Real stories of HOA abuse against homeowners just trying to live in peace.
Who do homeowners turn to when threatened by the HOA? If you have the money, you can hire an attorney. You can commiserate with your friends, family, and neighbors. You can get a therapist. Sometimes, homeowners turn to the local news station for assistance.
In How to File an ARC with Your HOA So That They Can Reject It, I begin to tell the story of how I landed in my present situation with the HOA. Keep in mind that when I mention the HOA, I am also talking about the Property Management Company/Property Manager since they are a team, regardless of whether they functionally operate in that manner or not. And as you can see on my neighborhood’s CDD website, the HOA is the property manager.
In the past, I have contacted the HOA “board” and received absolutely no response. I would like to believe that because they receive so many communications in a neighborhood with over 700 homes, they must “accidentally” overlook things often. But what if that is not the case?
Again, I don’t know when my neighborhood acquired a property management company because I have not sought the answer. All I know is we used to have an HOA board with a president that lived in the community. And that president moved and shit seemed to hit the fan. So, I have finally asked Chatgpt for assistance.
In five days, the HOA is going to fine me $1000 which, per a previous email, they already did. They also already sent it to their attorney, Mankin Law. Mankin Law, who is already intimately familiar with me [and not in a good way], told me to comply with the HOA by submitting an ARC. The HOA will be fining me because my roof remains tarped due to the storms we had in 2024: Debbie, Helene, and Milton.
In my neighborhood, homeowners used to “get in trouble” for parking on the streets in front of their homes and in their driveways in a manner that blocked the sidewalk. This is what happens when driveways are short. This is what happens when you do not park in your garage. This is why people used to park at the edge of their driveways parallel to the street in a display of ugly compliance.
There are some things that Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has done right. (Right means that I agree with it. If you disagree with it, then it would be wrong, right?) I would not have known about these HOA updates if it weren’t for Deborah Goonan’s website, Independent American Communities.
To recap, in my neighborhood, we used to pay $50 per month for CDD fees and also $50 per month for HOA fees. As of January 2026, the HOA fees are $103 per month. There are 717 homes here.
I don’t know when we got a property management company in addition to our Homeowners Association. I probably don’t know this because, as I have mentioned, I have only attended one or two HOA meetings. When I moved here, we had an HOA with some members, including a president, with all members being residents of the neighborhood. That was it. And that was all.
As I previously recounted, I am in this neighborhood because it was what I could afford at the time (I cannot afford it presently, but have yet to get to the thicks of this story to explain.). Although I liked the communities Panther Trace and MiraBay, neither of those are what I imagined for my life. I didn’t have dreams of suburbia and Homeowners Associations.