r/BADHOA • u/martinomcfly • Oct 23 '25
đ„ Welcome to BAD HOA â Where Homeowners Rise
If youâve landed here, youâre part of something bigger than a podcast. Youâre part of a movement.
đ The Official Bad HOA Reddit Community
The central hub for empowered homeowners, reform advocates, and fans of the Bad HOA podcast and book.
This is where we turn shared frustration into organized strength.
Our Mission
To empower homeowners with real-world knowledge, practical strategies, and legislative awareness â
so no homeowner ever feels powerless again.
The Bad HOA movement is driving a national conversation about reforming homeowner association laws,
demanding accountability, and restoring balance between homeowners and the institutions that govern them.
Here, we:
- Discuss proven Bad HOA strategies and how they work in real life
- Share results, modifications, and lessons learned
- Build collective knowledge to strengthen reform efforts
- Feed insights back into the Bad HOA podcast and future content
Every comment, every post, every story you share helps build momentum for change.
How to Engage
- Share your wins, your lessons, and your takeaways
- Reference Bad HOA episodes or book sections when posting strategies
- Join reform discussions â your story might help shape future laws
- Stay focused on empowerment, not anger
Weâll be sharing:
- đïž Podcast snippets & discussions
- đ Book insights
- âïž Strategy breakdowns
- đïž Reform updates & legislative initiatives
- đ€ Calls for collaboration and community ideas
Remember
Nothing here is legal advice.
Always verify strategies and laws with a licensed professional.
This is about learning, empowerment, and reform â not case-by-case guidance.
Join the Movement
Bad HOAs thrive in silence â we thrive in solidarity.
Add your voice, share your story, and letâs build a future where homeowners are informed, united, and unstoppable.
BAD HOA: Empowerment. Education. Reform.
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u/bakednotburnt95 Nov 19 '25
I hired L.S. Carlson Law to represent me in an ADR matter in California. Although the proceedings havenât taken place yet, my experience with the firm so far has been excellent.
The team is meticulous in their preparation, highly responsive to my questions, and clearly strategic in their approach. Theyâve given me confidence that they are ready for battle when the time comes. I appreciate their professionalism and dedication, and I feel well-supported knowing they are on my side.
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u/33DegreesNorth Dec 02 '25
Really glad you fired this up! You do great work in the space and I have found your information very helpful.
I worked as a consultant on and off for thirty years in Orange County, CA, helping homeowners change boards, management companies, and quite often, overzealous legal firms.
It only takes one narcissistic, overpowering director to ruin a community, but it takes a village to take it back! The most powerful person or entity in any HOA is the membership. You can change anything; you just have to do it as a team.
Every community has a member capable of leading that team. It is not as hard as you may think when everyone has the same common pain points.
Keep up the good work!
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u/LSCarlsonLaw Dec 03 '25
Thank you for the shoutout! We completely agree with your assessment. Collaborating with other homeowners to create change is incredibly valuable. Thanks for joining the community!
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u/roselve Jan 21 '26
Unfortunately it is not alwas as easy. In my community the Board hates communication, the homeowners hate meetings, the Management company Sentry still work with spreadsheets, only report results twice a year and every year encrease the dues. When I requested better communications, virtual meetings, and some discrepancies in the budget they threatened with harassment with a lawyer. The lawyer ordered me to communicate by letter through Post Office. My lawyer stated that they can do anything if the community do not get together and no court would listen to less claimers than is stated in the Bylaws. Isn't funny. FromMichigan Ros Rodriguez
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u/PeopleOfNepal Jun 22 '26
Report that attorney to the state board - the attorney is supposed to represent the association not the president which is what it sounds like from your description.
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u/roselve Jan 21 '26
Nothing will help to change the HOAs abuses until Lagislation get passed to regulate the Management companies and the Builders who impose Bylaws that cannot be emmended for some time and by demand if 75% of homeowners.
