How to legally annoy your HOA

In this post you will learn how to legally annoy your HOA. Whether it's handling simple disputes or dealing with serious mismanagement of funds, you are not alone if you have ever been mad at your HOA. Over the following paragraphs we will break down 6 different actionable steps that you can take to legally annoy your HOA and be better prepared in dealing with your HOA in the future.

1) UNDERSTAND THE HOA RULEBOOK

It is important to understand the bylaws of the HOA. Before purchasing property in an HOA, you should receive copies of the bylaws or rules of the HOA. If you don't have a copy, don't worry; in almost all instances, you can review the bylaws electronically via the HOA website or by going to the management office and requesting a copy. You want to review this because the bylaws are the rulebook governing the community and are the key to any action that you may end up taking against the community at your own discretion. Please don't take shortcuts here; for most people, their home is the biggest investment they have, and it is worth understanding the community rules impacting that investment.

2) KNOW THE PARTIES INVOLVED

This goes hand-in-hand with step 1 above, but make sure that you truly understand the parties with whom you are dealing. You are not going to achieve your goal by speaking with the wrong person, and these HOAs are sometimes layered. I'll give you an example: Some communities have multiple HOAs, multiple management companies running the HOAs, multiple different boards in charge of the HOAs, and multiple board members on each HOA. Simplify things for yourself and narrow down your focus to the parties that are directly impacting you. As an additional note, make sure that you review the bylaws or rules in all of the HOAs impacting your residence.

Consider this scenario: there is a master HOA that is running the overarching community that you live in, but this HOA is not causing you problems. Instead, the small subsection of the community that you reside in has its own HOA, and this HOA is the one that is causing you problems. This is the HOA you want to focus on.

Once you understand the appropriate HOA that you are dealing with, you want to dig into who the stakeholders are in this HOA. For example, you might be dealing directly with a specific community manager, but find out more about the management company. Is it a large or small company? Is the company managing multiple communities? Are other residents having the same issue? What are the reviews online for this company? Do they have their own board? What are people saying on social media about the company? What are people saying on social media about your HOA? Make sure you also familiarize yourself with all the board members on the HOA that you are having issues with. Be thorough with this review because it's your property and it's worth it.

3) TAKE ACTION AND DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

Take action by contacting the appropriate parties regarding your issue and document everything. We typically recommend starting by gauging the opinions of your neighbors on the issue or issues if you have neighbors with opinions that you trust. Show up to HOA meetings, ask questions, take notes, be professional, but be seen.

Contact the board members of the HOA. If at least one of them agrees with you, use them as a conduit to work on resolving your issue. The support of the community is key because if you have that, you can influence the board or even remove and replace the board members as necessary. The processes for doing this are most likely spelled out in the bylaws or rules of the HOA, so again reflect upon that. Even if the board member is not removed, the potential removal of that board member might be enough for them to change their mind about something.

Contact the management company and work your way up the chain of command within the management company if you are unsatisfied with the quality or timeliness of the response you are receiving. If you want to resolve an issue that you are having or if you simply want to legally annoy your HOA, how much more impactful do you think it would be if you contact the Owner or board members of the management company instead of just the representative that is working in your community? In many cases, you can resolve your issue by doing this. Be professional, but never be afraid of going over the head of the person that you are dealing with if you know you are right and they are not helping you arrive at your desired solution. If your problem lies with your specific community association manager, how satisfying will it be for you to go over their head or CC their boss an email? Work with the board members to speak with the community association manager on your behalf. If you have the support of the community and you have the support of the board, you can easily influence the association manager that should be working on your behalf as an owner. If the management company or association manager is the issue, find out what the process is for removing them. If you have the support of the board or larger community, you can get it done. At the end of the day, both the board and the management company serve at the pleasure of the residents.

