One couple on Reddit said they got a rude awakening when returning from their honeymoon to find a notice from their homeowners association on their door.
HOAs are known for being nitpicky and intrusive, giving rise to a subreddit with more than 230,000 members who are there just to complain about the issue. Lawn care is a common point of conflict since many HOAs have strict rules about it and aren't shy about checking up on residents.
This Redditor said they heard from their HOA about their lawn after less than two weeks. "Came home last night from our honeymoon after we were gone for 10 days to a 'Violation Notice: Lawn and Landscaping Maintenance' taped to our door," they complained.
Apparently, it wasn't even the whole lawn getting lengthy, as most of the grass had slowed down for the season. "We live on the East Coast and the grass is starting to die/sleep due to the shift to autumn," the homeowner said. "We have one section of grass in our fenced-off backyard that is at an angle, so all the rain must have made that one patch grow in particular in the two weeks we were gone."
HOAs forcing residents to mow is nothing new. One Virginia couple faced a four-year legal battle when they wanted to keep their meadow unmowed to allow wildflowers to grow.
But a violation notice after two weeks of growth in autumn is extreme — and as the Redditor pointed out, it's not as though it was visible from the road. "That means that people looked over our solid wooden fence to look at our property. How lovely," they said sarcastically.
"Just wait until some bored a***** gets voted onto the board who owns a drone," quipped one commenter.
"I can relate!" said another Redditor. "We just got back from our destination wedding and got a fine for 'excessive weeds.' My property manager told me to dispute it because she said it was a bunch of BS and she said it looked fine when she drove by. Never living in an HOA ever again."
Most HOAs have internal processes for appealing decisions or changing the rules completely; use this guide to get started.
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