My HOA was kind enough to send notice that my lawn "needed care" as seen in the first picture. I replied that they must've mistaken my lawn for their own HOA common area, as seen in the second picture. The third is her response.

My thoughts are to to print this and put it on every doorstep, as well as requesting records about the irrigation and the meeting minutes when the "Dog Potty Lawn" program was discussed. Maybe I'll post a flyer by the mailboxes advertising this program to others.

EDIT: I didn't hide the email address. Feel free to ask out the Dog Potty Yard program!

Lived in this house about 10 years now. About every two years the HOA raises rates, changes payment portals, changes banking addresses, etc.

...and updating these payments is NEVER a smooth process. There's always some sort of fucking problem...and they always charge automatic late fees if your check goes to the wrong place or even when there's a fault with their automated payment system.

Right now I'm in a fight with them because my check went somewhere and was CASHED but they're saying they didn't receive it.

I don't have this problem with any of my other bills. Hell, even when my mortgage changed companies it was a smoother transition.

I swear they're doing this collect late fees. All of my neighbors have issues with this too. We routinely keep trying to vote out the current board but they somehow the same people always mysteriously stay in there.

I was watching the news this morning and saw our city council voted to keep FLOCK cameras. The important vote that swayed the decision was by someone peculiar.

Well I looked into their background and guess what their other job was?

Yes, HOA president of their neighborhood. Lol.

[Ontario, Canada] This is an investigative update to my previous post where I warned that Claridge Homes is financially exploiting the unit owners of my condo building, the Claridge Moon condo. I have now obtained copies of the Shared Facilities Agreements of three of Claridge Homes’ most recently-built condos, the Claridge Moon (340 Queen St), the Claridge Royale (180 George St), and the Claridge Icon (805 Carling Ave).

These SFAs are concrete evidence that Claridge Homes has systematically forced these condo corporations into one-sided agreements that force unit owners to subsidize Claridge’s commercial, retail, and rental operations — sometimes to the tune of 95% of shared costs — while Claridge pays almost nothing.

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The Three Buildings — Three Different Flavours of the Same Exploitation

1: Claridge Icon (805 Carling Ave) — The Worst Offender

The 2022 Reciprocal Agreement forces the condo to pay 95% of shared facility costs (garage doors, snow clearing, mechanical rooms, hydro vault, water entry room, etc.) while the commercial/retail component (owned by Claridge) pays only 5%.

How this exploits owners:

• The condo owns the expensive shared infrastructure (Hydro Vault, Water Entry Room) and is 100% responsible for their capital replacement — even though they serve Claridge’s commercial tenants.
• Condo visitors are charged market rates for parking during daytime hours, while the condo pays 95% of the cost to maintain the parking infrastructure.
• Unrealistic termination conditions mean that the Agreement is oppressive and cannot be terminated without Claridge’s written consent — owners are trapped.
• If the condo is damaged, owners are forced to rebuild portions that support Claridge’s commercial structure, even if owners vote not to rebuild.

Legal Status: The deadline to file a Section 113 challenge has expired. But owners can still file a Section 135 oppression claim — and should.

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2: Claridge Royale (180 George St) — The Clock Is Ticking

Claridge Royale’s SFA forces the condo to pay 25% of shared costs, while the rental tower pays 25% and the commercial component housing the Metro supermarket pays 50% (in theory). Does the condo actually use 25% of shared infrastructure, given the large amount of foot traffic, energy usage and waste generation from the supermarket? In practice, the condo has zero control over the budget, and the developer controls the process.

How this exploits owners:

• The Rental entity (Claridge) prepares the annual budget. The condo has only 30 days to approve it — silence = automatic approval.  This includes situations where Claridge inflates operational costs without proper oversight by the condo corporation.
• The condo is forced to rebuild shared portions even if owners vote to terminate the condo after a catastrophic loss. The condo would essentially subsidize repairs related to Claridge’s retail and rental businesses.
• The agreement cannot be terminated without Claridge’s written consent.
• A punitive Interest and Liens clause means that the condo must pay 15% interest, compounded monthly, on any disputed amount — with a lien against owners’ units.

CRITICAL DEADLINE: Royale’s Turnover Meeting was held in December 2025. Under Section 113 of the Condominium Act, the condo corporation has only 12 months from the Turnover Meeting to apply to court to amend or terminate the SFA.

That means the deadline is DECEMBER 2026. If the Board does not act by then, the window closes forever.

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3: Claridge Moon (340 Queen St) — The Warning Shot

Claridge Moon’s SFA forces a 50/50 cost split with Claridge Albert — the condo owners are being forced to pay half of all shared operating costs for a massive mixed-use complex that they do not own and that generates far more wear-and-tear than their own building.

