If you want to lose autonomy over your own household, then an HOA might be perfect for you. These pushy neighborhoods love taking control over unimportant aspects of your property. From horror stories related to how you need to mow your lawn, to not having a correctly colored home, you’ve probably heard it all. Now, a California woman is revealing another aspect of HOAs that don’t get enough attention: harassment.
TikTok user The NeoLife Girl shared her current dilemma and wondered: “Am I wrong for being upset at my HOA?” She’d been in the neighborhood for three years, and in that time she’s been sent letters over little things like weeds in her yard. What was particularly annoying was photos of her yard were included, weeds and all. Shandell said the letters came with a threat: If she doesn’t pick the weeds, they’ll “take corrective action.”
Shandell then takes us on a tour of the weeds in question. There are maybe five small patches of weeds, which only an annoying group of Karen HOA members would actually care about. Shandell goes on to say she spent almost half a million dollars on her house. But yet the HOA has a piece of land in her yard that is literally uncared for and Shandell can do nothing about it. Is that hypocrisy I smell?
Because she finds it ridiculous, Shandell has reached out to her HOA to talk these matters over. Despite multiple calls, they never answer her. They’ll just put a letter in your mailbox and pray you deal with it. If you don’t, then they’ll probably charge you a fee. And this is the real trouble with these types of neighborhoods and the power they have over people.
One commenter shared their own personal experience with their busybody HOA. They said, “I kept getting notices about my BBQ on my driveway. I told them that I use it everyday and if they are requiring me to put a hot BBQ in my garage I need to inform the property management company I rent from and my insurance company. No more notices,” said one commenter shared.
Another person pointed out, “You pay them to harass you. It’s a terrible system.” It sounds awful, too. I couldn’t imagine spending so much on a house plus monthly HOA fees, only to have someone hover over your house when you miss a weekend of mowing.
