A frustrated homeowner took to Reddit to lament their HOA's harsh action against their drought-resistant landscaping.
"I moved into a new construction home 4 months ago," the user wrote. "Both the builder and the HOA told us numerous times that we had 9 months to put in a yard … But within a month I started getting citations for small amounts of weeds on my property."
When the Redditor tried to put in landscaping similar to their neighbors, they said the HOA slammed them for failing to get the plans approved first, despite the fact that their water-saving yardwork is being done by the same company that designed many other yards in the neighborhood.
"Our benevolent board president said those landscape look 'cheap and ugly,'" said the poster — and it seems the HOA is "doing everything to stop it."
Prohibiting water-saving landscaping is illegal in Utah, but according to this Redditor, "if you even bring up the state law … they are visibly annoyed and dismissive."
Drought resistant yards being rejected by HOA as "cheap and ugly" by the board President even though UT state law says HOAs can't require members to rip out or prevent those landscapes from going in. HOA doesn't like that and is doing everything to stop it.
by u/mhansen0 in fuckHOA
One sympathetic commenter suggested taking over the HOA board, a tactic that has worked in other neighborhoods since many allow homeowners to vote on the board's leadership.
But according to the original poster, the HOA board in their area is still controlled by the developers, who pick and choose who becomes part of the board.
"You can make it really difficult for them to sell lots," the same user suggested. "Put up a big sign in your yard." But the original poster says that signs are subject to the HOA's approval, too.
"This HOA sounds terrible," says a second commenter, and the original poster concludes they may have to wait until the HOA is turned over to the homeowners before they can address the problem.
Homeowners on Reddit and elsewhere have shared conflicts with their local HOAs over their yards. At a time when some states are actually paying owners to get rid of their lawns, many HOAs are demanding green, overwatered lawns and rejecting alternatives.
Some states have laws limiting the power of HOAs to dictate what owners can do with their yards, and a few of those legal limits have come directly from homeowners who pushed back against their local associations.
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