HOA Horror Stories To Haunt Your Dreams

If you own a home that’s part of a homeowners association, you probably were told that the dues you pay and the rules you must follow are for the good of the community. But with more people than ever living in HOAs, there are plenty of instances where good intentions go wrong, and the whole experience turns into a horror story. Here are some real-life HOA nightmare tales.

The Good And Bad Sides of HOAs

A homeowners association manages common services and standards in a community of homes. If you buy a home that’s part of an HOA, you must pay fees and follow its rules. HOAs typically handle services like trash collection, maintenance and repairs for common areas and other amenities. HOAs also enforce standards and regulations designed to protect the property values of its members’ homes. They also can mediate disputes between neighbors and keep the community civil.

The drawback is that you need to abide by the HOA’s rules, which can limit what you can do with the home you own. You may be unable to park on the street outside your home, paint your home an unusual color, or have certain types of pets. Violating these rules can result in penalties and fines, and in some cases, even legal action up to and including foreclosure.

While many homeowners appreciate the services their HOA provides, members often dispute the necessity of HOA rules or how they’re enforced. These disputes can be heated, stressful and downright scary.

10 Real-Life HOA Nightmares

We asked for frightening HOA stories, and we got them. Here are 10 true HOA nightmares.

1. Phony Fines

It’s one thing if you’re fined for actually breaking a rule. That’s getting caught. But being fined for supposedly breaking a rule you never violated is puzzling and terrifying.

“My favorite HOA horror story is from a client that received a fine for his grass being too high,” says Robert Washington, a real estate broker and founder of Savvy Buyers Realty in Tampa, Florida. “In the picture that was attached to his email notice of the infraction, he can clearly be seen mowing the yard, as he does every week. The real kicker is that the HOA refused to waive the fine and he ended up having to pay it.”

2. Roommate Restrictions

You may think you can invite anyone to stay at your home or live with you. But HOA rules can limit your ability to have roommates and rent out part or all of your home.

“When I first bought my first house, I was excited to live in it and rent out a room to a roommate,” says Danny Denkinger, a Realtor in Las Vegas and founder of AFCrashpad, which helps military members find lodging, and Military Realty, which helps military families buy a home. “My Realtor told me the CC&Rs – covenants, conditions and restrictions – didn’t say anything about not having roommates – just that I couldn’t do short-term rentals, which was fine by me. So, I posted an ad in a Facebook group looking for a roommate. A few weeks later, I got a letter in the mail from the HOA with a screenshot of my ad and a $100 fine attached!”

Denkinger called the HOA and argued that the CC&Rs didn’t mention anything about roommates. He says that he had to threaten to get legal and the CC&Rs still haven’t been clarified.

3. Dare To Park On The Street – And Get Towed!

Appearances matter to HOAs, and many have rules to keep the streets vehicle-free.

Denkinger says he found that out the hard way, when his HOA board followed up the roommate dispute by drastically changing the parking rules and strictly enforcing them.

“The board decided to ban all street parking in the neighborhood – this in a community of five- to six-bedroom homes with short driveways,” he says. “Larger families and guests were left without anywhere to park. To make matters worse, the HOA hired a towing company that would cruise through the streets every night and tow any vehicle parked on the street – even service trucks for landscapers and maintenance workers.”

4. Fining Frenzy

While HOA rules can create a well-kept, seemingly idyllic neighborhood, it may come at the expense of residents living in fear of excessive HOA fines.

Realtor and investor Mike Wall says a client was buying a property in just such a neighborhood. “What she didn’t realize was that this HOA was notorious for over-the-top enforcement and unreasonable fines, a fact that came to light soon after she moved in,” says Wall, who also is CEO of EZ Sell Homebuyers in Dayton, Ohio.

Not long after closing, Wall’s client was fined because her garbage cans were left out two hours past the HOA’s approved curbside time frame for trash collection.

