rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance How I Completely Destroyed My Toxic HOA

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

r/Maliciouscompliance In today's episode, OP resists joining his neighborhood HOA. The HOA eventually tricks OP into joining under false pretenses, and then starts billing OP for a huge amount of money. However, the HOA screwed up OP's contract, which left him with all of the power. He went to his lawyer and discovered that he absolutely had the HOA by the balls. They had to do whatever he said, and there was nothing they could do to stop him. He embarrassed the HOA so badly the the HOA president moved out of the country LOL! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to R-Slash, a podcast where I read the best post from across Reddit. Today's subreddit is R-Slash malicious compliance, where OPs systematically just droids his toxic HOA. Our next Reddit post is from also not the mama. Background. A million years ago, my property that I owned but rented out was part of a large farm. I bought it about 30 years ago, long after the farm was broken up, but before there was any development near it. The piece of land that I got was near the back entrance at joint-a-dirt road that ran through it. The more expensive plots of land were near the asphalt road in the front.

I originally bought the large chunk of land, intending to do some farming, but that never happened. About 20 years ago, some of the plot owners got organized, and they had the area designated as a municipal suburb. The municipalities agreed to put in paved roads, water and electricity if a certain percentage of the properties were developed. A construction company linked to the organized owners went around contacting the owners who didn't have any buildings on their land offering to build houses for a very, very

reasonable price. However, this was contingent on them getting a certain minimum amount of people to sign up. While this was happening, one of the organized owners approached me and offered to buy half of my property. I agreed and got more than four times the amount that I paid for the entire property 10 years ago. That money, combined with a small loan from the bank, gave me what I needed to pay for a house to be billed, and it was a fairly large and nice house too. I stayed in the house for a few years and my mom lived with me. I decided to subdivide the property again and build my mother a house next to mine, but unfortunately, an undiagnosed tumor took her before we could even start building the house. Soon after my mother died, I moved out of my house, and I started

renting that house out. A few weeks before we moved out, the person I'd sold the land to was talking about starting a homeowner's association. I wasn't interested in a left soon after. About two years later, the original organized owners contacted me. You see, there were two roads that entered that neighborhood nowadays. The original asphalt road that was used as the main entrance and a second dirt road that was used as a back entrance. The H-O-A was trying to get the asphalt road blocked off to improve security and decrease through traffic, and they wanted the road next to my property to be the main and only entrance to the H-O-A community. So, they were pressuring me to join the H-O-A. I said no, and I was adamant, and eventually they accepted that, but they told me they wanted to have a sign

near the road welcoming people to the neighborhood, and the only practical place to put it was on the edge of MY property. They also wanted to build a little guard hut and have a security guard permanently monitoring who went in and came out, and they wanted to build a shed on MY property. We came to an agreement whereby they would m mo my lawn and pay me $35 per month in exchange for the land they needed. I was very happy with this arrangement since the property was fairly large and it didn't really cost them anything since they already had a full-time gardening service servicing the HOA. This all happened over a decade ago. They eventually got the other main road blocked off and the HOA is paying for a rena cop to be permanently stationed close to my property, as well as mowing my lawn and paying for a family

meal each month. I'm occasionally contacted by members of the H-O-A to get me to sign up, but I'm really not interested. My property has been rented to the same tenant for all these years, and everything there is going well for me. That is, until three years ago, when someone scared my teninch young daughter by making strange noises and shooting a gun close to her bedroom window three or four times over a month, this scared my tenant. And I guess it scared the HOA too,

because they and my tenant contacted me with a proposal. If I join their HOA, then they'll exclude me from the rules, including the monthly fees, and in addition, they'll build a wall around the entire HOA neighborhood, including on electric fence and security cameras. They told me they'd won this to do this for a while, but they were unwilling to build a wall in a property that wasn't in the HOA. I couldn't see it down side, so I agreed. Part 2 The Dessonus Deals

It took a little over a year to build a wall and get everything completed, which was quite fast. Then, one month after everything was done, my tenant got an H.O.A. warning about his dogs barking. He told the H.O.A. that while the property was in the H.O.A. it was exempt from the rules. The H.O.A. told him that they had canceled the exemptions and that he had 30 days to comply. My tenant contacted me and I opened some mail that I'd gotten from the HOA. I'd ignored it since I was supposed to be exempt from the rules and fees.

Man did I get a surprise. They had retroactively canceled the exemptions and were claiming, one, that I pay late fees going back over a year. Two, that the easement agreement had been cancelled, and that they were retroactively canceling it a year back because the HUA contract allowed them to use small, unused portions of HUA members land for the common good for free. Three, that I refunded the money they paid me for the easement over that period. Four, that I owed the money for mowing my lawn,

and five, that I would be fined for each infraction my tenant failed to remedy. This started an expensive process involving lawyers in the court system that ended with a judge telling me that what the H.O.A. had done was mostly legal. They did have the right to revoke exemptions, but they had to give me 30 days notice. As I was walking to my car, the neighbor who I'd sold that property to told me that I was

stupid to ever refuse to join the H way when it started, because I could have been a founding member, whatever that means. And that next time, I should be sure to understand the documents that I signed before assigning them. Part 3. The Malicious Compliance My neighbor was right, I should have read the contract better. Also, I was interested in what it meant to be a founding member, spoiler it meant nothing.

