You know that feeling. Sometimes it seems like you just can’t win; you follow the rules, and they’re just used against you anyway. When the rules have been written like this and are enforced by those who twist them to suit themselves, it really can feel like a no-win game.
This homeowner shared how their HOA had reached out to them to let them know that their beige mailbox needed to be painted black, so they obligingly went and got the paint and took care of it. They were surprised to find that, not two days later, they received a new notice in the mail citing “unauthorized alteration of property” along with a $50 fine.
This was bewildering since the “alteration” had been made at their request. But it wasn’t going to stop there; the fine was $50 a day until it was “corrected,” and “correcting” the situation required them to submit a form that would take up to 30 days to process, meaning that the homeowner could be facing up to $1550 in fines.
There’s nothing fun about being stuck on the receiving end of perpetual fines when there’s seemingly nothing you can do to get out of them. And this type of financial squeezing is the kind of thing that seems to be specially reserved for local parking authorities and HOA boards.
This HOA clearly thinks they’re the Rolling Stones or something. If they wrote a hit song would go something like this:
We see a line of mailboxes and want them painted black.
Now that you’ve changed the color, we want them painted back..
