This is a repost. I am not the original poster.

This was originally posted 4-3 years ago by u/ReservoirKat on r/fuckHOA. Extra- special thanks to u/ReservoirKat for granting permission to repost!

HOA turned off my pool fob because my disability is "distracting"

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/6lywcl/hoa_turned_off_my_pool_fob_because_my_disability/

Okay, so when we moved in to our condo, our HOA was actually pretty good. But ever since one crazy old bat got on the board, everything has gone downhill.

It all started at the end of last summer. I'm disabled. I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and fibromyalgia, and I use a cane to walk. As part of my physical therapy, I used to pool to do hydrotherapy routines. No one I had met minded this as I only took up a corner of the pool.

But after being witnessed doing water therapy by this old bat, everything changed. She got the nastiest look on her face, and informed me that I was taking up to much space in the pool and was distracting and detracting from others' enjoyment. It's a huge pool, and I'm not a big person!

Anyway, winter came and I thought that was the end of it, but I tried to go down to the pool a few weeks ago at the beginning of our vacation (my husband and I are teachers). Our pool fob had been turned off! And we called the HOA, and they sent us a bullshit form letter about us "violating pool rules" which we never have!

It's absolutely ridiculous that I know have to pay for a Y membership to do therapy when the pool is literally behind our condo all because one old bitch hates disabled people!

Relevant Comments:

• Posters generally suggest seeking legal advice to remedy the situation
• When asked what rules she supposedly broke: I found the letter and it mentions I was playing loud music, but I never play music at all at the pool. My guess is that my phone ringer was loud one day, and they latched on to that :/ Either that or I had a game on. Idk, it's complete bullshit, obviously either way.

Quick update: HOA turned off my pool fob because I'm disabled

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/6miy3o/quick_update_hoa_turned_off_my_pool_fob_because/

Hi guys! Thank you for all the wonderful advice you gave me last time. I called an old friend of mine today from undergrad and we had a good chat--she's a civil rights lawyer. She normally deals exclusively with immigrant discrimination and whatnot, but she agreed to draft a letter, and she said she'd give me a hand finding a full time lawyer if the letter doesn't go anywhere.

She does fully expect the letter/threat to get my pool fob back, and I'm tending towards agreeing with her. Just thought I'd keep y'all posted! Hopefully, this will have a quick and easy ending.

In hilariously frustrating news, I saw the old bat out today, and she left her dog poop on the ground :( Right by the picnic area. Clearly cares about the by-lines right guys?

Final(?) Update: Pool fobs are back!

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/6mxns0/final_update_pool_fobs_are_back/

So good news and bad news!

Bad news: To start off with I’d like to apologize for any typos. I messed up my hand opening a stubborn juice bottle and now my middle right finger is in an immobilizer splint for a week. Ah, EDS, thou are heartless.

The good news is, my husband and I have brand new pool fobs courtesy of the HOA along with a letter of apology (basically, "please don't sue us, please don't sue us, over and over again lol). We immediately went and checked they work, and they do! So my friend’s threatening letter worked. I won’t post the letter due to a lot of identifying info, but suffice to say, it was sufficient for now. She always was terrifying when she needed to be! I’ve also heard whisperings from the neighborhood gossip that this gave some serious impetus to the other board members to try get rid of her! Apparently, she’s been making their lives miserable too…. Here's hoping she's not on the board for long after this.

Even so, our goal of moving by next year has strengthened, even if she does get her full comeuppance. I don’t wanna find out if she’s vengeful, especially if she doesn't get kicked off the board.

Thank you all for your supportive comments!

[Update: Banned from the pool] The HOA keeps trying it!

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/8vuyq8/update_banned_from_the_pool_the_hoa_keeps_trying/

Fuck HOAs.

I'm the user from this thread where the HOA turned off my pool fob because I was using the pool for hydrotherapy for my disability. We thought we had a happy ending here, when we got the pool fobs back, but we were unfortunately wrong. The woman who was causing us issues not only stayed on the HOA, she is now THE HEAD OF THE HOA.

The thing that stands out most is that they TOWED OUR CAR WITHOUT WARNING. We had gone to get the new tags, and they were one day late in the mail. So think the tags expiring on June 30, and midnight ticks over to July 1. So instead of warning us in writing (which the HOA contract requires them to do), they towed our car. Without warning. And did not leave a notice.

So we wake up a few months ago, and one of our cars is just plain missing. We call the cops, we call insurance, and I call my parents absolutely bawling because I have no idea what to do. The cop they sent in saw the security cameras, and he had us call the HOA to get footage to see who stole it.

