A HOMEOWNER had nasty driveway rules overturned after reading the fine print and writing a simple letter.
Sometimes the most satisfying victories come from a battle of wits.
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When a car-collecting Redditor moved into a house inside an HOA subdivision equipped with a long driveway, they couldn’t help but drool over all the cars they could park in it.
Posted on r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, one user retold his story of how his HOA’s strict rules were quickly overturned after a terminological mishap.
“When I moved, the [HOA] the rules stated, “Only 1 Class C vehicle is allowed per driveway”, well that’s fine with me since there are no Class C vehicles,” he wrote the Redditor.
“Class C vehicles were also not defined in HOA rules. I assume whoever wrote that rule assumed that because they had a Class C license, standard cars and trucks must be Class C.”
Shortly after they parked their two cars, four motorcycles and a trailer on the property, letters began arriving demanding that they be moved or face fines.
The owner did a simple solution that made the letters disappear.
“I was quickly able to empty them after asking them for the legal definition of a class C vehicle,” they continued.
“No fines paid.”
However, the HOA did not stop trying to win the war.
After almost a year, the association tried to make another change to the driveway rule.
“Fast forward about a year and the HOA proposed a rule change,” the post read.
“Now stating, ‘Three vehicles maximum per driveway,’ Since three is more than one and people lack critical thinking skills, it passed with over 85% support.”
The owner got to work to see how he could cleverly twist this rule to benefit himself and his neighbors and found something revealing about the subdivision’s history.
“I did some research and discovered that my HOA’s streets were turned over to the city (an effort to avoid having to pay the maintenance bill, I’m sure) and as such, the HOA had no authority to stop people from parking in a public street,” they wrote.
“So I moved two vehicles onto my very narrow street. One in front of my house and one across the street in front of my neighbor’s house.”
Can an HOA prohibit on-street parking?
According to a North Carolina lawyer, an HOA retains the legal right to park anywhere — even in a homeowner’s garage.
The trick, says HOA attorney Mike Hunter, is the deed that homeowners sign when they buy a home within a subdivision.
“If you buy a home in a deed-restricted community, you are required to comply with those restrictions,” he told Charlotte Observant.
“If restrictive covenants say you can’t park on the street, the council has a legal duty to enforce that.”
Many states are passing laws to limit the power of HOAs, although most states still grant HOAs to enforce their regulations, restrictive or otherwise, in any way they see fit.
Read more here.
Like the first rule change they maneuvered, it began with a flood of letters from the HOA citing complaints from neighbors about the inability to cross the narrow street.
“Now the only vehicles that could pass my house safely were motorcycles and the only guy with a smart car,” the Redditor wrote.
“It was glorious. My street is the main artery in and out of the neighborhood. Lots of U-turns and backtracking for people to get home or work.
“They were the ones who did the rest of the work for me. Complaints and calls to the HOA president resulted in another rule change vote.”
After the rules were changed to allow all your vehicles to park on the property, the Redditor felt the need to celebrate with more.
“Now my garage is open to any number of legally registered vehicles,” they wrote, concluding the post.
“[The drivewa] fits nine. I need more cars.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
