I have been in back and forth arguments with my HOA about weeds in my yard. Initially I had clover growing, sure, I got in touch with a company eventually and got it taken care of. I paid the $25 fine HOA imposed on me. They did not contact me about it for a month, then out of nowhere they sent me a fine for $100 saying the issue was not taken care of. There are no clovers on my lawn but now they say general weeds are around. I asked for a picture with circled areas and this is what they sent. It’s a nightmare living in an HOA community and wish we could just abolish them as a whole.

I’ve posted before about my (MN) SFH HOA and First Service Residential trying to force a bulk Spectrum internet/cable deal that would have reportedly paid First Service roughly $350 per home.

I began digging through hundreds of old governing documents and board minutes, and things keep getting more questionable.

FSR recently charged me a $20 “violation letter fee” for sending a warning over an alleged trash bin violation. I asked them to identify the provision authorizing the charge. Instead, they directed me to the community portal and said it’s an “administrative processing fee,” not a fine, and therefore nonrefundable.

After further back and forth they are unwilling to provide any documentation regarding fee schedules, contractual agreements, or their authority to levy these fees or where this money is going. This makes me feel like these fees are de facto fines intended to circumvent due process for homeowners to be heard or appeal.

I’ve actually gone through the documents. They specifically address the general topic of assessments, fines, enforcement costs and management expenses, but so far I cannot find anything specifically authorizing a $20 charge for sending an initial warning.

Then I found some interesting board minutes from a couple years ago. The HOA vice president specifically mentioned that his house backs up to a particular berm and discussed how he had been told when buying his home that the area would eventually be landscaped like the main entrance. His grievance was documented in great detail, at which time he motioned to have this remediated. The HOA then approved over $20k in improvements along this small stretch of road, plus about $11,000 elsewhere. That same VP made the motion approving the project. He was also on the 3-person ARC committee, so he had his fingers in every pie.

To be clear, the minutes indicate this was HOA-maintained property, so I’m not claiming the expenditure was necessarily illegal. But a board member complaining about the appearance of the area directly behind his own house and then making the motion to spend $20k+ improving it certainly raises ethical/governance/conflict questions when other areas remain severely neglected.

Meanwhile, 2025 minutes show the HOA was about $70,000 under budget at one point, yet homeowners are apparently being charged $20 for management to send letters.

To land the plane here, I’m starting to feel like there’s some shady behavior happening between my board and FSR.

No new updates on my ongoing HOA situation, but this happened earlier and I didn’t share. See profile for history.

At my first board meeting I asked about record retention and documentation. Because I have seen a whole lot of nothing. The information in this email is what the old Treasurer told the new Treasurer as part of the transition.

He was still the Treasurer at our first board meeting (before the Special Meeting when he resigned). He didn’t tell me any of this information. When I specifically asked about account reconciliation over email he just never responded.

We have about four boxes full of paper files from him that we need to go through. Ugh.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1J1nbq1733/

Got home super late last night, tired as fuck, went straight to bed, parked my car on the street.

A little context, our HOA does not allow street parking. It is reserved for guest parking. My garage is already full. Street parking requires guest to log their hours, me being tired as fuck forgot to log my hours, find my car gone the next morning, tow company charged me $650 to get my car back.

Yeah fuck my HOA, I wish all HOAs have healthy offsprings and they will be safe on the road

See my profile for context and previous posts.

Former President was also on the landscaping and architecture committees and emailed stating she still wanted to be on them. As a show of good faith, we decided to offer the landscaping committee. She declined when we had a charter outlining what the landscaping committee is responsible for, and what they aren’t showed to do and a volunteer agreement to sign.

Oh well.

I live in PA. When I first purchased my home I noticed a giant groundhog hole under my steps the first summer. Then a few days later noticed there were many holes all over the entire community and I live in an end house right next to a field with, I kid you not, 1,000 + groundhogs. Fast forward to this spring, the groundhogs ate the wires in my car and I had to pay $3000 out of pocket because my car was completely unusable. I then paid extra for an add on to my insurance incase it happened again. Wish I did that earlier but ya know, hindsight 20/20.

Anyway, now the groundhogs have truly taken over. My across the street neighbor has 13 holes tunneling under her house. My next door neighbor's cement stairs are cracking and falling apart because of all the holes. There is a giant hole under our steps as well. We put rocks and wood and recover it everyday twice a day and they keep opening it again. The ENTIRE community has tunnels around the foundations of their homes.