And so when I got home, I grabbed the HOA contract I had signed, as well as all other documentation they provided me with, and I started reading. I was determined to exploit every single loophole I could find, but I never made it past the first page. While the street address of my property is used to identify my property for all practical purposes, in the city records it has a unique property number that has to be used on legal records. When my mom moved in, I'd subdivided the remaining property, but I hadn't started building

on it yet. And when I gave the H-Away the easement all those years ago, it had been on the property I'd sliced off for my mom. And when the H-Away set up the contract, they had simply reused the property number from the easement. The next afternoon, my neighbor delivered two documents to me, one telling me that my exemptions would expire in 30 days, and one letting me know that my easement would no longer be required after 30 days. I think he was being a bit

malicious here, because I lived an hour away from that property, and he drove out to deliver the documents to me himself. Part 4. The Revenge Exactly 30 days to the hour after the H.O.A. had given me the 30 days notice I knocked on the neighbor's door. Oh, did I mention that he was the president of the HOA? And I had him sign for two documents. The first document said that I planned to build a house on my HOA property, which confused him. And the second document was a notice that they had 30 days to remove the guard shed,

the electric fence, and the sign for my property. He tried to engage me in conversation, but I ignored him, climbed in my car, and drove off. Early the next morning, I got a call from the H.O.A. lawyer who explained to me that their junk would be staying on my property since it was an unused part of my land. I explained that I was building a house there, and so the land wouldn't be unused anymore. I could hear this smirk as he told me that building a second house to be spiteful wouldn't be accepted by the courts. I sure hope that he could hear the smirk

in my voice when I told him that the property in question did not have a house, and was, in fact, barely large enough for a house to be built and wouldn't be large enough for any of those extraneous buildings. I then told him to go look up the property in question and call me back. It took them just under five days to get back to me. Their lawyer told me that the terms of the easement meant that I couldn't cancel it without their permission, so I emailed him a photo of the document they just sent me that cancelled the easement.

That afternoon, my neighbor invited me to lunch, his treat, to discuss the problem. I said, nah, no thanks. He extended the offer again two days later, and again, I said, no thanks. Other HWA members also contacted me trying to talk. Some sounded aggressive, some sounded sympathetic, and I said no thanks to each of them. Eventually their lawyer called me and asked if we could come to some sort of arrangement. I asked what he had in mind, and he told me that he was prepared to offer me exclusions in exchange for access to my property. I said no thanks, and please don't

call me again. About nine days before their 30 days was up, I got a call from a different lawyer. He said he wanted to negotiate a surrender. His words, not mine. I agreed to meet him at his office the next day. I had already had my documents drawn up, and the meeting was as simple as me giving him the documents and him reading them over. This was my new easement offer. One, they had to offer me everything they agreed This was my new easement offer. One, they had to

offer me everything they agreed to in the old easement offer. Two, I changed the line, Mo the lawn, to get the property to H.O.A. standards and keep it there since it was now part of the H.O.A. Three, this would cost them $500 per month instead of just $35. Three point five, this amount would go up with inflation. The previous contract did not include that part. For, when this was canceled, for whatever reason, the HUA would have to pay me a cancellation fee of $7,500.

$5, this contract automatically terminated 30 days after any of the following events occurred. $5.1, any disciplinary action was taken against me, my tenant, or the property. 5.2, any complaints were levied by the H-A-A against the property. 5.3, any legal action was taken against the property by anyone in the H-A. 6, this lawyer would be allowed to mediate any disputes between us at the HUA's expense. And, seven, the HUA would pay all of my legal fees if any legal action was taken against me. I had deliberately left some insane things in there so that I could appear to concede some points or be negotiated

down when the HUA got indignant. The lawyer did not look happy. He said that my proposal sounded unfair, but that he would have the H.O.A. president look at the documents. I reminded him that in eight days I would be setting a group of armed men with sledgehammers and anger management issues loose on whatever stuff of theirs was still on my property. That evening I got an irate call from the H.O.A. president. He told me that he was never going to sign this new contract. I said, okay. He then told me that he was never going to sign this new contract. I said, okay, he then told me that I was charging too much per month and that it should be the same rate as the previous contract. I pointed out that when I signed the previous contract, the area was under development and there was at least one other road leading in and out,

but now there was only my road. And besides, my road was now developed with everything they needed. He told me that I was forcing them to sign a document that they didn't want to sign. I told him that he was free to just not sign it. He whined about everything he could think of, and then eventually told me that I'd be hearing from his lawyer. The next morning, Mr. Surrender lawyer called to ask if I would come down to their office to sign the contract. I agreed.

