BEEMER BUMMER
My HOA banned me from parking old car outside my home – I came up with a solution and it ruins their ‘gated entrance’
The driver exacted 'ironic' revenge for months
A DRIVER has mouthed off after their HOA threatened to tow a BMW away from their residence because of a stringent rule.
In a Reddit post, the BMW owner claimed he was able to find a loophole in the parking rules and exacted revenge against the gated community.
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The driver posted on the r/MaliciousCompliance thread in 2019 after receiving a parking notice from their HOA.
They said they had just moved into a rented home in the community.
The Redditor parked their 1980s BMW project car on the street outside the home.
Several other homeowners were parking on the street, they added.
Read More on HOA Parking
However, the HOA said the Redditor's parking did not comply with the neighborhood's "strictly enforced by towing" rules.
"I decided to look up the HOA's restrictions," the Redditor claimed.
"[I] discovered I'm living in HOA hell."
The Redditor said the community rules do not allow any on-street parking.
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The community had the legal ability to snatch any on-street cars with a tow truck, the Redditor claimed.
"I can only imagine that they've singled me out because my car is 30 years old," the driver claimed.
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"However, in my defense, it's very presentable and by no means junky."
The Redditor said they became "incredibly frustrated" by the supposedly targeted enforcement.
So, they searched for a loophole in the HOA's parking rules.
They found one right outside the community's picture-perfect gate.
Can an HOA ban street parking?
According to a North Carolina lawyer, an HOA holds the legal right to band parking anywhere - even in a homeowner's driveway.
The trick, says HOA lawyer Mike Hunter, is the deed homeowners sign when they buy a home within a subdivision.
"If you buy a home in a deed-restricted community, you’re obligated to abide by those restrictions," he told the Charlotte Observer.
"If the restrictive covenants say you can’t park on the street, the board has the legal duty to enforce that."
Many states are passing laws to limit the power of HOAs, though a majority of states still grant HOAs to enforce their regulations, restrictive or otherwise, however they see fit.
Read more here.
The driver found several on-street parking spots near the community.
They snatched a spot that impacted the neighborhood's manicured aesthetic.
Read More on The US Sun
"Unfortunately for the HOA, the closest section of public street to my rental house is right in front of their nice gated entrance," they wrote.
"Ironically, my old BMW has now become part of their image, and there's nothing they can do about it until I move out in a few months."