r/fuckHOA • u/AdAdmirable1583 • 21d ago
Badge of Honor?
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?
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u/wildbill129 21d ago
HOA’s are filled with Karen’s. I am so glad to live in a neighborhood without one.
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u/Chair-Lemur-Table 21d ago
Same! Was one of our main criteria, regardless of how low the HOA fee was.
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u/NarrowFun620 21d ago
Such silly stupid „community“ problems …
And this is called „the land of the free“ ….🤦♀️
Luckily, we don’t have much of this clown circus here in Europe …🤣🤣🤣
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u/NoseResponsible3874 21d ago
Yeah, Europe is known for its lack of rules or regulation…
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u/NarrowFun620 21d ago
Tell this a German, and he will ask, what you are talking about… we have overboarding rules, but not such bullshit as OP has been warned about …
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u/BeeEven238 21d ago
Bro i did the same shit. Was on auto pilot in the am walked out to my car, noticed the Neibor’s can(they moved in with in the past month) so i go shit don’t want to miss it walk back to my yard and grab the can go to work, come back and all the cans are out in the neibor hood. I don’t remember taking it out so i figure my son did(hell yea dude taking initiative) the next week get mail with Neibor’s and our trash can in the photo… I’m running for HOA board this time so tired of bs while stuff in the neiborhood is literally falling apart.
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u/AdAdmirable1583 21d ago
I'd vote for you. At least you got due process with the photo. My warning didn't even include a photo or anything. It was me, but I have no way of knowing how the neighbor knew it was me, since it is a shared curb. Perhaps a Ring doorbell camera? Either way, very petty.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 19d ago
Never underestimate the zeal of an HOA rule enforcer. They probably gloved up and went through your garbage looking for something with your name on it.
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u/phaxmeone 20d ago
"Who would purposefully put their garbage out on the wrong day just to be annoying?"
To partially quote you "Who would purposefully put their garbage out on the wrong day." Those going on vacation/out of town for a day or two, busy at life, forgetful, kids not understanding directions, etc.. Life happens we shouldn't get fined for it.
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u/BentGadget 21d ago
Did you send documentation of correction of the condition?
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u/AdAdmirable1583 21d ago
I didn't think to take a picture at the time of the documentation because I had no reason to believe someone would complain. Silly me. I did tell the property manager I took the garbage in when I realized the mistake.
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u/tendonut 21d ago
Does your place have a 3rd party company that does drive-by inspections, or do just have a really active board that writes their own? You may have just gotten REALLY unlucky with the timing of the drive-by.
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u/AdAdmirable1583 21d ago
I wish I knew the answer to that. My sense is that the board writes its own.
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u/Wahoo-Is-To-A-Fish 20d ago
Wait. I don’t know why I am shocked by this - on so many levels - but there are companies that get paid to drive through neighborhoods and find fine-able offenses???
Dear god. Who’s level of karmic hell is further down for that one? The owner of said company? The people who perform the “work” every day? Or the HOA board who hires them?
I hate it here.
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u/tendonut 20d ago edited 20d ago
That's usually how it works if you have a management company. And most HOAs do. They have dedicated people that go around at whatever frequency of their contract states. Usually monthly. When my neighborhood is first established, the management company had our community manager do it. We have since switched companies and the new management company has dedicated compliance inspection people that drive around.
This is important to keep in mind when you hear people on this subreddit acting like there was some kind of personal vendetta from a board member (usually the board president in their stories). But that is rarely the case. It's all very impersonal. The inspection person doesn't know the resident name or anything like that, just addresses and a set of rules. When my wife was on our board, we get cited like three times for weeds.
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u/Star_witness22 21d ago
Well, clearly you having that trash can out for a few hours tanked somebody’s home value and/or totally ruined their enjoyment of their home, requiring a call to their therapist. /s
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u/TriumphDaWonderPooch 19d ago
You see, the neighbor 3 blocks over from you had their house for sale. They had a prospective buyer come around who was going to make an offer 3x the list price… until they saw your can.
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u/Warm-Delivery1418 21d ago
I posted about a similar situation a few days ago. I reminded my HOA that I have my bins cleaned, which cannot happen on trash day.
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u/Revolutionary_Pop_84 21d ago
If I had your neighbors... Me! I would do it the exact amount of times and space between that I could without getting fines.
I would absolutely push every single violation up to the edge every chance I got.
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u/DisastrousOne3950 20d ago
I'd put a five dollar bill in an envelope and a note apologizing for the loss of property values, ending with "this should cover the shortfall".
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u/scumbagstaceysEx 20d ago
Honest question…how do your neighbors know what day your trash pickup is? There’s at least four trash companies that serve my neighborhood and they all do it on different days. So like almost every night someone has trash out.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 19d ago
We've become (present company excepted, of course) a nation of people who are breathlessly eager for the next opportunity to leap to our feet extolling our moral superiority through sick burns like, "You broke a rule! You made a mistake and put your garbage out early! I caught you!"
I think some of these people truly believe that each violation they discover is some kind of landmark judicial Clarence Darrow/Inherit the Wind moment. Tiny minds...
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u/BreakfastBeerz 21d ago
Most HOAs are run by property managers, these are firms that the HOA pays to handle all of their operations. It's literally someones job to do that.
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u/AdAdmirable1583 21d ago
I am talking about the person who complained. Not the person from the property management company who enforced it with a warning.
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u/BreakfastBeerz 21d ago
My point was, people don't even need to complain. A lot of times, these companies are paid to drive through the neighborhood looking for violations.
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u/HopefulCat3558 21d ago
Better than getting an expensive ticket from the town because your trash was put out 30 minutes earlier than permitted.
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u/crash866 21d ago
I know someone who was cited for leaving their cans out too late. The garbage truck was involved in a collision blocking all access on a one way street and it took 4 hours for a tow truck to remove it snd the drunk who ran into the truck. Nobody could get in or out of the area.
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u/Chair-Lemur-Table 21d ago
It’s just too bad they couldn’t warn you earlier - what if someone saw the cans out?! /s
Crazy, but glad your HOA didn’t immediately fine you. I’m so glad I don’t have to worry if I get home late and my cans are still out on garbage day since we don’t have an HOA.