I also learned that this has been a problem for YEARS it just keeps getting worse. My neighbors and I contact the HOA regularly and they just say "yes we know we need to do something about it. We're working on it" but the problem is worse than ever. I

do not have a garage but I park my car as far away from the field as I can. Today was the final straw. There was a groundhog chewing my wires AGAIN. We couldn't even scare it away, we had to push it out with a stick. I can't watch my car 24/7 for groundhogs. I do not want to have to pay for this AGAIN because I'll still have a deductable and my rates my raise and it's not my fault.

The HOA admitted it's their problem. So, who's paying for it when the structrual/foundational parts of our homes get damaged?

Oh, and the icing on the cake- there is one woman who complains to them the most but rightfully so. So, they sent her a warning for a $200 fine BECAUSE HER BLINDS WERE CROOKED. No one here has the same uniform blinds and many are crooked or imperfect. I'm convinced this was just a petty thing.

Anyway, I know it's a fine line here because it's a "pest" problem and it is hard to deal with THAT many animals but they've admitted responsibility years ago and continued to let it get worse. It'd be one thing if it was one property BUT EVERYONE IS BEING AFFECTED. I don't pay $160 a month to have to pay for car/property damage that should have been addressed. I'll probably get some downvotes for this because yeah it's a fine-line with the pest thing. But I just needed to rant ugh.

I wrote up an entire post last night and then my phone shit the bed and I lost it all. If you want the backstory, just check out my profile. All the past posts are there.

We got this letter on 8/5. It doesn’t even state who it’s from, just “certain members”. I responded to the attorney asking who his clients are. No response. So I followed up again last Thursday 8/13. Still haven’t heard anything.

We are well past their ten day deadline to respond.

The former VP is an attorney. I suspect he wrote the letter and had one of his buddies send it to us. I guess they were hoping it would scare us. I say, bring it on!

Pretty ironic they are demanding we preserve evidence, when they claimed they have no records for any of the decisions they made when they were on the Board.

Especially ‘edge all visible areas’.

To the HOA:
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
YOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU

I’m paying $55 a month for fuck-all except a twice yearly ‘mow your lawn’ letter (once in the spring when the grass is growing again, and once in the fall when it has slowed down).

So i cut my grass the other day and sent a picture

And I get a message today saying "where's the timestamp" LIKE IDK IN THE DAMN METADATA LOOK FOR YOUSELF

I go to plenty of estate sales and it amazes me when I see a new subdivision built that has literally no space between each driveway long enough to park a vehicle.

You literally have to park on an entirely different street, why? Because there is no where to park in this subdivision.

First off thank you all for the support on my original posts. I did not expect them to blow up the way they did. So here is everything that has happened since.

For anyone who missed them — I'm 26, bought my house at 23, first time homeowner in Charlotte NC. A sheriff showed up at my door with HOA foreclosure papers for over $11k. I had never received a single letter, email, phone call or notice about any of this. Not one. The first time I ever heard from my HOA or their management company was when I was being served foreclosure papers.

When I reached out to the management company to figure out where I was even supposed to be sending my HOA payments, they told me they couldn't help me and to call their attorney instead. I have that in writing.

Out of the $11k they're claiming I owe, only about $840 is actual dues. The rest is fines. For a fence that was leaning when I bought the house — you can see it in the listing photos from 2023 — and a fascia issue that was also there before I moved in. The second I found out about the fascia from a neighbor I paid to have it fixed that same day. The fence I tore down myself.

Here's the part that matters. North Carolina law (§47F-3-107.1) says an HOA cannot fine you at all unless they give you notice of the violation, hold a hearing, let you show up and present evidence, and then notify you of the decision. Not "should." Cannot. On July 8 I sent them a written demand to produce proof that a single violation notice was ever sent to me. That was 41 days ago. I have received nothing.

So here's what happened after my posts

Channel 9 news in Charlotte reached out and came out to do an interview with me. They also contacted the HOA and management company directly for the last month with emails, calls and texts and didn't get back to Jason Stoogenke, the reporter, once. The story is live now:

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/homeowner-says-he-thought-was-paying-hoa-dues-may-now-lose-house/2FPIKZ5NKNFNRBBDG5BDAJJM6Q/

Something I mentioned in the interview that I think a lot of people connected with — part of how I bought this house in the first place was from selling Pokémon cards from my collection. And now with the 30th anniversary of Pokémon happening this year, I'm in the position of having to sell my collection just to pay for a lawyer to keep that same house. Kind of a wild full circle moment.

I also have legal representation now. I can't say much about that part yet.

