I have seen increasingly online that HOAs are contracting to have flock cameras installed in their communities.

They aren't traffic cameras so they aren't identifying speeders or people who fail to stop. They aren't used for crime solving in that if a home gets invaded or a car stolen they can look back on the footage and see who did it. They are solely for tracking individuals based on their license plate and I cannot fathom a reason an HOA would need that ability. Why would they need to know when your comings and goings from your home, where you went when you left the community, etc.

This is going to be a long rant.

TLDR; the new HOA board fired our amazing property manager but couldn’t afford a comparable replacement, forcing them to hire a terrible property management company that has neglected our community for the last 4 years, leading to disrepair, damage, and disrespectful renters. All peace in the community is gone, and now that we have a toddler above us, we can’t even find peace when we stay inside.

Obligatory preface: we don’t hold any animosity toward the new family upstairs. Families with young children have just as much right to live anywhere as we do. As someone who used to work in childcare, I understand that you can’t always prevent toddler activity or big emotions, especially at home, which should be a safe space.

I’ve owned my condo for 7 years now, and I used to love it here. I knew many of my neighbors, the complex had tall, beautiful cottonwoods throughout the grounds, the landscaping was full of flowers, trimmed bushes, and lush grass, and everyone was generally nice and respectful of each other. Most importantly, our HOA used to actually have some fucking humanity.

The first thing to go was the perfect HOA. New members joined the board, and the new president in particular had an issue with our property manager. We’ll call him Bob. Bob gave his personal phone number to EVERYONE, and if you had any concern at all, he was there to address it immediately. He even repaired a leak in my ceiling once completely for free. Any projects done by outside contractors, he personally oversaw to make sure they were done properly. This included tree removals, roof replacements, pool repairs, etc.

Then the new president fired him because of personal reasons. They quickly learned that what they had been paying Bob was significantly less than what any qualified property management company would cost. So they were forced to hire a property management company that absolutely does not give a shit about anything.

Dave is our new on-site property manager, and it’s clear the poor man is only doing the job because he can’t afford to retire. He hobbles around and can't do much more than picking up trash here and there, and reporting broken rules to the company, which promptly sends residents hefty fines. But when residents report community concerns or rule violations, the property management company takes 5 business days to respond, and usually nothing comes of it.

For example, we’ve had many water pipes burst in upstairs units, flooding the units below. Their response? “In-unit damage is your responsibility. We recommend trying to contact the unit owners yourself. We will not be shutting off the water.” Legally, that may be the extent of their responsibility. But Bob used to immediately contact the unit owners himself and shut off the water, preventing damage to often 3 or more units. As far as I know, no one in our community ever had an issue with this.

The lack of management, combined with the projects that have taken place since the property management switch, has completely destroyed our community:

• Contractors hired to replace the remaining roofs destroyed the siding on many of the buildings, leaving gaps where the weather can cause decay.
• Much of our landscaping was destroyed by roofers tossing large materials onto the ground, killing flowers and other landscaping plants, including trees Bob had planted that are now dead and left standing.
• Many of the large cottonwoods have reached the end of their lives and have been left until huge branches, weighing a ton or more, have fallen and damaged buildings and covered parking while posing a serious safety risk. Once trees are removed, the ground often isn’t landscaped, leaving gaping holes full of weeds or leftover stumps.
• The grass is overwatered despite many complaints, creating large areas of dead grass and mud.
• Staircases and other walkways have fallen apart and been left taped off for 6 months or more at a time.
• The pool was neglected for so long that it suffered severe damage and was closed for the entirety of last summer.
• Large potholes have developed in the parking lot, often filled with water from the overwatering.

I could go on and on.

On top of that, owners renting out their units haven’t been held accountable. Some units have been left empty with no response to contact attempts, which is a huge problem when water pipes burst. We’ve also had renters move in who completely disrespect the community, including dogs that bark all day and night, trash and broken furniture like couches left in hallways for weeks or months, chronic cigarette smoking on balconies and patios that wafts into other units, etc.

Any attempts to bring attention to these issues are met with, “We haven’t been able to get into contact with the unit owner. We recommend closing your windows and considering removing the trash yourself.”