It is absolutely crucial that you document everything. When at all possible, capture communications you are having in writing via email. If you call the management company, is the phone call being recorded? If so, you can request a copy of the recording. We like to begin calls by outright asking if the call is being recorded and then confirming the person's name for the recording. This will make them extremely uncomfortable as no one likes being recorded and especially when they know the recording might be listened to as well. This is a great way to get the attention of the management company and to get someone to give you accurate and timely responses. At this stage, you now understand the rules of the HOA, you are contacting the appropriate party, and you are applying pressure to them by documenting responses and holding them accountable. You might actually get your way, and this will surely annoy anyone in the HOA that is not acting in accordance with the HOA policies in place. As always, we recommend remaining professional and respectful of the individuals you are communicating with as failure to do so will only make you into the bad person in the situation regardless of if you are on the right or wrong side of the issue.

4) FILING COMPLAINTS

We look at this as you have the option of filing a complaint with the HOA itself or depending on the severity of the situation with an external governing body. No one likes to receive complaints and it would surely annoy your HOA if you bring an issue to their attention that requires them to divert time and resources to solving your issue. You can do so by submitting a verbal or written complaint to the HOA board or management company at an official meeting or on a public forum for the community, such as the community website. We would recommend doing this publicly because it puts pressure on the parties involved to respond.

Depending on the severity of the situation, you always have the option of going outside of the management company and filing a complaint. For example, you may be able to get in touch with the state agency in your state that regulates HOAs or a local government agency like the city council or county commission that has jurisdiction over the area where your community resides. Here you can think outside the box, but know that there are many potential layers of government oversight on HOA communities. It’s often heavily regulated and for good reason. If something is wrong in your community and you want to bring about change, the government might be your ally in doing so. This may or may not be necessary to do in your situation, but would really annoy the HOA and potentially bring about change if the government agrees with you or believes that the HOA is not operating in accordance with government statutes.

5) BE MINDFUL OF ANYTHING YOU POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

We could publish a book on the hilarious comments that we see people posting about their HOA, but it often only serves to make the person posting look bad or discredit what they have to say. It's not always easy to do, but you really have to keep a level head and demonstrate that you are a professional if you actually want to win support and bring about change. On the other hand, there are many folks that would just prefer to annoy their HOA by inappropriately roasting them on social media or in online comments. While that is always an option, we discourage that type of action and can understand how that might come back to haunt the person posting the comments. That being said, reading the comments can be funny and social media at a minimum can be used as a great resource to discover others that might be unhappy with the HOA as well.We could publish a book on the hilarious comments that we see people posting about their HOA, but it often only serves to make the person posting look bad or discredit what they have to say. It's not always easy to do, but you really have to keep a level head and demonstrate that you are a professional if you actually want to win support and bring about change. On the other hand, there are many folks that would just prefer to annoy their HOA by inappropriately roasting them on social media or in online comments. While that is always an option, we discourage that type of action and can understand how that might come back to haunt the person posting the comments. That being said, reading the comments can be funny and social media at a minimum can be used as a great resource to discover others that might be unhappy with the HOA as well.

6) SEEK LEGAL COUNSEL IF NEED BE

If you are unsure of whether or not you have a case or should proceed with filing a complaint, you can always seek legal advice. There is nothing more that would annoy the HOA than if you filed a lawsuit, but that is up to your discretion to determine if the severity of the issue and the remedy needed going forward warrants it.

Summary

The text provides a comprehensive guide outlining six strategic steps for homeowners to address issues within their Homeowners Association (HOA) while legally annoying the HOA if necessary. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the HOA rulebook, identifying key stakeholders, taking documented action, filing complaints when appropriate, maintaining professionalism on social media, and seeking legal counsel if needed. By following these steps, homeowners can effectively navigate HOA-related issues, advocate for their interests, and potentially bring about positive change within their community.

HOA joke of the day: Why bother with therapy when you can just annoy your HOA? It's like self-improvement with an extra side of passive-aggressive satisfaction. Plus, you get to exercise those negotiation skills without ever leaving the comfort of your own backyard.

Thank you for reading our post. We hope you found it both interesting and informative.

You can read our next post on why HOAs are bad

-HOA Chief 3/17/24