One homeowner got the last laugh when a local homeowners association tried to overstep regarding their front-yard garden.
They posted about their experience in the r/pettyrevenge subreddit.
“About 10 years ago, me and my wife moved to the suburbs to raise our kids,” they said, setting the stage. “One of the things we noticed was that our neighborhood had a community pool. However, you had to be a member of the HOA to use said pool. Once we moved in, I contacted them to join, and was told they are ‘not accepting new members.'”
That should have been the end of their interaction with the local HOA, but complications arose a few years later.
“My wife had taken gardening as a hobby and was getting quite good at it, but our backyard is extremely shady,” the original poster continued. “After many attempts, we decided to put in a raised bed garden in the front yard. We did our research and it was not illegal to do so in our city,”
While many neighbors loved the garden, the city inspector started receiving regular calls about it and visited the home weekly. When the homeowner filed a request to determine the identity of the person reporting them, the reports stopped, but the caller contacted them directly with a demand to get rid of the garden on the grounds that it was against the rules of the HOA.
“At this point I realize these are the same people that rejected my offer to pay them free $ to join their stupid club, and happily I explained this to her while grinning ear to ear,” said the original poster. “Needless to say, the garden is bigger today than it ever has been, and we even threw a couple kid playhouses up there, cuz why not!”
“I think you dodged a bullet when your application was rejected,” said one commenter succinctly.
While this homeowner was indeed lucky not to have to deal with an HOA’s restrictions, many homeowners in the U.S. have no choice.
If you find yourself chafing at the rules of your local association, you might be surprised to find that there are ways to change the bylaws. For example, many HOAs restrict gardens, but by encouraging a shift in perspective, you can access all the benefits of growing your own food.
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