“That $50 fine was the first of many,” Wall says. “The following week, she was hit with a $100 penalty for having her garage door open for ‘too long’ during the afternoon, despite the fact she was simply unloading groceries. The kicker? She got fined again for installing a bird feeder in her backyard because it ‘attracted wildlife,’ even though the HOA documents said nothing about bird feeders or wildlife restrictions.”

The HOA later went after Wall’s client for putting up holiday decorations.

“She had put up a small, tasteful display – nothing excessive – just some string lights and a wreath,” Wall says. “She received a threatening letter claiming she was ‘in violation of the community’s aesthetics’ and was instructed to remove them immediately or face a $500 fine.”

The HOA also demanded that Wall’s client repaint her front door because they had an issue with the color.

“They even sent over an official ‘approved colors’ list that seemed completely arbitrary and had never been mentioned before the sale,” Wall says. “It felt like the HOA had turned into a personal vendetta against her.”

Wall says his client ultimately decided to sell the house to escape the stress.

“The HOA made the process difficult by refusing to sign off on the required resale certificate until all fines were paid, and they tacked on additional ‘administrative fees’ that totaled over $2,000,” Wall says. “It was the most absurd, micromanaging HOA I’d ever encountered, and my client’s story became a cautionary tale I tell to anyone considering buying in a neighborhood with an HOA.”

5. Heated Disputes Between Neighbors

Sometimes, HOA policies cause residents to turn on each other.

“Tensions got so high that heated arguments broke out on the community Facebook group,” Denkinger says. “At one point, the HOA called a meeting, and about half the neighborhood showed up. The meeting dragged on for hours, with tempers flaring to the point where one neighbor, a police officer, warned that the situation was starting to resemble the dangerous domestic disputes he’d dealt with in his line of work.”

6. The Unhinged Board Member

It’s not uncommon for HOA board members to live in the community, which can create a power imbalance that makes it trickier to address troubling behavior.

“One of the original board members was so out of control that she once left a note on her neighbor’s door threatening to poison their cat if it wandered into her yard again,” Denkinger says.

The same board member who had been causing so many problems later got fined by the HOA management company herself, he says.

“That same week, she and the other board members suddenly voted to fire the management company – a move we had all been asking for, but (it) only happened once she got fined,” Denkinger says.

7. Beware Of Deceptively Low HOA Fees

When James Costello bought his first home, he found a condo with low HOA fees in a great neighborhood.

“One of the best parts was the HOA dues were so low,” Costello says. “They were only $130 per month when the average for the area was in the low $400s. It felt like a great way to save money since the HOA wasn’t tax deductible.”

The low HOA fees turned out to be too good to be true, as it left the HOA without enough money to cover maintenance and repairs.

“That $130 per month turned out to be a nightmare,” Costello says. “Turns out that the HOA had a total of zero dollars in reserves. So, when anything in the entire complex needed repairs, we got a big assessment – $5,000 to $10,000. And what repairs did come up? Well, the five members of the board decided it was necessary to replace only the pipes between their walls. So, the whole building had to pay to repair only the pipes that benefited the members of the board.”

8. The $30,000 Lawsuit

Costello’s HOA nightmare got worse after it was revealed there was damage within his condo that required expensive repair work.

“After getting an inspector to figure out why the paint behind the walls was bubbling, it turns out there was 100% humidity in the wall,” Costello says. “That means there was as much water in the wall as there was wall! To make it worse, it costs $30,000 to get it fixed, and it wasn’t even our fault.”

Costello says nobody wanted to cough up the money for the repairs, so he filed a lawsuit that named his insurance company, the building’s HOA insurance company, and the owner upstairs.

“Two years and way too much of my life later, we ‘won,’” Costello says. “The process is so demoralizing, it wasn’t worth it. Looking back, it would have been better just to take the loss and move on.”

9. Endless Escrow

In 2015, Michael Sherrill wanted to buy a condo in Santa Monica, California, only for it to fall through due to a nightmare HOA that made it impossible to complete escrow.

“During escrow, the lender reviewed the HOA dues and determined they would not underwrite (my loan) unless the HOA raised fees by a small amount – like $25 per month – to meet reserve requirements,” Sherrill says.