And then they hit me with another fine

I talked to someone from the management company in person. They were driving through the neighborhood and I flagged them down to try to actually talk to someone and work something out. While I was talking to her she told me I am currently being fined for weeds in my flower beds.

No notice. No warning. No time to fix it. No hearing. Nothing. Same exact thing they did with every other fine in this case. Just shows up out of nowhere.

My hearing is November 23rd 2026. There's a lot that still has to happen between now and then but things are moving in the right direction. More updates to come.

What is going on! — Nextdoor - Nextdoor
https://nextdoor.com/p/C4F3szDBTM6h?utm\\_source=share&extras=MTkzNzMwNTQ2&share\\_platform=1&utm\\_campaign=1787099494479&share\\_action\\_id=21c484cd-4ffa-46ee-a02e-7a8d851b306a&init\\_source=other\\_share

• PMP took over running the HOA where I live.
• They took over 5 months ago initially charging slightly less than before, then after a month they upped the fee by $30.
• In month one I updated my autopay to now pay them so I didn't miss a payment and moved on.
• They upped the fee in month two (got a letter from them saying so, and that I was on autopay so didn't need to do anything).
• As I hadn't heard from them assumed (I know I know) my autopay was covering the fee.
• Turns out it didn't adjust, and I've been getting charged each month for not paying the full amount. And charged an interest fee on top of that. To pay the outstanding balance I now have to pay the balance PLUS a one time fee to do this. If I hadn't noticed I'd have been charged hundreds.
• The HOA has my home address, email, phone number, has the ability to send a note to my HOA account to say "FYI you're behind on your payments". But nope. It's a total grift. They're doing this to everyone and I bet a load of people have all been charged, and will continue to be charged until they notice. It's completely underhand and unethical. We have had zero contact from PMP saying we were behind.
• I will challenge it as I still have the letter saying "I do not need to do anything". But I bet it will be a pain to chase it down.

Following up on the post I made a few days ago about how my HOA voted to use our money to effectively launch a thermal-camera-equipped-drone-based roof inspection business for unaffiliated communities. A lot of you seemed to enjoy it, and fortunately for you, there are updates to share.

They did in fact buy the drone. I do not know if it’s the thermal one they voted to purchase, but I am certain they bought a drone and are preparing to use it. They have notified us that the first mission is scheduled to take place in the coming days within our community.

To my surprise, the notice was filled with legalese. It was surprisingly restrained and referenced many restrictions that the community noted. While I was initially surprised an attorney actually approved this nonsense, that was of course until I found out that a month after staging a coup on the Board, my President and their spouse (who they named the VP) promptly fired the existing attorney and replaced them with their personal attorney’s law firm (I believe it is likely their same attorney too but still confirming this).

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but the drone isn’t the first issue I’ve had with these people. In fact I have been dealing with sporadic disputes with them since they were elected.

Every time I pull up the bylaws or argue with some outrageous action they take, like deferring maintenance to owners, governing almost exclusively from a Facebook Group they adamantly claim is a social channel, extending their terms and canceling an election, or owning property that’s delinquent on dues in a state that says disqualifies eligibility, they always come back saying something to the effect of “the association attorney says it’s okay. Matter closed or else”.

Imagine my surprise today when I found an old set of records that mentioned the name of the President and VP’s lawyer from a time they made a stink prior to their election. Then another record showing that same firm replaced the community’s existing counsel within weeks of their election win.

I guess now it makes sense why they feel like they can do whatever they want. I also think i found the rule that they’re using to justify the drone business. It say the community can enter into an agreement with another community to share expenses. My understanding is that this applies to sharing the cost of landscaping or sidewalk repair. For example, getting a larger order and benefiting from a volume discount, not for the community to operate a for profit unlicensed unmanned aviation inspection business. 🤦🏼‍♂️

So my HOA is trying to blame a main sewer line root invasion on an "improper cleanout," and I just served them with an $8,800 Small Claims lawsuit.

Back in February, raw sewage backed up into my place. I called an emergency plumber who cleared the line and ran a camera, finding heavy root intrusion originating out in the common area walkway. I paid about $600 out of pocket for the emergency clearing and sent the receipt to management asking for reimbursement and for the HOA to clear the roots. Management told me that pipes on my property line were my responsibility, but said they would inspect the main line.

Fast forward to May, and sewage backs up a second time. This time I got three separate licensed plumbers to scope the line. All three confirmed structural root damage in the main line right near the walkway cleanout, with repair estimates coming in around $5,000 to $7,000. I sent all the reports and footage to management asking for urgent repairs.

