Has HOA gone too far?

We moved to the area a little over a year ago. We found a beautiful new development and a house we have made into a home. We have our own little piece of land and it's ours. Well, at least it felt like it until our first notice came in from the Managing Agent for our HOA.

It started off as a courtesy notice for the garbage cans that were on the side of our house. They needed to be out of sight and we were instructed to put them in our garage. I refuse to put them into the garage and thus, a fence was built to hide the ugly cans. Problem 1 averted.

Then, a few weeks later, we got another courtesy notice for our recycle bin needing to be put away. I'm sorry that I didn't drag the dumb thing in within the 15 minutes of it being unloaded into a recycle truck, but come on...at least I'm recycling. So yes, we pulled the bin in and and problem 2 was dodged.

Soon after that, we get another letter regarding our yard and how the grass needed to be edged along the driveway. So what do we do? We pull the cars into the street, edge the grass and hope that we don't get in trouble for having such an unruly yard (can you detect the sarcasm). Now mind you, at this time, we had a lawn service coming to fertilize our yard, making it green and lush and we were told by this company to let the grass grow out a bit so it fills out. We followed the company's instructions and it leads us to get reprimanded by HOA.

Now a few months ago, I get a letter warning us that we were in violation of parking in the street. PARKING IN THE STREET. We never park in the street. We always, always park in our driveway. We fear that our cars would get swiped if in the street and thus, we never park in the street. I was completely surprised by the letter and blew it off, knowing we did nothing wrong.

Boy, was I in for a shock. Yesterday, I get a CERTIFIED LETTER, one that cost the Management Company $5.32 to send me, stating that it was a "final notice" for the same parking violation I had received months prior, and that if it was not remedied, I would be subject to a fine. I don't think I have ever been so upset. Who are these people to tell me that I haven't remedied a situation that never existed.

I promptly made some phone calls to the HOA company and it felt as though I was participating in a prank call on the radio. Although the person I spoke to was nice, she had no answers for me -- none that were acceptable and this has pushed me to the breaking point, where I am ready to contact newspapers and news stations and have them do some sort of special on corrupt HOA's.

I was told that perhaps it wasn't my car parked in front of my home that instigated the letter. Hmmm, it could have been a neighbor's car, or a friend's car... I asked for a solution. What should I do if I have friends come over for lunch or dinner? Can they not park in the street?

Answer: No, they can't park in the street, they must park at the CLUB HOUSE. (The club house is 0.4 miles away from my home.)

I'm sorry. I couldn't take that answer. You are telling me that my friends who might be bringing there tiny children over, are going to have to park their car 0.4 miles away, walk to my house in the 95 degree heat, stay for an hour, and then walk back to their car that may or may not be there? Un-freakin' believable.

We finally find a neighborhood we love, and that euphoric feeling has to be tarnished because someone has too much time on their hands and has to (cover your ears, kids) bitch about a car being parked in front of my house for an hour? Give me a break. Do I date complain about the dead grass lawns with the weed infested landscaping? No. Do I cry over the fact that a neighbor down the street can't pull all the way into the driveway and blocks the sidewalk, so when we take walks, we have to go into the street? No. Do I have hissy fits over people having parties and cars all over my neighborhood? No...instead of whining, I'm wishing I was invited.

Can't people just be happy? Why do they have to rain on everyone's parade? I get that HOA would need to do something if a trailer were parked in my front lawn. Or maybe if I started placing pink flamingos and fake penguins in my yard. Or even if I had my Christmas lights strung up past February. But I'm not. We follow the rules, we maintain our yard, we want our house to look nice and we want to be in a good neighborhood. But it's almost like HOA infringes on the livelihood of neighborhoods and it frustrates me.

After I huffed and puffed on the phone with Ryan, he told me to just forget about it and blow it off. I know, I should. I'm going to let it go after I'm done with this post (I think). I'm just so over the fact that this association, who collects at least $60 a year from each home in my development, has so much power over what goes on. Don't you worry, I'll make sure I'm at the next HOA meeting and I'll be darn sure to speak up regarding this issue. (And that should be a shock to most of you, because honestly, I hate public speaking...but this would be worth the stress.) I hate that we have been a target for all these notices. I hate that HOA is so reactive and not proactive. I hate that I can't know who is reporting us because I would love to know why they have all this extra time on their hands.