When I got there that afternoon, I learned that Mr. Surrender lawyer wasn't a lawyer, but a paralegal. He handed me the contract and asked me to sign it. He laughed when I told him I would have to read it through first to make sure nothing was changed, and he mumbled something like, I'm sure you would. I read through the contract and nothing had been changed. Not a single thing. Also, the H.A. President had signed it and the surrender paralegal had signed it as a witness. I looked at the paralegal and said,

why did he sign this? It was stupid to sign this. The paralegal looked at me and said, I started telling him that signing this would be a bad decision, but he told me that I wasn't being paid to think or give legal advice and to shut up. So I shut up. I said, do you understand what he just signed here? He looked at me and nodded. I asked him if I should have one of the lawyers look at this before giving it to you, and he told me that we'd already build him enough for this, and that he would just sign it and sue me after the easement was safe. This happened about a year and a half ago. It took six months for the HWA to find out how screwed they were. They wanted to sue me, but their lawyers explained to them that there was no way for them to win. Even if the court sided with them, then all

they would get is the easement contract voided, and they did not think that the court would side with them. The lawyers were adamant about one thing. The HOA couldn't live with the part of the contract that said that the HOA paid my legal fees if I was sued. Since the way that it was worded, the HOA would pay my fees if anyone took legal action against me, not just the HOA. They my fees if anyone took legal action against me, not just the HOA. They argued that the courts probably wouldn't enforce that since the context of the agreement had to do with the HOA. However, I told them that I was prepared to find out, since the HOA would definitely be the one taking action against me if they challenged

it. I eventually signed an addendum to the contract that said that my HOA president neighbor would personally pay all of my legal fees unless he held no position at all in the H.O.A. and that the H.O.A. would pay all legal fees if the H.O.A. took legal action against me. At the end of that meeting, my neighbor resigned from his position as President of the H.O.A. I politely told my neighbor in front of everyone that he shouldn't sign documents unless he understands what he's signing.

He did not look pleased. It later came out during mediation that without the ability to control access to the HWA neighborhood through the security boom on my property, the HWA would be in breach of their own articles and it would be dissolved. I also learned that every single security camera in the H-O-A was wired to the guard house on my property. So basically, it was my way or the end of the H-O-A. The first mediation was really quite funny. The paralegal looked more than a little glum as we assembled and he called everyone to order.

I suspect that he had been told to screw me over, so I took the initiative. I reminded everyone there that while I had agreed to let this paralegal handle on mediation, I never agreed to mediation at all. If I didn't feel like the proceedings were fair, I would just leave and they could go ahead and sue me. The paralegal brightened up, and things actually went quite well. I'm riding this reddit post after getting home from my latest mediation. I built a swimming pool for my neighborhood dogs. As in, I made it myself. I dug a hole, packed it with stone, and gave a concrete finish. It was

my first attempt, and if I do say so myself, it looked well... terrible. The HOA called for a mediation meeting, in which they told me as nicely as they could, that the dog paddle pool was an eyesore right at the entrance of the HOA. Oh man, I already know what's gonna happen, I already know what's gonna happen, they signed a document saying they had to bring it up to standard so they're gonna pay for it. Am I right? Did they just screw themselves over?

I asked them to create a list of what needed to be fixed and how it needed to be fixed and give it to me at the end of the next meeting. Their list was extensive. It basically required the pull to be rebuilt from scratch. I asked them, is there any way to reduce costs on this to get it up to HOA standards and they assured me there wasn't. I thanked them, pulled out a copy of the agreement where they had agreed to get their property to HOA standards, which I'd highlighted, and handed it to them with the list. I told them the HOA usually

preferred if these things were dealt with within 30 days. They started arguing until the mediator reminded them that they couldn't force me to comply without causing the easement to end. The HOA said that they would get it done. During that meeting, I also learned a lot about my ex-president neighbor. I found out my neighbor sold his property three months back, and apparently he was leaving the country for Australia. I found out the H.O.A. had successfully sued him for a boatload of money that they lost due to his mismanagement and his vendetta against me. I also learned that he had been data against me. I have no idea what

I did to upset him so much, so I'm not sure if I'm going to screw with the HOA anymore. I already think that I'm close to breaking them. The only thing stopping them from canceling the contract is the massive financial loss that they do. I guess a lot depends on how they treat me and my tenants going forward. Also, I do like the monthly payments, so I'm motivated to play nice. But in the end, my neighbor was right. You really shouldn't sign documents unless you understand what you're signing. Man, OP, whenever I see one of these super long stories on Reddit, I always think to myself, ugh, I hope this is going to be worth it. But this, this was not a slog. This was like a five-course meal. The setup, your neighbors being a douchebag, you screen your neighbors over and over and over again,

and then emerging victorious. I mean, it's crazy that you destroyed your neighbor's life so badly that you had to sell his house and flee the country. That's not just malicious compliance. that's systematically destroying his entire life. That was our slash malicious compliance, and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.