because they feel like it.
And on the topic of visitors, HOA board members cannot enter your home without cause or notice. Check your CC&Rs and state rules to get a better understanding of when they’re allowed to enter (with advance notice). Often, it’s in the case of an emergency, to carry out inspections for rule violations, or for maintenance and/or repairs.
#13
My FILs HOA says they must not sell their house to “people of color.”
Completely unenforceable, but still in the covenants.
#14
No pets over 10 pounds. I’m pretty sure every pet in the complex is over the weight limit, but luckily no narcs.
#15
Was looking at a condo that had a very small backyard with a deck. HOA specified owners couldn’t plant anything in the back yard, only grass there.
Also, potted plants on the back deck could only be certain flowers of certain colors.
Curtains on front windows could only be certain colors or only have a white liner.
And no planting trees, shrubs, or flowers on the front tiny yard. Grass only.
Didn’t buy the condo.
#16
We had an awful management company a few years back that got kickbacks for violation letters sent out. Like $0.75 cash for them per violation. They had a car go around literally every week and just pick random stuff for violation letters.
Some examples:
– Leaving garage door open during the day (the person was literally leaving their house in the picture)
– Garden hoses visible from street (the person was actively washing their car)
– Poorly kept lawn (the person was actively mowing their lawn after 2 solid weeks of rain)
We also had them crack down on dirty siding panels – *certainly* had nothing to do with the fact that one of the board members had just started a pressure washing company, and he gleefully posted on the Facebook page offering group discounts if entire streets would schedule for the same day.
#17
I managed a community that had a “No Parking in the Driveways” rule, but the thing is the community was built in a semi-rural area where everyone drove giant pick-ups and SUVs while the builder built the garages way too small to accommodate these large vehicles. Additionally these were 4 BR townhomes so there was bound to be more than 2 vehicles per HH. Made for a tense annual meeting…
#18
Not my HOA but the neighborhood next to mine put in a breed restrictions on dogs 20 years after already being established. The majority of it is still owned by the developer who’s a scum bag and he was the one wanted it in place, probably because what he owns is his rental properties and he didn’t want the liability. They prohibited Great Danes, German shepherd’s, huskies and St Bernards, Rottweilers, Mastiffs, Doberman Pinschers, Alaskan Malamutes and Chows. Only the President and VP knew about it and the rest of the board ended up quitting immediately because it was just those two board members and the developer who created those rules. It made the news.
#19
Curtains and blinds have to be white when closed. No color but white. But you can put up different color leds lights and make different colors project onto it. Perfectly fine.
#20
Clothes lines have always been outlawed by HOAs as far as I know and that has always seemed ridiculous to me. It’s way more eco friendly and some actually prefer the smell and crispness of naturally air-dried clothes. The complete opposite of the rest of the world. I grew up with clotheslines and it is actually quite nostalgic to me now.
#21
Tried to make me change the color of my drapes (dark brown) that were in my house and in the back to my patio. You can only see the drapes when standing on my patio.
#22
Mine used to not allow any signs in the yard other than for sale signs. Then our state passed a law that HOAs have to allow signs for political candidates within 30 days of an election.
My neighbor put up a sign saying “Save Our Libraries!” The HOA dinged her because it didn’t have a candidate’s name on it. So she went out with a Sharpie and wrote, “Vote Jane Smith and John Jones for Library board!”.
#23
The neighbor next to me had to sign off that they approved the color of my new floors… inside the condo. (Both neighbors).
#24
No car older than 2005 was allowed to be parked visible in your driveway or in front of your house including guests cars.
#25
The thing I don’t get is the rules that don’t seem to have any real rhyme or reason to them other than someone’s twisted sense of aesthetics.
My condo prohibited welcome mats outside the doors, but they were able to articulate that because the hallway was open-air, water was getting under them and damaging the paint. They were also potential trip hazards and, because most of the units are short-term rentals, the luggage carts were catching on them.
So it sounded absurd on its surface but at least there was an explanation. Two, actually.
#26
No vehicles with commercial signs on them. Like, if you had a normal pickup and on the door has “Bob’s Lawncare ” or something on it. Because having a job is low-class or something.
Not allowing vehicles of any kind to be parked in the driveway for more than 24 hours. Sneaky way to allow the HOA to control whether you renovate your garage, IMO. And of course, typical of HOAs … classist as hell.
#27
They tried to enact a change to no more than 3 houses being used as long term rentals at any one time. In a neighborhood of 130+ homes. The reasoning was, verbatim, “people that rent are typically lower income, lower education, and don’t care about the look of our neighborhood. So they will drag down property values.”
#28
I lived in an HOA that required your garage be free of clutter. The interior of your garage. Presumably this was to keep you from parking in guest spots.
This was even enforced on a neighbor who was running a small, quiet import/export business. He had to move everything to a storage unit.
#29
My dad had an old car which he used regularly cause it ran it was also an ugly color that stood out. It didn’t fit in the garage they tried to hit us with abandoned vehicle in the driveway. We responded that the car was usable and it just didn’t fit in the garage. They still threatened fines and tows. Well the day someone physically showed up my dad was out in his car. They thanked us for getting rid of the eyesore and my dad pulled into the driveway. They left us alone cause yes it was the ugliest el Camino I had ever seen but it ran.
#30
I was in one that had zero lot homes with just small patios at the rear of the house facing the alleyway, where the garages were at (owner’s garages faced each other). You could put up an ugly umbrella that didn’t match the house color or aesthetic of the neighborhood, but in order to have a non-permanent BBQ canopy I had to provide a request to “Alter the house structure”, and said canopy had to match the house colors, or compliment them. (Note, it wasn’t attached to the house, nor was it a structural change as it dismantles in less than 20 mins. And it looked 1000% better than some of the ugly, faded, torn, and broken umbrellas on patios).