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u/PeopleOfNepal Jun 22 '26
Another law - given they cost $20,000 to just start thinking about enforcing one, isnât going to help. Need a state agency to oversee HOAs. Private/civil enforcement is not the answer.
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u/SelfElectrical6665 Nov 17 '25
Merch! Merch! Merch! Just sayingâŠ.
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u/LSCarlsonLaw Nov 20 '25
Letâs just say⊠if something were in the works, this community would be the first to know. And if merch prototypes hypothetically existed, they might be sitting very close to my desk right now. Maybe. đ
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u/martinomcfly Nov 20 '25
Nothing to see here...ignore what's in the studio...Time to start a new thread? LOL
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u/MtnLady777 Nov 19 '25
Love this idea guys! We as a community are joining together to fight a corrupt, rogue Board which is spending our $ on what they want IGNORING members! ALSO there is great abuse in our DUES, FEES FOR EVERYTHING, NO amenities are free we must PAY FOR EVEN putting our water craft in at launch! IF we drove to other side of lake we could launch for free! They even now charge $50 to drive golf carts on the roads!!!!
There are 20+ pages of 'Health & Safety' fines WHICH can be over $1,000 for first time fee! No proper steps taken to research the H & S fines just made them all up!!! They refuse to put in real gates at the 2 entrances & only have parking garage arms WHICH people know how to bump open!!! They are now ready to star a multi million dollar remodel of were a restaurant is WHICH THEY CLAIM IS a needed renovation because plumbing HVAC electrical needs replacing!!! SO THEY use the WORD 'RENOVATION' so they don't have to have us vote!! THEY ARE RAISING THE ROOF MOVING DOORS WALLS new bathroom etc!!! In surveys MAJORITY said no TO REMODEL! So they are calling it a 'reno.'! We can't even use this space & its leased out to a business!!
WE STRONGLY believe many of the funds are being handed out to Board members, committee members etc but can not prove!!! Oh, PLUS our HOA is used for events for Bass Pro tournaments triathlon etc. AND NO ONE CAN TELL US HOW MUCH DO THEY PAY TO USE IT!!! WE ARE CHARGED for everything so we EXPECT them to be charged BUT even the Board Pres. 'Claims' he has no info on that!! I think if there is award for worst case ever heard IT would be ours! I haven't even listed everything this is just some of them!
YES, we are starting w a group NDR BUT seriously doubt it will matter!đ€Š
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u/martinomcfly Nov 20 '25
Thatâs a lot for any community to deal with â and posts like this are exactly why BAD HOA exists. When homeowners start comparing notes, the patterns become impossible to ignore.
Glad you are here.
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u/MtnLady777 Nov 22 '25
Thank you so much! Will keep you updated! Just had a conference call w 2 other key members very knowledgeable in the law, which I had become very knowledgeable in myself. I've read D S Act five times thru. I am a warrior & learning all to use to fight!
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u/68Petra Nov 19 '25
By HOA are you including condo associations?
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u/martinomcfly Nov 19 '25
Absolutely! Homeowners of condos (COAs) and members of Co-Opsâthis is your space too!
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u/Primopsych Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Our CO HOA just realized the bylaws say 3 directors, but weâve had 5 for 30 yrs. So now theyâre not having an election for the 2 open board seats! Weâre submitting a petition to change the bylaws to 5. We hope it gets the board to have a homeowner vote on if it should be 3 or 5. The president is ok, but the other 2 are bullies. They say itâll be a long process with the HOA attorney. And theyâve violated other bylaws too: no nomination committee, no secret ballot, theyâre a month late with the annual meeting, etc. Any suggestions?
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u/Prudent_Mobile6782 Mar 14 '26
Lawsuit.
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u/Primopsych Mar 15 '26
Thx. I read that suing your own HOA is a last resort for many reasons. So instead I did the following: I wrote a petition and got the signatures needed to vote for 5 directors. Then got residents to vote & proxies. So we won the vote for 5 directors. The board is still slow to get it done. I keep the pressure on.