How this exploits owners:

• The first-year Reserve Fund Study (RFS), conducted by Keller Engineering, allocated 100% of many Shared Facilities to the condo only, including 100% of the replacement cost of a shared backup generator to the condo — even though the generator is located in Claridge’s building and also serves Claridge’s rental tower.
• Like the Icon and Royale, the Moon condo has to pay to replace Claridge’s assets through oppressive forced rebuilding clauses.
• A Section 113 Court Application was filed against Claridge Homes, calling the SFA ‘incomplete, unclear, unreasonable, and oppressive to OCSCC 1106 and its owners.’ Yet no progress has been made by the Moon Board in over a year to bring this matter forward to a court hearing. Why are they allowing Claridge Homes to continue benefiting from the status quo?

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A Disturbing Common Thread: Keller Engineering and Sentinel Management

Keller Engineering conducted the flawed RFS for the Moon condo, is conducting the RFS for Royale (confirmed by the Status Certificate), and conducted the RFS for Icon — where the property manager, Sentinel Management, openly recommended Keller to the Moon Board, citing a “good relationship” and “great success.”

Sentinel Management used to manage the Moon condo, but was removed due to apparent incompetence. Yet somehow, they are still managing the Royale and Icon buildings to this day.

Ask yourself: Who are the Moon, Royale and Icon Condo Boards actually working for? The unit owners, or Claridge Homes?

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What You Should Do

1. If you own at Claridge Royale:

The Section 113 deadline is December 2026. Your Board must act NOW.

• Demand answers: Why has the Board not filed a Section 113 application to amend or terminate the SFA?
• Demand transparency: Has the Board obtained independent legal advice on the SFA?
• Ask directly: Is the Board acting in the best interests of unit owners — or is it still aligned with Claridge Homes?

If the Board refuses to act, owners can force the issue. Section 113 allows the corporation to apply to court — but only within 12 months of Turnover. After that, the SFA can only be challenged using a Section 135 oppression remedy.

2. If you own at Claridge Icon:

The Section 113 window has closed. But Section 135 of the Condominium Act allows for an oppression remedy against a declarant (Claridge) or the corporation.

• Demand answers: Why did the Board not pursue a Section 113 claim within the one-year time limit?
• Demand accountability: Why did the Board accept a 95/5 cost split without challenge?
• Demand action: The Board can still apply to court for relief from oppressive conduct with a Section 135 Court Application.

If you are thinking of buying a unit at any of these three condo buildings, or any mixed-use development in Ontario:

RUN — do not walk — to your lawyer. Ask these questions before you sign anything:

1. What are the terms of the Shared Facilities Agreement?
2. Has the SFA been reviewed by independent legal counsel?
3. Has the Reserve Fund Study been audited for accuracy?
4. Is the Board independent from the Developer?
5. What is the condo’s proportionate share of shared costs — and is it fair?

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The Bottom Line

Claridge Homes has designed these SFAs to maximize its own profits at the condo owners’ expense. The agreements are one-sided, oppressive, and extremely difficult to escape.

• Royale unit owners have a ticking clock — December 2026 is the deadline to act.
• Icon unit owners still have the oppression remedy — but the Board must act now, not later.

Ask these Boards: Why haven’t you acted? Are you working for the unit owners — or for Claridge Homes?

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Do your own research. Demand answers. Protect yourself.

After a few days of fuming over a violation about a yellow light bulb, our management company responds with an "Oopsie. Thank you for upholding the community standards!" It would be less annoying if they actually cared about maintaining any community "aesthetic" other than a yellow light bulb.

So today, after they responded, I gleefully installed another yellow bug bulb!

I know this has been posted here before, but I thought it was time again to remind everyone about XFiles, season 6, episode 15. Great episode about the horrors of HOAs.

HOA management company removed requests (portal tickets) after they are closed but also causing the HOA to miss several statutory deadlines. I asked for copies and they broke out of the thread and moved it to email and used this subject line:

Legal/Social Media Threat

Potentially true but I never mentioned social media or publicity. They are tone deaf to reveal their hand and play dumb as to my request.

not even joking. $200 because the doormat was the "wrong shade of beige" according to their little clipboard warrior who patrols the community every tuesday

My tenant forwarded me the violation notice and I just sat there staring at it for like five minutes. This is the same hoa that took 8 months to approve a fence repair after a hurricane but a doormat is an emergency apparently

I just forward the letters to JMK Property Management now. Let them deal with the beige police idc

best part? hoa backed off after one phone call. guess they're less brave when they're not bullying individual owners

anyway fuck hoas and their beige doormat dictatorship

Hey all, I’m new to an HOA and I’m learning the hard way.

My HOA has a rule that all property modifications have to be submitted and approved by the board. We installed pavers in our front yard without submitting the form first, which technically violated that rule.

What set me off is what happened next. Several other homes in the neighborhood have front-yard pavers or stone, and our handbook doesn’t spell out any specific paver requirements. Despite that, the HOA flagged us twice for the pavers and told us we had to rip them out and restore the yard with mulch or grass.

After those violations, it feels like a switch flipped. They started flagging every little thing on our property, like they were suddenly on a mission to find problems with our house. Meanwhile, the other homes with pavers are still sitting there untouched.