#31
No parking in driveway OVERNIGHT. Can park all day but NOT overnight bc overnight parking makes the community look bad and lowers property values, you see.
#32
Turned down a house because one of the HOA rules was that only vehicles were allowed in the garage, nothing else and there was a 100 dollar fine every instance they noted something but a car being in it.
#33
My HOA tried to say that we needed to submit a request for any overnight guests. On top of that, the request needed to include the reason for the visit, and they could only stay for 3 nights.
I live in a neighborhood of single-family homes with 2 and 3 car garages and good-sized driveways. A group of Karens didn’t like that some houses are closer to the common area parking and often use it for their guests to prevent street parking.
#34
Maximum number of wind chimes and plant pots on the balcony of a ‘condo’ (glorified apartment complex) yes we did receive a notice for both lol.
#35
Our HOA seems to not understand real estate. A home owner argued that since their own home doesn’t receive sufficient sun for solar panels nobody else should be allowed to install them.
#36
Only HOA approved real estate sale sign posts are allowed in our neighborhood. They are wooden, certain size, certain cross bar length, certain color. I don’t know where they come from. Never needed one. But I’ll bet they are more expensive than they look/should be.
#37
No edible plants can be planted in front yard. No kids outside neighborhood allowed to trick or treat here. Halloween will be celebrated on an alternate day indicated by a flier distributed on each door that states ‘Neighborhood Kids Only!’.
#38
Not me personally but some folks in my family bought a new build a few years ago. I was helping them move in and they had a copy of their rules in the kitchen, which I flipped through at one point and had me a good laugh at one of the first rules cited out of the entire pamphlet.
They aren’t allowed to have lawn gnomes or pink flamingoes of any kind in the front of their house. No variations, holiday versions, different colors, etc. None. Cannot be placed anywhere in the yard or visible from the street be it in windows, on the porch, on top of the wall, anywhere. An entire paragraph doing some monkeypaw levels of sealing their deal up tight; NO gnomes, NO flamingoes.
I bought them a lawn gnome as a joke and poor boy lives in the back yard hidden somewhere behind the bushes in their garden.
#39
One time I left my garbage and recycling can out overnight (woke up the next day ~6am and pulled them in the garage)…… I received a nasty email about how I was breaking the rules (mind you I drove around the neighborhood, and there were still many trash cans and recycle cans out… so I guess I wasn’t the only one receiving that email. Still annoying.
#40
For sale signs are only allowed in the windows. Not on the lawn. American flags only allowed out front. Others can be flown out back on decks. Garden flags currently have no restrictions. So there are rainbows in the gardens.
#41
See a guy in my driveway putting in a lite bulb in my entry fixture. He identifies himself as a volunteer board member assigned to light bulb patrol looking to replace all the burned out 40w bulbs and replace 100w bulbs, even though he left the last part out, that was his real intention, that my bulb was burned out and he was giving me a free new bulb, I insisted he give me the old bulb he claimed was burned out. Went inside and discovered it was fine and immediately removed the 100w bulb he installed and replaced with my low wattage bulb that my plants 🪴 in that location grow better without a glaring unnecessary high wattage entry light . This incident triggered me to obtain an ultra even lower wattage amber 25w bulb that is all that’s needed and my plants 🌱 are loving not getting all that unnecessary light in the middle of he night.
#42
My townhouse complex has a rule that dogs are not allowed to pee on the grass. Well where the hell are they supposed to go?
#43
We’re not allowed to have fences in our front yard because that’s considered a fortification. When they told me that, my response was “I wonder what that would make a moat?” 🤔 They were not amused.
#44
Before changing management companies our CC&Rs had a line saying that any play houses had to be made of the same siding and roofing material as the home. They also had another line that you couldn’t have inflatable hot tubs and you couldn’t hide them in your garage 🤣.
#45
I lived in a coastal area which can get really windy at times. There was about a half acre of trees on one side of the property because we are in the middle of a large forest. But I didn’t own that area, it was designated as development open space. Yet I got fined for trash being in that area that had been blown around by the wind. Not my trash. Not from my property. Mostly stuff from other neighbors who did not properly secure their trash on windy days.
#46
No dark window screens, only silver. Mine are black 😅.
#47
No flags except the American flag like no garden flags ,sports etc.
#48
Mine says you have to have nothing but lawn from driveway to property line up to house. No one has obeyed that since the neighborhood was built 25 years ago and most every has some sort of front garden or landscaping. My restrictions also say we are all supposed to have two car garages but when they started building the second half of the neighborhood, they built smaller houses on smaller lots so technically a lot of us our out of compliance because our homes were not built by the builders per the restrictions.
#49
We’re not allowed to have a grill on our deck in the back off the kitchen, must grill on the driveway out front and store in garage or under the deck in back.
#50
I live in a community where all of the individual mailbox flags have to match. You know, the one that tell the mail person you have mail to be picked up?
That was first indication we had made a mistake purchasing this home!
The next one was a notice in the newsletter that we could order our name badges through the manager’s office. I was certain l hadn’t seen anything in the CCR’s about that. Fortunately, those are optional.
Next l figure it will be uniforms. 😠.
#51
Holiday decorating rules.
#52
Lamp posts must all match and the light at the top must have 3 small bulbs and not 1 bulb. If you have 1 bulb, it must be replaced in 10 days. They sent out almost 700 violation letters (out of 1,100 homes).
#53
My HOA has rules that flags cannot be bigger than 3 feet by 5 feet, and you can’t change your car oil on HOA property. Worst mistake I have ever made.
#54
Everyone is supposed to have cast iron mail box post with black mailbox with gold straps. That is unless you’re very special.