“I reached out to the management company the HOA hired to report this, and we discovered that the HOA’s state filing had lapsed months before, meaning that even if the board met to review and approve the change, their legal standing to make any decisions could be challenged,” he says. “The management company was very difficult and slow to respond, claiming it wasn’t their responsibility to report the expired filing to the board. The seller’s agents treated me and my agent as if we had done, or were doing, something wrong, although it was their unpreparedness and lack of compliance which led to the delays. Any buyer using a lender would likely have had the same issues. I was in escrow for over six months, waiting on them to rectify these issues. During the last month, a pipe broke in the condo, flooding it, which is when I finally gave up and walked away from the deal.”

10. The Stingy Real Estate Partner Next Door

HOA horror stories aren’t just limited to residents. Board members also can find themselves at odds.

“I was one of the co-owners in a three-unit building in San Francisco,” says Graham Hill, a real estate owner, investor, and consultant at FindHokkaidoAgents.com, an international real estate consulting firm in Sapporo, Japan. Hill has been personally involved with several HOAs in buildings he co-owns and says that all of his HOA horror stories are about other partners in the association.

“As the building was shared, we had to agree before we could do maintenance on the building,” he says. “We had some siding that had come off our three-story building that needed to be reattached and painted to protect the structure. It was a significant project that required separate bids from painting and scaffolding vendors. I prepared three separate bids, presented the bids, showed online reviews of the vendors, and made my recommendation.”

The only problem was one partner wouldn’t go along.

“She stalled, and stalled, and stalled,” Hill says. “The missing trim created open access to the structure, and each rainstorm was letting water in the building. I had to live in that same building with her, so I didn’t want to overescalate, but I need to protect my investment. It was only after I started using language like ‘pursue every legal option to protect my investment’ that she caved and let us complete the project.”

Hill says that the biggest nightmare about HOAs is that the other members are often your neighbors. “You live with or near these people, and disagreements are very close to home, so to speak,” Hill says.

How To Exorcise Your HOA Demons

If you find yourself in your own HOA terror tale, here are some ways you can try to resolve the problem.

Know Your Rights

The rules and regulations for your HOA typically will be detailed in the declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions – also known as CC&Rs. If there are limits on home color, how you use the home, or required maintenance, you’ll need to follow those rules. However, there are limits on restrictive covenants. For example, these rules can’t be used to discriminate based on race, religion, sexuality, gender identity and other protected characteristics. HOA rules also can’t violate federal or state law.

Attend HOA Board Meetings

It may not seem like the most exciting way to spend an evening, but attending HOA meetings can help you stay in the loop on the board’s decisions. Making your voice heard also can give you more of a say in how your HOA is run and how disputes are resolved.

Get Legal Advice

If you’re facing a fine or other penalty from your HOA but you believe you’re in the right, it can help to get a lawyer involved. Even the threat of legal action can get an HOA to back down. If you need to sue, a lawyer can advise and represent you in accordance with the law.

Expand The Board

Some HOAs are run by a relatively small board, which can lead to unpopular policies. If your HOA and its residents aren’t seeing eye to eye, it might be a good suggestion to add board members. Denkinger said this solution helped settle the issues between his HOA and its residents.

“Things eventually improved when the board expanded from three members to five to add more checks and balances,” he says.

Document Everything

A paper trail can help you win a dispute with an HOA that is wrong. If you’ve received a fine you didn’t deserve, take photos to prove you did not violate the rules. If your HOA is unresponsive and fails to address an issue they should act on, document your attempts to communicate. If you need to take legal action, the documentation can help you win your case.

How To Avoid Problem HOAs Before You Buy

Here are some red flags to watch for if you’re thinking about buying a home that belongs to an HOA:

The Bottom Line

HOAs can help maintain your neighborhood and offer services that enhance your life at home – but they’re not without drawbacks. Not every HOA is a monster, but horror stories about HOAs gone wrong are common. If you’re thinking of buying a home that belongs to an HOA, be sure to research its rules and history before you close on the deal.