‘They can’t do anything’: Non-member homeowner is constantly harassed by the desperate HOA attempting to force his compliance

Owning a home is the dream for many Americans, although many feel like that dream will never quite be within reach.

The thought of having a whole place to call your own, a yard you can garden however you want, no loud neighbors banging on your wall or playing music into the wee hours of the morning, and, best of all, no lousy landlord constantly berating you by never fixing any of the problems he is supposed to fix… No more rent and total control? Sounds like the perfect life.

Unfortunately, that’s not often the situation for homeowners. Mortgage payments overtake the rent and annoying homeowners’ associations replace the nagging of landlords, apparently even when you’re not a part of one.

On TikTok, one homeowner has documented the dozens of notices he’s received from his neighborhood HOA. They complain about everything from his bike to a bend in his yard to his lawn-watering system. In one particular viral video, he caught them in the act of taping yet another notice to his door, and the contents of the notice letter are nothing if not absurd.

The letter required immediate compliance with their lawn watering regulations. Apparently, they noticed his water hose strewn about his yard while he watered it, then not-so-kindly informed him that they require all homes “in and around” the community to have their sprinkler system installed. Not only that, but the installation must be done by the HOA committee to ensure that it meets their sky-high standards.

Because his watering system goes against their regulations and detracts from the overall look of the neighborhood, they are demanding he contact them within a week to have their preferred watering system installed.

Best of all, the notice was explicitly addressed to a “non-HOA homeowner.”

Comments were quick to catch on to the fact that this HOA was attempting to punish someone who wasn’t a part of their association. Many of them pointed out that the HOA couldn’t reasonably do anything if he didn’t comply because even they knew that this homeowner wasn’t a member.

Several even suggested that he send THEM violations of his own, and one told him to file a cease and desist with the police.

According to Investopedia, homeownership anywhere that has an HOA does generally legally require you to comply with their rules and fees. Typically, if you buy a home in a neighborhood governed by an HOA, you sign a contract agreeing to a set of rules and standards set by the association. Due to that contractual agreement, they often have the power to sue or charge you fines if you step outside the neighborhood HOA agreement. Most HOAs have rules about how lawns look, street parking, and noise. But if you don’t sign a contract and are therefore not an HOA member, they really can’t hold you to their standards.

Nonetheless, like the HOA in this video, they may try. If you don’t want to be senselessly reprimanded for having a hose in your yard or forced to fund a pricey sprinkler installation, it’s probably best to look into the rules and reputation of your neightborhood’s HOA before buying a home.

With so many videos detailing notices from an HOA that he isn’t even a part of, many people are wondering if it’s all just a bit for internet attention. If it is, he’s impressively used people’s hatred for HOAs as a successful content strategy. Even if his stories aren’t real, plenty of people chime in in the comments with horror stories of their own, each of them calling for the downfall of the American HOA.