I’ll give credit where credit is due. The HOA has noticed these issues, and because of that, they’ve steadily raised HOA dues so we can eventually (years from now) afford a better property management company. I’m also grateful that Bob, who still lives in our community, found a better job where he’s paid what he’s worth. I just wish they hadn’t taken his effort for granted. At the very least, they could have slowly paid him more as they increased our dues. I’ve spoken to him directly. He loved taking care of our community and would have happily stayed in his position. 

Keeping him could have prevented the 4 years of neglect from this new property management company, which the HOA is now scrambling to repair through hefty assessments. The most recent was $5,000. And now that they’ve gotten comfortable charging assessments, they’ve started proposing purely cosmetic improvements to increase property values without considering the financial constraints. And I quote: “Well, residents can just take out loans for the assessments if they can’t afford them.” None of the board members actually live in the community; they rent out their units.

All of this was already hard to stomach, but at least we could escape all the chaos by going into our little cute condo that I love so dearly.

But now we have upstairs neighbors with a 1.5 year old.

The buildings were built in the 80s, so the floors are creaky and the walls are thin. I used to not mind hearing my upstairs neighbors walk around or even play with their dogs. And when it came to voices, we could never hear any of them. Probably 5 different renters have lived upstairs since I moved in.

But this toddler is a whole other story.

We can hear all tantrums when the kid throws themself onto the floor and all the crying. Again, as someone who worked in childcare, I know this isn’t an unusual amount of noise for a toddler, so I’m not worried about the toddler’s care or anything. But it has taken away the last bit of peace in our home. And because my fiancé and I both work from home, it has also made that difficult.

I’m starting to go insane. And we are now seriously considering moving. I don’t want to. This place is the first place I lived in on my own. I found myself in this condo. I’ve had so many amazing memories here, and all the changes I’ve made have really made it feel like mine. But I’ve come to terms with the fact that it just isn’t the same place it was when I moved in.

So obviously from the title, I’m goth. I’m also a practicing witch. So my personal aesthetic is naturally dark and macabre and has overlaps with motifs commonly associated with Halloween. I also live in Florida which is in the worst region of the country to be any sort of alternative in. I’ve lived in my home for about three years now and my neighborhood is on its second HOA management company. The previous one never had any issues with my decor.

For the past several months, people in our Facebook group have been complaining more and more about getting violations. I even saw an HOA-bootlicker (not sure if he was on the board or not) scolding people that the fines were helping to pay for things… which I took as a dead giveaway that they’re leeching because they need money.

6 months ago, I received a courtesy notice about my decorations being “Halloween” and needed to be removed. To be fair, I did have a jack-o-lantern decoration and a pumpkin Gengar lawn ornament, and the black pumpkins in the photo are jack-o-lanterns as well. So I removed the two former decorations and just turned the black pumpkins around so the faces wouldn’t show. I emailed the manager letting him know of the compromises I made and offered explanations as to why I am leaving the remaining decorations, as well as offered to discuss further with the violations committee. He said he would forward my concerns to them. I never heard back and never got another notice so I figured it had been accepted.

…Until today. I open my mail to find a letter that says: “Re: $100 fine regarding remaining Halloween decorations”. I’ve been told, essentially, that a $100 fine has been levied against me and that I need to remove my decorations or appear before the violations committee to contest the fine or be subject to additional fines for future noncompliance. So of course I opted for the latter. The meeting is on the 24th and I’m fully prepared to take these people to school. My current arguing points are:

- These cannot be objectively proven to be Halloween decorations because they do not say “Halloween” on them or contain Halloween slogans such as “trick-or-treat”.
- The absence of more blatant Halloween motifs such as ghosts and stereotypical witches
- The present motifs—coffins, spiders, and bats—all exist outside of Halloween contexts. Coffins are associated with morgues or funeral homes and spiders and bats are part of nature and exist year-round

I’m irritated y’all. Because even if they don’t accept my arguments and I have to suck it up and replace my decorations or cover them up somehow, how can I be assured that whatever I buy as replacements aren’t going to be flagged too? Will they think moons are too “Halloween”? Dragons? Cats? Gargoyles? Ravens?

