When I moved into my HOA townhouse, I was in my 20s and spending most of my time as a single man working and commuting. Now I have a wife, daughter, and work-from-home job and I understand the HOA much better and will never move into another HOA-controlled neighborhood.
One neighbor had two trees growing right next to the five-foot-square concrete pad next to his unit (the "spacious porch" of the HOA description) and decided to replant them two feet further out so he'd have room for activities. In two days he received a nasty letter informing him he'd have have to pay a fine of $50 for each day for each tree until they were put back where they were. They have to protect property values, you know.
I had a neighbor from way down the block (a former HOA chairman) knock on my door, mad at me about the mushrooms I'd obviously planted in my front yard. Like I'd somehow planted a fairy circle of mushrooms when nobody was looking. I wish I'd been more on the ball when he knocked on my door to chastise me; I'd have said it was a religious act from the Black Forest of Germany, to celebrate when a child is born. Now, instead, whenever a mushroom pops up on my front lawn, they more my lawn down to the dirt. I'm sure the brown dirt patches increase the property values he was concerned about.
My wife is still salty about when a former manager rang the bell to complain to her that we had five flower pots outside the unit instead of the four that we are allowed. Property values, you know.
Naughty-word the HOA.