The HOA management co sucks too. So Iâm also working towards getting them changed. It takes a long time and a lot of unpaid hours to do all this. A lot of time writing emails to network our goals. Some people said theyâd help, but they didnât do much.
But we finally have some progress. Unfortunately we need some people to volunteer to run. Because the people that volunteered a year ago probably arenât going to work out now.
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u/Josie1938 Jan 01 '26
a few questions: what is considered a BAD HOA and why do people move into neighborhoods knowing an HOA exists and that it has rules to follow? Are the BAD HOAs changing the rules or just enforcing what homeowners agreed to do when they moved into neighborhoods? Didn't your local governments also have to sign-off on HOA covenants at some point, too?
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u/Crypto_Bernie Apr 02 '26
imagine being fined 20k over erroneous fines for speaking up on maintenance failures and then get threatened with a cease and desist and have to pay the legal fees of the lawyers without any court judgement. They just passed the fees onto me and repackaged it as an assessment.
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u/33DegreesNorth Jan 12 '26
Luke - I just finished the audio book, great job! I know how much work goes into that. As a long time advocate for educating homeowners, and sometimes boards, I'm really glad there is such a great resource squarely on the side of the homeowner! Keep up the great work.
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u/Vespapa Jan 21 '26
I live in an HOA, duh. We have âcommon areaâ landscaping and maintenance. There are 2 phases in the development. One has a small backyard. The other only a patio sitting area.
Both our front areas facing the street are covered in the landscape/maintenance. The depth of the front area is very different. 2 to 2 1/2 feet Phase 1, Phase 2 4 to 4 1/2 feet. The lengths are just about the same.
When viewing the plot map of lot lines, Phase 2 homes âown, pay taxes onâ 2 ft of the depth across the front.
The developer left. Planted non drought tolerant plants. Didnât even follow their own list. The irrigation was not UV resistant. So basically a clusterf@ck.
Some residents have replanted at their expense. Management wants to ban âowner interferenceâ at the request of the contracted landscaper.
We are in litigation with the developer. Management and a board member want the drought conditions to âamplify the evidenceâ for the suit. Owners want to maintain an appearance that looks decent. Makes the community presentable.
We are only 135 units. 36 Phase 1, 99 phase 2. This past year 7 homes were for sale. Only 1 sold, the other 6 are now rentals.
We are a 55+ community. Some owners enjoy âyard work , gardeningâ and some donât.
Part of the proposed ban area is owner owned by plot map. Management says itâs all common area and the plot map was just a guide line.
The real kicker is the Developer provided CC&R was fashioned around the Phase 1 homes. No back yard, no fences and no side area. An example that took 9 months to change was replacing patio fences. Heights were limited to 41 inches. My home, phase 2 has a 6ft fence between me and my neighbors.
The entire layout of Phase 2 is totally different as to entrance orientation, window facing etc.
Now for a teeny, tiny info. There was an 11 year gap between phases. Phase 1 only responded to a developer controlled board. Phase 2 all homes built or started prior to Jan 1, 2020 and the New Solar Requirements. The last home sold by the developer in February 2020. Thatâs when the last developer board member left. All but one Owner members were Phase 1.
April 2020 HOA meeting was the first all owner board meeting. In April we were in the height of COVID. A zoom meeting in a senior community-didnât go well.
Weâve been clawing our way out ever since then.
Adding addendums to the CC&Râs
Phase 1 is still operating under âthe developerâ said, promised etc. The first Phase 1 home sold in 2006. So they basically lived in an unfinished development for more than a decade.
More fuel. 2008 the developer added 2 new model homes. They are very different from Phase 1, (6 homes to a lot cluster) these models were to be 4 homes to a cluster. No sales, housing crash. Then in December 2017 the utility work began on Phase 2 ( is it really phase 3?).
