r/fuckHOA

Boy this is great.

About a week ago a nosy busybody neighbor walks up to my partner and I, ranting about graffiti on the brand new children’s playground that was put in this spring. Me being somewhat new to the neighborhood listened to her, also getting slightly worried that troublemakers were destroying property that the hoa paid for.

Fast forward a couple days later while my partner and I were walking around the playground area with the dog, we thought hey let’s check out this graffiti! Turns out, the “graffiti” was chalk on the sides of plastic playground stairs/slides. made by kids. Very young kids. Just doodles.

Later that same day on the hoa Facebook group the concerned citizen Karen and co Karen are going off about how difficult it is to clean off chalk, with parents going back and forth about how it’s nothing or it’s super serious blah blah. I want to chime in on how ridiculous they sound but my partner wants me to keep the peace and stay out of it, fine.

Day later one Karen starts demanding an insubordination fee from parent of kid that did this, more back and forth about how dumb that is etc. One or two neighbors just take a pail of water and clean it, of course posting that they cleaned it so people can stop arguing. Original Karen who stopped me the first time to talk about this still actively annoyed, prowls the neighborhood at all hours trying to find the culprit. Insanity.

so cherry on top:

This morning we receive an email saying that children in OUR UNIT are responsible for this vandalism, and while this email serves as a courtesy warning, any future incident will result in fees. Email appears to be written by AI and is so over the top ridiculous. but that isn’t the best part. We don’t have kids!

I genuinely want to see the look on whoever sent out this email when they see our response of “well this obviously is a mistake, we don’t have kids, and unless our two small cats and smaller dogs learned how to write with chalk, youre looking at the wrong people”

I had a lot more words to say but my partner reeled me in because she still wants to keep things copacetic. I genuinely don’t know how people take HOAs seriously

edit/update: this was the facebook post to the hoa group:

**NOTICE TO ALL RESIDENTS**

**RE: Vandalism and Defacement of Community Playground**

**Date:** May 16, 2026

**From:** The Board of Directors, (location) Homeowners Association

Dear Residents,

The Board of Directors is writing to address a recent incident of vandalism at our newly installed community playground. It has been brought to our attention that someone has used chalk to deface and graffiti the playground equipment.

While sidewalk chalk is a fun and temporary activity when used on personal driveways or designated sidewalks, applying it to common area park structures and playground equipment is considered **vandalism and property damage**. Our community amenities are designed for the enjoyment of all residents, and maintaining them requires a collective effort to keep them clean, safe, and attractive.

Please be reminded of the following community rules and policies:

* **Common Property Upkeep:** All playground equipment and park structures are the shared property of the HOA. Defacing common property is a direct violation of the community rules and regulations.

* **Fines and Enforcement:** Any resident (or guest of a resident) caught defacing, damaging, or vandalizing community property **will be subject to immediate fines** in accordance with the HOA enforcement policy.

* **Cost of Repairs:** In addition to standard fines, the property owner responsible (or responsible for the minor/guest involved) will be billed for the full cost of professional cleaning, pressure washing, or repairs required to restore the equipment.

We ask that all parents and guardians speak with their children about respecting our shared spaces. If you have any information regarding this specific incident, or if you witness community property being defaced in the future, please contact the Management Office immediately

Thank you for your cooperation and your commitment to keeping (location) a beautiful place to live.

Sincerely,

**The Board of Directors**

For driveway chalk doodles. On a playground. Made by kids. This is dystopian

First off, huge respect to anyone volunteering on an HOA or condo board.

Genuinely curious from current or former board members how much do people actually worry about personal liability or being blamed if something goes wrong in the community?

With all the horror stories around insurance, reserves, deferred maintenance, lawsuits, etc, does this feel like a growing concern for people serving on boards? Or is it mostly overblown online?

We called the HOA to let them know that the grandson was going to purchase the grandmother's house.

Shocked HOA response- "You should have let me know you were thinking of selling the house! We need to know these things!"

Mild retort- "Sorry about that. We didn't see a Right of First Refusal in the HOA docs- nor any protocols or processes for a new owner to submit the new information. But we did notice that livestock is allowed on these larger lots, so the grandson is looking forward to his eventual flock of fainting goats. He will be in touch to change the billing for future HOA fees."

So glad this is at least a moderate and somewhat liberal HOA. I've been in a brutal HOA before, and I'll never do so again.

Just moved into a new house with an HOA a month ago, got setup with the portal for payments and we're having some issues with it. Walked down to the clubhouse because there is an office in there and the woman working had helped me get setup with other things and told me to come to her with questions. I didn't realize the clubhouse needed a key fob, and when I got there another older gentleman was waiting to be buzzed in. He gets buzzed in and I say "can I slip in behind you?" He looks confused and blocks the door, so I say "I just moved here in April and have a question for the office about the portal" still doesn't let me in or look any less suspicious of me, tells me the office is closed and asks what the issue was, I explained it to him while still standing outside showed him our portal, he tells me yeah thats not right and tells me to contact the HOA directly and goes inside. OKAY THANKS. I don't know if he even works for the HOA but Jesus welcome to the neighborhood too! Now I'm just sad, I was anxious to move into such a nice neighborhood struggling with imposter syndrome, but man I'm just embarrassed.

Board hadn’t held an election or annual meeting in years, so I finally demanded one under state law. All board members are now going to be replaced.

Actual quotes from HOA President who served 5 years:

1. “Instead of being with my daughter on her birthday the other night, I was learning our bylaws.”

2. “Now we’re going to have to follow the bylaws by the book for this election, even though we’ve never, ever done that before.”

3. “We couldn’t find anyone to run so we decided not to have an election.”

Post is locked, but this is crazy.

Has anyone ever received an HOA violation notice after they receiving a “friendly reminder” notice on that same issue?

I left two trash bags of clothes outside the dumpster thinking someone might want it, that was the issue… I didn’t do it again after receiving the “friendly reminder,” that’s why I am so furious right now.