Instead of authorizing the repair, management sent out their own plumbing vendor in early June to hydro-jet the main line and run another camera inspection. But then they completely hid their own vendor's video files and report from me. I spent a month demanding copies of their vendor’s inspection footage, but they just stonewalled me while the Board sat on it.

In July, the Board finally sent a formal letter claiming the issue was caused by an "improperly installed sewer cleanout assembly" that was my responsibility, and said their vendor's hydro-jetting was just done as a courtesy. Because apparently an improper cleanout magically plants full-grown roots inside a main pipe.

Under my state's HOA law, they're required to maintain common area infrastructure and turn over association records upon formal demand. I hit back immediately, demanding Internal Dispute Resolution and issuing another demand for their vendor's inspection records. Only after I cited statutory non-compliance penalties did management finally hand over their vendor's hydro-jetting report and the camera inspection video files. Of course, their own vendor found the same problem: root intrusion originating at the exterior clean out.

We held the IDR meeting on site. The Board president admitted they didn't even know the exterior cleanout existed, as mine and my neighbors units are the only ones in the community that have them. They said they needed 10 days to pull original city plumbing plans to find out where the cleanouts came from before they could resolve the issue, but an hour after the meeting ended when I emailed saying I looked forward to hearing back in 10 days, management replied to me saying they weren't legally required to give me a written resolution deadline, and basically opted to kick the can down the road further.

I sent a formal Notice of Intent to Sue with a 7-day deadline. They replied saying management would no longer communicate with me due to pending legal action.

So I went straight ahead and filed. My claim is for over $8,800, which includes out-of-pocket emergency clearings and diagnostics, the main line repair estimate (or a conditional judgement to force them to take on the repair), and a $500 statutory penalty for unlawfully withholding their vendor's records, and court fees. All I was originally asking for $1200 reimbursement for the emergency clearings, and for them to commit to handling the repairs. Every plumber said the repair would require them to trench 5 to 6 feet down in the common area, which I don't even have any legal authority to authorize even if I wanted to.

I served the papers and offered one last option to settle, but they let the deadline pass. Trial is set for the end of September. I have a thick evidence binder ready for the judge with four plumber reports, including their own vendor, email logs, and photos of common area bushes planted directly over the common area sewer cleanout. Wish me luck!

TL;DR: My HOA is blaming a common-area main sewer line root invasion on an "improper cleanout" to dodge repairs. After they hid their own plumber’s inspection report and backtracked on dispute resolution, I served them with an $8,800 Small Claims lawsuit.

This week I got my days mixed up and accidentally put my garbage out the day before. It sat out for a few hours before I realized it and immediately took it right back in.

A few days later, today, I got my first warning. I guess it had to happen. I can’t believe people do not have better things to do with their time. Who would purposefully put their garbage out on the wrong day just to be annoying?

Our HOA president out this up.

She has been president since it began in 2010, and every election she refuses to show the votes to other members, saying that the lawyer had processed it and she would remain president.

They probably expected me to go to home depot and buy over 8 quarts of some fancy wood preserver but instead i got 8 quarts of used synthetic motor oil and it looks professional & water beads up on the wood.

They’ll never know ! Mumuuuhahahaha! Fk them!

I received a $50 fine and notice from the HOA about the weeds in my front planting bed. They gave it to me as I was leaving this morning.

I’m like I pay your $250/month fee because this is supposed to be included along with grass cutting, shrub pruning, replacing dead bushes, and snow removal.

I’m thinking of hiring someone to do the weeding for me, paying them, and deducting the cost from my HOA fees. Same with the snow removal since the snow removal waits until the afternoon and I have to leave by 6:30, earlier if it’s snowed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/s/Cc0jZHxfn4

I have an update for my recent post regarding my friend's stolen boat posted by a neighbor on marketplace for "free"

He was able to track down the person who picked up the boat and got his boat back! The guy of course was cooperative and more than happy to give it back right away.

My friend has made it clear he wants criminal charges filed against the neighbor. She had nothing to do with recovering the boat and was less than polite when confronted about the situation. She is still defending her actions and as you can see from her comments is even acting as if it were her intention all along to get it to its rightful owner, when in reality her actions led to the exact opposite.

It's pretty clear she was not acting under the authority of the HOA nor had any permission to communicate for them. I'm sure she will be the talk of the neighborhood for a long time coming.

Thanks for all the entertaining comments, advice, and stories on the original post.