One Texas homeowner was in disbelief after their homeowners association's nonsensical response to the homeowner's storm cleanup.
The story comes from an anti-HOA subreddit where the homeowner posted to complain after receiving the notice from the HOA. "Seriously?" they complained. "I just got a warning for not applying for a permit to change how my tree looks from the HOA."
Just one problem: The "change" was storm damage.
"There have been storms around where I live lately," the original poster said. "Sometimes those storms can cause damage to trees like breaking off branches or completely toppling them. During a recent storm, a branch was broken off of a tree in my front yard. I cleaned it up the very next day to prevent any issues."
Normally, prompt maintenance should work in the homeowner's favor. HOAs often police their neighborhoods in an attempt to keep yards well-kept and uniform.
But this isn't the first time an HOA has been unreasonable about tree maintenance. One frustrated homeowner was asked to remove a perfectly healthy tree that the HOA claimed was dying, and another association demanded that a tree come down after a member intruded on the owner's property and hit his head on it. All this interference makes it difficult for owners to care for their trees and landscaping in a healthy, eco-friendly way — let alone make improvements to their yards and houses.
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In this case, the homeowner felt trapped. "You can't win either way," they said in a comment. "I know if I had left the branch down, I would have gotten a warning for that too. There was no way to come out ahead."
Commenters were familiar with that attitude. "I heard of some demanding a stop to work when a tree fell thru the house, since they didn't ask for permission to cut tree," one user wrote.
"I wouldn't be surprised if that were to happen to me," the original poster replied.
The best response to this kind of nonsensical ruling is to work to change the HOA bylaws so they are more reasonable.
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