"Oh," the head of the HOA said with way too much glee in her voice. "We towed it last night. The tags were expired."

She was literally waiting till midnight for our tags to expire so she could send in the tow truck!

But she shot herself in the foot, because the HOA contract also requires 5 days written notice before a tow! So thankfully, since she shot herself in the foot on that, she had to pay for our car to come out of impound.

The tags literally came in the mail that day, so we had our shield back on our car. Things that were in the car that would have been stolen if we couldn't get our car back include my husband's work computer, important student documents for the children I teach, and my handicap placard.

That was just one thing, and technically since it's in the contract that a car with expired tags can be towed, we were told we couldn't do anything legally. Especially since she "showed good faith" by paying for our car to be taken out of impound.

They also tried to do the same thing to our friend's car in the literally just three hour span she was visiting me (her tags were legit very expired), but thankfully we got home and were able to tell the tow guys that the contract doesn't cover her since she doesn't live here and they let her take her car home easy. Other things that have been attempted (none have succeeded, because we now know our contract and copy all our paperwork!):

1. Trying to fine us for feeding an outdoor cat. We didn't do it, and the security cameras proved it.
2. At the meeting, the HOA head implied we were suspicious cause we got so many packages. My husband collects records and buys and sells guitar parts. I gleefully was like "OH IT'S MY RECORD COLLECTION, DO YOU WANT TO SEE?!" and proceeded to force her into a good, awkward forty minute conversation/photo gallery of the gems of our collection.
3. She tried to pull the same thing with my monthly crate, which is horror themed and has fake blood splatter designs on the box, so I proceeded to be aggressively socially awkward at her again and happily show her my unboxing photos.
4. Seriously, I've found that this is the best and MOST FUN way to deal with her, cause she has no idea how to handle it.
5. Tried to fine us for littering because I dumped some melted ice in my parking spot on a 95 degree day.
6. During the winter, they tried to say we never signed to get our chimney cleaned and would be charged for it, but thankfully I copied the form where we officially declined, and they backed down.
7. Tried to pressure us to pay to pressure wash our house again this season because the gardeners they hired got mulch on the side of our house. Husband just cleaned it off with a kitchen sponge all while glaring at the house of HOA pres.

All this despite our neighbor like....legit leaving empty fireball bottles and dozens of spent cigarettes on their side of the porch and us being like :/ about it.

Yeah, she never gets warnings or fines at all, but we do.

That brings us to this.

We're selling.

We were going to sell anyway at this point in our lives, because we have genuinely grown out of this house, and the issues with it being old are getting too much for us to handle. It needs some love from someone who actually knows how to fix shit. Plus, it's two story which is causing increasingly bad issues with my joints.

So, soon, we will be gone! I'm so excited!

Sorry this got long, but I got several messages asking me to continue my story, and I wanted to keep y'all up to date! Hopefully, we will be out of here very soon, and I won't have anything else to post!

Relevant Comment:

• Someone suggestion the following to OP: I just has another thought, whose funds were used to tow the car? Whose funds paid to get it out of impound? If this person used the HOAs money, then they have violated fiduciary responsibility and can be removed from the board, fined and barred from holding a board (corporate ) seat for some time. OP's response: Oooh now THIS is something I haven’t thought of before! I will definitely be saying something about this to the rest of the board and tenants! Thank you!

[Quick update] The HOA President from Hell

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/8xkrqd/quick_update_the_hoa_president_from_hell/

Obligatory FHOAs

Quick update: Someone on the last thread brought up the idea of my hellish HOA President violating fiduciary responsibility with the car incident. I found that very interesting and brought it up to a member of the board that I know for a fact doesn't like the president (Let's just say....well, fuck it I'll say it: He's black and she's a racist.) He was *very intrigued* by this idea, and he promised to bring it up, plus plant the idea that I could sue her for harassment at the next board meeting. I told him all that's been going on and boy was he pissed off. Like straight up angry. Turns out no one else knew about the car incident.

I have been looking into getting a lawyer through the friend of mine who originally helped me with the pool fob. She's been horrified by what I've been going through (especially the car, which she says is my strongest piece), and she promised she'd get me someone good if we do decide to go to court with this.

In order to actually give y'all some drama to chew on, here are some other irritating, but not sue worthy things my HOA pres has done over the past few months.