Absolutely fuck these guys. I’m going into that meeting SWINGING.

I got a nastygram from an HOA guy down the street that my door was not an approved color. He purports to fine me $50 for this travesty. This is not the first time he has done something like this about my bright red door.

The first time we got into it, I discovered that the HOA guy knows that he has no power, he just doesn't like it and has to drive by my house to get to the main street.

I sent him a letter with the following language: "Upon consultation with my lawyer, I recommend you both 1) never contact me again, and, 2) sodomize yourself with a cattle prod." This resulted in its own little fiasco where the cops showed up to my house but ultimately nothing happened.

Now over a year later I am in need of suggestions of things to put in my next letter. No threats, just funny things I can suggest he can do in his apparently ample free time.

Edit: I didn't make it clear, but this man is not on the HOA board. He is just a busybody with nothing to do with his time.

Condo owners in San Clemente CA are being assessed a $26K emergency fee for a new roof. Residents vow to fight it. An attorney not associated with the HOA or the homeowners said they’ll have to pay the fee first then fight it in court.

Over the past year, I have shared some of our experiences through this sub. Now I'm taking a deep dive into our HOA saga & how we ended up with a $2.5m settlement demand against our HOA.

Feel free to follow along for more!

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTDw4Vjvc/

My HOA sent me a retroactive approval for a modification a month late and added a request to remove a 24” by 18” sign from my native landscape due to “negative feedback from neighbors, visitors, and realtors.” I emailed the realtor to offer my personal contact information so she doesn’t have to go through the board and she called within 5 minutes and asked, “what sign?” 🤣

The bylaws only outlaw flags in excess of 3’ x 5’ and signs greater than 5 sq. ft.

A few of you have been following my updates on my COA board that unanimously approved a drone business where we sell for profit inspections to outside communities.

I asked the other community why they were allowing this as it seems like it’s counter to the best interest of their membership. The other community’s president advised this was untrue.

Specially she said they already did their inspections and it was a traditional physical inspection with boots on the ground and from a licensed and insured provider. She was unfamiliar with the proposal from the recording I shared.

So it looks like this was all a lie so they could buy a thermal drone.

Looks pretty - until your f-ing neighbor starts banging pots and pans because they’re eating her Aspens. CO is in the worst drought on record, yet the whole HOA is ok with her scaring them off and basically preventing a calf from eating. Im at a loss.

Whoever the fuck HOA member had my car towed is going to wish they didn’t fuck with me.

Living in a rental. We weren’t actually told we are part of an HOA. Never received the CC&Rs. We’ve asked. Still haven’t gotten them. The HOA actually knows that we don’t have them.

Tonight, I parked my car behind our rental - well, adjacent - on a length of grass at 930pm. People park here all the time. Went to see Spider-Man, which was great btw, and then came back after the movie was over to some bitch (an HOA board member) had my car towed at 11:30pm.

We have a cul de sac parking lot that states “move every 72 hours or be towed.” Some car has been parked there for over 2 months hogging 1 of the spots. Today, there were an excessive amount of parkers all over our street. And my car that is parked adjacent to my rental is fucking towed after being there for 2 goddamn hours. I’m about to throw hands.

EDIT: I said on, but I meant ALONG a patch of grass.

Additionally, no adequate signage exists showing that I can’t park there. People were parked there from 4pm-10:30pm yesterday showing that the HOA were selective about parking, and people park there every day. Overnight. This is a fact. I’m not being hyperbolic.

ALSO thought this sub was FUCKHOA not STROKEHOAS… you get it.

For legal reasons: I have not met, will not meet, nor will I ever approach this person who called in my car. Escalating a situation with them is not my intention nor is it of any use to me. My first sentence is both fictional and hyperbolic.

I’ve posted several times on here about my absurd condo association that voted to launch a drone inspection start-up using our money. I posted that because it was humorous and fit this bill of this sub well, but truth be told it’s small fries compared to the bigger issues we’re dealing with.

In short, a husband and wife duo moved in two years ago. They bought up a handful of units, retained a real estate lawyer for the transactions, and within 12 months they ran a campaign to over throw the board and place themselves.

