HOA gets a taste of its own medicine after messing with homeowner's beloved mulberry tree

Living in an area with a homeowner's association (HOA) can be beneficial in many ways. On the one hand, it can provide added security and foster community engagement but many may also find it very intrusive. Reddit user u/Educational_Dust_932 had to deal with an HOA of the latter kind and shared how a tree on their property was trimmed without permission by a suspected HOA member. "My house is the first house in the neighborhood behind mine. I am on the corner. The street on the side of my home is the HOA neighborhood, but my front yard is on a different street that isn't part of the HOA. When I moved, I asked them if I could pay their HOA fees to let my kids use the pool and playground directly across the street," the homeowner wrote, adding that they denied the proposition.

The homeowner then planted a mulberry tree on the corner of the property and eventually got complaints from the HOA, claiming the tree's branches were too low to the ground and violated their HOA rules. They reminded the association members that they weren't a part of the HOA and therefore weren't bound to its rules. "Then one day, I came home and someone had lopped off a big branch from the tree, one that went out to the street. I tried to find out who did it, but they kept mum about it and there wasn't anyone I could go after," the property owner revealed. This was when they decided to maliciously get back at the intrusive HOA. "So, I rebuilt the branch using PVC and wrapped it in bright Christmas lights in May and then wrapped the rest of the tree for good measure," they revealed.

To further drive the message home, the homeowner kept the lights up all the way until just before Christmas, when they finally took them down. During this time, they didn't respond to any letters sent by the HOA. "The HOA members who came to my house to ask me to bring them down since it was the gateway to their neighborhood and that I was 'probably' affecting property values were brushed away. They never did mess with the lights, though. I guess they were worried about what I would pull next. I went and looked at my Facebook and found a picture I took. It doesn't have all the lights, but it shows most of the awful glory. You can see the wound on the tree about a foot above the fake branch," the post concluded.

The Reddit community came forward to share their thoughts on this incident. u/GoingSouthGarage shared, "I know of someone in a similar situation, house on the corner, not part of HOA. The first time they tried to mess with him, he placed an old white toilet at the edge of his property and planted a fake flower in it."

u/TLost17 quipped, "I saw red just reading this. How dare they chop off a branch? Also, I love how they denied your family membership in the first place. Like, why couldn't your kids play in the park and pool across the street? Not like you wanted to do it for free." u/LokiKamiSama suggested, "You should plant more. Like lining your property. Make sure to decorate them with lots of lights and tacky yard ornaments. I'm talking camo pink flamingos, zombie gnomes, the mooning grandma standup, and the works. But only facing the entrance to the HOA."