It seems that people having trouble with the local homeowners' association has been an issue plaguing mankind since the dawn of time; and, while a lot of HOAs can do good for the local community, they can also rub some individuals up the wrong way.
After a bizarre altercation with their HOA, one family recently found a very creative way to get around a new ruling.
Taking to reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, user memon17 wrote a post titled "HOA won’t let us fly our modest Pride flag, so we just follow the rules."
They started their story by explaining, "Due to some neighbors flying BLM flags, Thin blue line flags, and other opinion flags, our HOA decided last month that we're only allowed to fly the USA flag, and nothing else. The day after the decision, we receive an email that someone reported our Pride flag (that we had [on our front porch] since 2016), and that we needed to take it down."
In order to celebrate pride month, this family read into how they could best work around this new rule. They explained:
"Looking through our new rules, we noticed that removable lights are permitted without restriction so... we bought 6 colored flood lights, and we washed our house in pride colors. A little less subtle than our simple flag. A lot more fun for anyone complaining about the flag itself and what it represents."
Yes, this is what their house now looks like most early evenings. Countless individuals praised the family for their ingenuity, and for doing such an amazing job with installing it.
The person who posted this also went on to clarify that they don't actively hate their HOA, and pointed out, "I actually sit at the board, but there was no fighting [the flag] rule at this time."
One of the top stories, written by user Pyreknight, went as follows:
"HOA tried to bust my balls so many times over the years, until one time they sent pictures of a branch in a gutter over my kids window. I attended the next the meeting and highlighted my son was in the shot. (Barely mind you.) Everyone gasped and I informed them if anyone else sent the same photo type, I'd have them arrested for peeping tom charges for starters. They countered but before they could complete the sentence, the cop in the neighborhood chimed in, along with a lawyer."
Needless to say, they never got another letter with pictures attached after that.
In an update to the post, they write, “JUST CLARIFYING THAT I DON’T HATE MY HOA, I DON’T THINK THEY CHANGE THE FLAG RULE TO ATTACK ME PERSONALLY, AND THAT I DECIDED TO DO THIS TO SHOW MY INDIVIDUALITY WHILE STILL FOLLOWING THE RULES."
It really seems that this person’s heart is in the right place and that they simply desire to demonstrate their support.
memon17’s post has amassed over 82 thousand views, and over 6 thousand comments and that number continues to grow steadily.
memon17 added to the updated post, “I just can’t keep up with the comments. Thank you all for your amazing support!!”
There were also those who were on the side of the HOA, with the likes of people writing, "I mean.. at least the HOA took a neutral stance on the issue just banning all flags outright? Seems better than most other HOAs I read about."
Who knows how long this light show will be able to remain up, but hopefully they enjoy their time living in a rainbow mansion while it lasts!
When you have a collection of people living together in a community, there will, of course, be some differences of opinion. It’s inevitable and only natural because no two individuals are exactly alike.
Can you think back to a time when you or someone in your neighbourhood and the HOA didn’t agree on something? How did the issue get resolved? Or didn’t it? Let us know in the comments!
h/t: Reddit