• We had six friends over for a trial run of an rpg (Blades in the Dark), which put us at a total of eight people in our house. This was very cramped as we have a very small house, but we were willing to make due to accommodate our friends. they also took three cars here, as our friends are three married couples. They all parked in visitor parking, as is required. HOA pres approached me next day and told me I should warn people before "throwing huge parties like that" as it "disturbed the neighborhood." We didn't even play music for the initial set-up, since it was just character creation! You're really telling me 8 people, all with social anxiety, had a loud rager? It took nearly an hour to get everybody comfortable enough to interact!
• She let's her dog shit in our yard specifically. She always cleans it up, but it's annoying af. We have patchy areas where it pisses, and it barks at me whenever I come home from work.
• Angrily brought a stray black cat to the door claiming it was our cat terrorizing the neighborhood, and was very surprised to be greeted at the door by our actual black cat, who meowed at her until she awkwardly went away.
• Let our neighbor fly the Confederate flag, but told me my "Practice Acceptance" and "Make Noise Not War" bumper stickers were "sowing discontent in the neighborhood."
• She always leaves the pool whenever I show up. Which hey, fine by me.
• Our same neighbor who flew the rebel flag litters our shared porch with cigarette butts and empty Fireball bottles, but has received no fines or notices.
• We did a deep clean of our house after some long periods of depression for both of us and she sat on her porch staring at us taking out trash and "joked" about us being hoarders and said she wished we had regulations for the inside of houses too. Which creeped me right the fuck out.
• Was convinced for the first few months we moved in that my white American husband doesn't speak English cause he's olive skinned with black hair, despite the fact that she actually spoke to him multiple times. Asked him where he was born once and seemed very put out when he said "Florida."
• I have no evidence of her being responsible for this, but two other families are selling in the neighborhood: one is black and one is an interracial couple. I have the feeling she might be doing shit to them too, and I might try to talk to them about it under the guise of getting ideas about the local housing market.

Anyway, that's what's going on in crazy land.

Relevant Comment:

• They most certainly do not have a copy of our key, and we have a very good, almost always active alarm system to keep people like her out. It is conveniently against HOA regs to have a camera on the house, but I'm considering one on the inside looking out our window, because I have a sneaking suspicion she's snooping at our packages. They're never damaged, but she's way too curious every time we get one. I wouldn't be surprised if she's tried to look through the window either. I don't trust her one bit.

​

General Update: The HOA EX-President from Hell Got the Cops Called on Her

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/9nfkhy/general_update_the_hoa_expresident_from_hell_got/

Hi guys! It's been awhile since I've posted here :) A few people have messaged me on and off since my last post asking for an update, so I figured I'd give one!

Backstory: My HOA head really does not like disabled people in her presence. I am a disabled person. At first, she turned off my key fob for the pool cause I was using it for water therapy, but turned it back on when threatened with a lawsuit. She also had our car towed, tried to have our friend's car towed, tried to file a nuisance/noise complaint, and just generally has made our lives difficult. We had the plan to move soon, but unfortunately that has fallen through due to a variety of reasons that I will get into later.

But she's no longer HOA president because....

She tried to steal my handicap placard right out of my car!!!!

My husband and I were carrying in groceries and she reached into the car and took my placard off the rearview! She called me a fraud and said if I could carry light grocery bags 20 feet from car to house then I wasn't disabled enough to need it!

I finally snapped and just straight up called the cops on her! She mouthed off to the cops and had to spend the night in jail!!

So since she is now a criminal and an embarrassment, they threw her off the board!!

I'm so excited! Our HOA still won't be great, but she's gone!

For your drama llamas, here are some ways she's tried to torture me since:

- Yelling "This is Trump's America!" at me from her stoop as I leave for work in the morning. Like I have no idea why she yelled this? Like I'm personally not a Trump supporter, but I'm not blatantly political at all offline, except in the company of likeminded people, because it's like...rude.

- Threatening to kill the neighborhood stray cats because she knows I love cats. Which is fucking psychotic.

- Trained her wiener dog to attack on sight. She always just holds him back from letting him bite me, but still.

- Ripped one of the stickers off my car?? It wasn't political, religious, or sexual orientation related?? It was for a record store?? I still don't know why she did this. Can't prove it since it was out of range of our new security camera, but I know it had to be her.

- One of my (visibly) Jewish friends came over to host a small Shabbat at our house/backyard as part of an inter-faith education effort, and holy shit was that a wild ride. Cops almost got called again.

- She keeps sending missionaries from the local cult to my house specifically.

