Mom discovered the HOA fleecing her neighbors, so she 'infiltrated' the group and had them banned for 20 years

Homeowners associations (HOAs) are supposed to enforce rules that benefit the community and maintain harmony in the neighborhood. However, more often than not, they hardly do anything beneficial while pretending to be productive. When a working mom realized the HOA was fleecing homeowners and stashing the cash, she joined the association and took them down legally. Her daughter (u/quietfangirl) shared the incident on Reddit in July 2022.

When her parents first moved in, a homeowner's association (HOA) governed the rules and regulations of the neighborhood. The homeowners paid monthly to the HOA in exchange for their services, at least that's what they thought. In reality, the association did no good to the community. "There was the illusion of effort," the author explained. One summer, the HOA decided to plant trees all over the neighborhood. To execute it, they contacted a company owned by the son of the HOA Head. During the same time, the author's grandma, a "certified master gardener," had visited them. She was just dropping the saplings on the grass, with their roots still inside the bag they came in. "No holes dug, no holes cut, just a bagged sapling lying on the grass like a pathetic and sad stick," she wrote. The saplings lay there all night, and nobody planted them properly. The grandma informed the family about it and mentioned that those saplings would die unless they were shown in the soil.

The author's mom was quite frustrated and questioned if paying the HOA was worth it because they weren't doing their job. She confronted the association that asked her to join them, and she agreed. The mom realized the HOA had been cheating the people big time. The board members weren't even paying the fees like the rest, and the contractors they called in to work in the community were all their relatives. Suspicious, the mom began digging into the documents. She read every piece of paperwork about finances and discovered that the HOA was collecting money under false pretenses. In fact, the association wasn’t even authorized to operate in that neighborhood. The mom immediately launched an awareness campaign and distributed pamphlets explaining the situation. She also hired a lawyer and an accountant, burning a hole in her pocket, but she knew she had to intervene to take down the HOA. The mom dragged the fraudsters to court and produced the evidence to expose those responsible. The court held the association guilty, and consequently, for almost 20 years, no new HOA was established in that neighborhood.

It's because of such negative HOA-related experiences that homeowners are reluctant to buy property in association-governed neighborhoods. In fact, a study by 2-10 found that 1 in 3 were willing to leave their community because of disputes with the HOAs. Moreover, 39% of the homeowners felt their HOA fees weren't used effectively for the benefit of the community. Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit story, u/slobbyrobbie18 commented, "HOAs are trash, and I always said I will NEVER live in one. The last thing I want to do is pay monthly for some old nosy lady to tell me what color I can and can’t paint my house. Big pass on that."

u/lenny446 said, "After all that, all I can think about is your mom walking into the courthouse looking all bada*s with her lawyer and accountant on each side just behind her. I have full movie-style angles playing out in my head. Total bada*s."

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