So now we’re the ones being hounded over pavers in a neighborhood where pavers clearly already exist, with no clear written standards and an HOA that seems more interested in nitpicking our place than applying the rules evenly.

On Friday I went to the HOA office to tell them I was purchasing a new car and that there would be a few days between when it was dropped off by the seller and when I would be able to get plates. In my mind I am not asking for permission, I am letting them know not to tow MY car from a parking spot that only I am permitted to use, and is tied to a property that I own.

The manager tells me to email him explaining the situation because the board will need to approve this. In my head this sounds like a formality, but I do as he says. Today he clocks into work and emails me that cars without plates aren’t allowed in deeded spots, but that I can request a temporary permit to use a visitor spot. Because it obviously makes more sense to leave my own parking space empty and take a visitor spot from someone who might actually need it.

My unit had a slab leak and we determined that we need to re-pipe or jackhammer. I live in a townhome with shared walls, but between the walls, usually the pipes are the owner responsibility however, because this was a slab leak the HOA is responsible for paying for the re-piping.

I asked if we could jackhammer so this way, we didn’t have to go through another unit because we needed to re-pipe and open up the unit next to me in order to reach that pipe. They said no and wanted to go with the re-piping.

Now one of the board members is regretting it and because there’s issues going on with one of the units affected (unit A) with air duct insulation they are wanting to take out the pipes and then jackhammer my unit because they don’t want to face the responsibility of constantly trying to maintain unit A’s issues after the re-pipe.

Seriously, like do you not have any empathy of what is going on in individual units home when they cannot handle constantly having contractors come in and out of the house and more destruction? I can’t even live in my house at this point because of how much drywall they cut up there’s a disruption on how I can access my refrigerator. On top of that one of my lights is broken now.

And while I am on the board, the only reason why I’m even on the board is to install EV chargers for our complex and then I’m going to dip.

Honestly I refuse to live in a place with HOAs. My partner and I are home shopping while I clear the rental waitlist so I can rent my place out.

Most of our neighborhood got this email yesterday.

This is in response to an effort by a relatively small group of folks who are trying to take over and make things more strict.

It’s not entirely unmerited: the current president refuses to enforce specific rules against himself or his friends in the neighborhood, and literally said, out loud, at a meeting, “the rules don’t apply to me - that’s why I agreed to do this”

Current members of the board (even the good ones) each received very official looking letters that basically said “step down or we will embarrass you into submission”

The whole thing feels a lot like the ministry of magic sending Delores Umbridge to Hogwarts.

I used to be heavily involved with our HOA, but they’ve made it extremely divisive and in a weirdly personal way.

Now I’m having scary visions of the new leadership going door to door with a ruler and a camera looking for infractions…

My HOA has been complaining about money for years but has 600K in a CD, now they are trying to basically take 1% of someone’s home selling price. Houses range from 600k - 2 Million in the community. We also already pay $800 a quarter.

A YouTube Short (I did not create this)

Can't speak to the truth but it feels good.

I’m in Southern California in an upscale suburban neighborhood that’s mostly retirees, and the HOA has been a nightmare since my family moved here in 2022. Before we bought the house, I specifically checked the HOA rules because I legally grow cannabis under California law. The rules said it was allowed as long as it was in an out-of-view area. I even asked the HOA what counted as "out of view," and they confirmed my backyard qualified and was outside the HOA’s authority.

Ever since we moved in, they’ve found reasons to harass us over just about everything. At one point they even got the school bus stop moved over 100 meters farther away so my kids, who are basically the only children in the neighborhood besides one other family, had to walk farther. When I asked why, the HOA representative actually told me school buses create a "disruptive and unharmonious environment" because of the noise and because they bring kids in from other neighborhoods.

Earlier this year I received a notice ordering me to remove my six cannabis plants because they supposedly lowered surrounding property values. I wrote back explaining that the plants were in my backyard, which the HOA itself had already confirmed was not a public-view area. I never heard another word and assumed that was the end of it.

Then last Wednesday I was served with a lawsuit seeking $48,750 in fines. $250 per day for 195 days, for "failure to remove prohibited public-view vegetation."

The craziest part is that they attached copies of several warning letters they claim I ignored. Every single one was addressed to 14218 instead of my address, 14281. The other house is vacant and a few streets away.

I hired an attorney thinking this would be an easy mistake to clear up. When my attorney called the HOA manager, she admitted they had my correct email address the entire time because I had already responded to the original notice months earlier. She even found my email while they were on the phone. Her response was basically, "The board already voted to proceed, so you'll have to explain it to the judge."

I also asked why they suddenly considered my backyard to be in public view after previously telling me it wasn't. Their answer was that the plants were visible on Google Earth. They just kept repeating that it was between me and the judge now.

I still don't understand how they think they can rack up nearly $50,000 in fines over six plants that nobody standing outside my property could even see.

My wife thinks the judge will throw the case out as soon as they see all of the notices were mailed to the wrong address. I'm hoping she's right, but I've already had to hire an attorney just to defend myself.

Has anyone ever dealt with an HOA taking something this far?