My first HOA experience was in NJ. We lived in a town house development. About a month after we moved in, we painted the front door and rear door. Immediately received a letter saying we were out of compliance. HOA rules said all exterior facing objects must be painted Tudor Brown, which is what we did.
We didn’t change the paint. About a month later we received a fine for 100 dollars saying if we didn’t repaint the door Tudor Brown we will receive a fine of 1000 dollars and a notice that the association will take legal action. I still didn’t repaint the door.
Of course I received a fine and a legal notice. The person running the HOA was an Orthodox Jew who lived in our development. I showed up on his doorstep with the gallon of Tudor Brown paint I used to paint the door as well as the contract. He said the paint I used wasn’t Tudor Brown.
I said look at the paint can, what does it say. He said it says Tudor Brown but isn’t the correct paint. The development uses a different brand. I said to show me in the contract where I must use a certain brand of Tudor Brown. It wasn’t in the contract. So he said, the Association will purchase the correct paint for me and they will even paint my door. He said it was the least they could do for the 1100 in fines I was supposed to pay.
Last thing I said before walking away was F*&king paint Nazi. He heard it and followed me back to my townhouse, yelling at me all the way there. Over the next few months, I started to notice that my garbage cans that put out on the street for garbage collection weren’t being emptied, my lawn wasn’t getting mowed and I was receiving notices that I was parking illegally.
At the next board meeting I brought this up. People started to come over to me and tell me he does that to everyone. He was gone within the month. No one stood up to him so he continued with his antics. Lesson learned, fight for what is right, regardless of your politics.
Our HOA sent an email complaining about mulch piles you can see from the road. My mulch pile is in a grove of trees next to the house which you can see from the road. I responded with “Are you complaining that there is wood...in the woods?”
A board rep responded “We mean the expensive black piles of mulch, not that ghetto free sh*t that you get from the grinder when it’s in the neighborhood”. Too funny.