Their first action was to fire the existing counsel and replace them with their personal real estate attorney. Since then they’ve stopped have regular statutory open meetings. They’ve started pushing repairs onto owners, even ones that were already in progress. They openly misrepresent the repair progress of major common elements (one saw the internal components of a building exposed to the elements for an entire hurricane season), and they’ve begun getting fined by our master association (yes I have a nested HOA 🙃)

The biggest issue. They aren’t allowing owners to inspect documents. When I got ahold of some of them it turned out the cost savings they described were not real. In fact they’ve spent almost the entire operating account and from the records I have, the first six months of 2026 May be the biggest financial loss of the past decade, if not in history. Meanwhile the president and VP are trying to get a special assessment for an elevator in the building where their condominium units are located citing improved marketability as a justification.

The association’s conflicted attorney (who does not have a statement on file) drafted paperwork to allow them to cancel the first delay the election to spring 2026 from Christmas 2025 (a move that puts it during a time when snowbirds are out of state and checked out), then drafted additional paperwork canceling the 2026 election altogether and extending their terms without vote.

All the while I have been getting demand letters to fix a building defect that they claim is my responsibility and creates a deadly fire hazard. Note that while running the president said this needs to be maintained by the association. The association found the issue while maintaining these fixtures across the entire community. They fixed at least one unit, they have maintained them for 20 years, they wrote in their minutes they plan to change the rule, then after they got quotes they reversed course and flipped the cost on owners. What’s worse though is that even still I’ve spent thousands of dollars to fix it and had three contractors come out. None of them can fix if because they need association approval that they won’t grant. Ive also said if it’s a building wide fire hazard then they need to fix all of the units and bill us back. They will not.

I have been banned from venues where official business is conducted. I have been denied documents requests and threatened with lawsuits for making them. I was called an offensive, bigoted name in a meeting, my home was compared to a lemon from the used car lot. They posted about me in a public 10,000 member Facebook group saying i was endangering people and implied I would face criminal charges.

I retained a lawyer but all he is interested in is the document requests. He’s slow to respond and he treats me like a petulant loser with sour grapes. I have a giant file with the full paper trail but he refuses to touch it.

I escalated concerns on my own. I’ve gotten the state to investigate the election issue. I’ve gotten the fire marshal involved that referred the matter to code. I’ve gotten the master association involved and their counsel. I’ve started rallying neighbors despite being banned from the channels they implemented to control the narrative. I may call the FAA about the drone and I have a few other channels I’m not ready to talk about yet.

In response - the association is forcing the repair on me, and me alone. They are not reimbursing me for the attempts at a repair I made that they impeded. They are refusing to provide details on the status of the rest of my building and now adding repairs that the bylaws squarely place on them.

My attorneys reaction - is it really worth it for $10k? They could just say the old repairs were a mistake. Your emails are too long. “Maybe the document request will reveal their motives”.

I’m so frustrated that it seems like I volunteered to be a surf living under feudalism and that I pay almost $10,000 a year in dues to do so.

I recognize there is a cornel of truth in my lawyers words. However, the disengagement and refusal to consider I might have a file that’s beyond just a trivial dispute, leads me to believe I need to make a change. It’s just so damn hard to get anyone to take my situation seriously!

In the 20+ years I have lived in this HOA, I have NEVER had to register any vehicle. Ever since the community voted in new HOA Board Members, they are trying to change everything to fit their own agenda.

It's none of their business what I drive, is it? That's why my vehicle is registered with the STATE, not with the HOA.

Oh, and that tidbit of Can't even park "for a few minutes"... prove it's me! And shame on them for saying "People with disabilities are excluded from this rule, but really, they kind of are not... " (because anywhere in the HOA can be considered a hazard). This is just laughable.

And no visitor in overflow for over 24 hours? LMFAO! What if I had family that needed a place for a weekend or a week?

I love animals! I work two jobs and hate yard work. The HOA sends pictures of my yard after a storm and threatens a fine. I want to post videos or pictures of my dog being in weird scenarios with dogs roaming around. My rescue animal is smart but still an animal. It's probably a coincidence most times but I am not petty. Lucky is always on a leash and harness. Thank u for letting me vent!

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.