I'm genuinely thinking of getting a restraining order at this point.

Now onto the personal nonsense about why I won't be able to move for a long while. There are several reasons, but I'll start with this:

I have a new diagnosis.

In addition to the Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, and fibromyalgia, I have what's called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. It heavily related to EDS and POTS and more or less, it is super allergies. The mast cells in my body randomly malfunction when exposed to something. What you may ask?

Yes.

Yeah, basically, it's completely unpredictable. I have all the normal allergens like mold, dust, pollen, etc. just really badly, but I can also spontaneously develop new and fun allergies that may or may not be deadly and may or may not be temporary!

Yaaaaaaay~

So what does that mean for moving? In a city with a huge mold problem from a flood 8 years ago?

Well....just that actually.

I'm also going to be going back to school soon! Genuine yay! But it's expensive! Less enthusiastic yay!

Basically, I've become more or less too disabled to continue teaching for much longer. I've had two rough classes for two years in a row and I'm getting both physical and mental burnout at a rapid rate.

One of my kids hit me so hard the other week, he dislocated my ribs.

I can't do this anymore.

But if I go back to school, I can get a certification that both pays more and allows me to benefit children without working directly with them.

TL;DR

HOA pres is booted from the board after trying to steal my handicap parking placard. She's still an awful neighbor, but we can't move yet for a variety of reasons.

Relevant Comments:

• When someone suggests this behavior could be considered a hate crime: My husband has said the same, but the cops weren't willing to charge it as such. They did say it was good for establishing a pattern for a restraining order though. It really sucks. I've had a lot of people straight up tell me that ableism doesn't exist, even as I go through this.
• I've taken to filming her when she approaches me with her dog. I like dogs (not a dog person, but I like them okay) but I don't trust that lil fucker.

Bonus: The Shabbat Story

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckHOA/comments/9nomzu/the_shabbat_story/

So I had someone in my last post ask me to clarify on the Shabbat story, wherein our former HOA president almost got the cops called on her for disrupting an interfaith Shabbat we helped host at our house as well as her alleged actions in the aftermath.

My husband and I aren't Jewish, but we both highly support inter-religious dialogues and peaceful, non-confrontational situations where people of different faiths come together. So when my friend was having her house sprayed when she had her monthly interfaith Shabbat, we offered to have it at our place. She had to downsize the guest list, since we have a smaller house, but it seemed like it was going to go well! We knew most of the people who would be attending, and knew that--at worst--a few awkward questions might be asked about faiths.

We put all our patio furniture out in the yard, cleaned off the grill, and everything looked like it was going to go great! Everyone in the complex, including us, have done this before and have never been bothered.

Important detail: a part of respecting each other, we all left our phones inside the house. This is pertinent to the story.

But since we don't have fences, ex-HOA Pres was walking by and got curious. Not knowing that she is the Worst, my friend explained to her that it was a Shabbat and that we were all discussing our different religions and asking questions.

Cue Stink Face and the actual words that came out of her mouth.

In the year 2018.

"You people killed Jesus."

My friend blinked. Everybody blinked. I sank into my chair in abject horror and my husband looked like his soul departed his body. It wasn't my fault, but it was still horrifically embarrassing.

"Excuse me?" my friend asked, far more politely than I would have been able to do. From this point on I will paraphrase.

"You heard me. You people killed the Lord."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"I can't wait till all of y'all to either die off or go to Israel so the Lord will come back and cleanse the world."

"....."

HOA pres then looked at my with equal hatred in her eyes and said (again paraphrasing as this was awhile ago).

"I always knew there was something more wrong with you."

Friend: "She's not Jewish, she was just nice enough to let us use her house."

HOA pres then huffed, spat right at my friend's feet, and threatened to call the cops before walking off. I'm...not entirely sure what she thought the cops were going to do, but she threatened us. We regret not having phones to record the encounter.

Now all that would be bad enough.

If the story ended there, it'd be bad enough.

But it doesn't.

The next morning, when we woke up to go out for the day, there was a pound of unwrapped, uncooked bacon on our front porch. By that point it was covered in flies and just generally super gross.

What a waste.

This was the incident that made us decide to buy a security camera.

Without any evidence, we stupidly decided against calling the cops.

We know better now. I realize it was very stupid now not to call the cops, so please do not come at me aggressively telling me so. I have a lot of regrets about it.

***

u/ReservoirKat has mentioned that the ex-HOA president from hell is gone, but hasn't mentioned any specifics. Maybe if we ask nicely, she'll share. : )