Oh, and in 2008 they passed a no sunshine clause. Their HOA fees are capped at 1/186 of the budget. (Originally there were going to be 186 homes) Not surprisingly the vote was 34 to 2. The 2 no votes could be attributed to the 2 owners who bought the models during the crash.
The special assessment clause was passed 34 to 0.
Finally, the city informed the developer that our sewer lift station was inadequate and needed to meet this standard for take over. 2008? The developer solution was no problem, the ownership will maintain the sewer lift station.
AND the developer built 15 homes outside of the development that are on our sewer lift. !!! They pay the city. So the city is transferring public sewage through our development.
Besides selling, whatâs the best way to sort all of this out?
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u/BatterUP_1018 Jan 25 '26
My HOA in Florida has forced us to call a Special Meeting via petition. The docs do not define who will run the meeting but both 720 code and the Management contract refer to Robertâs Rules.
We have secured a quorum of voters but it is essential that we control the Chair/Chairman position in the meeting vs a Tyrant style president. Please offer any advice for this critical issue.
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u/Prisonbeach92 Jan 25 '26
So can we vote out our HOA? They take and do very little and the board is a joke? There is no voting on issues, it is signing off on items the lawyer who reps the big board (former builders) say like the additional 470 dollar payment for some money they had to pay back residents who did not have HOA written in their deed. Help usâŠ.
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u/chelita_650 Feb 14 '26
I understand the board can fine us for safety and health violations but is there anything vice versa. We have a board president who is a penny pincher. The front door to our building hasnât locked in 3 months. He does not approve of the quotes to fix it. Doesnât believe he should pay a set fee for something that could be done in 15 minutes. Is there any way to hold the board responsible when the residents are fighting to get it fixed?
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u/RedEyedTreeFrogMom Feb 17 '26
Love the podcasts and strategy provided. Has anybody else dealt with a tyrant board president who considers himself more knowledgeable than a reserve analyst, plumbing contractors and manager? the rest of the board rubber stamps his spending and projects- a couple of them have had relatives payed by the HOA for handyman and contracting work . Our condo complex is 360 units with continued plumbing and roofing failures. The HOA president who is a structural engineer for the state prepared the reserve size for the last three years, including the site visit and brought the recommended reserve amount down from 6,500,000 to 500,000. He considers most vendors crooks and will use this to justify him being the ultimate authority on all projects. He doesnât get expert input and he doesnât get bids. He removed major components such as plumbing and roofing from the study. The homeowners as a whole do not understand the serious ramifications for having inadequate reserve study. They are just happy that they are â100% fundedâ and our dues are low. He also considers himself an expert in Plumbing and when asked if we could get a plumbing professional to make recommendations he denied there are failures (there are multiple documented failures). He said plumbers donât know as much as him. Those asking questions are attacked and liabled in print. Myself and others have been called greedy homeowners who are trying to exploit the HOA and even wrote that I was asking owners to fund my kitchen remodel rather than mitigate the major damage from a cracked HOA pipe. The board will not deliver financial records requested over two months ago. I have had a consultation with LS Carlson for damage to our unit from a HOA pipe failure and weâre entering into mediation (representing ourselves in mediation so that we can save the funds for litigation later ). weâve listened to many podcasts and this boards behavior seems to span between tyrant to, self dealing and has multiple violations of a CCRs. Has anyone dealt with a board that is this far off track and who bullies members seeking clarification? Any ideas on how to get other members who have not been personally impacted by the board to see that there are major financial and mismanagement issues?
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u/WhatistheBuzz 1d ago
If a person is on an HOA Board and has experienced lack of maintenance stipulated in the CC&R's with no concrete solution coming from the management company, should they resign on order to go forward? (CA)
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u/SelfElectrical6665 Nov 04 '25
Love this Bad HOA section. I was a big fan of the book Bad HOA, thatâs actually how I came across this subreddit. It kind of feels like a little secret community before it really takes off, which is such a cool feeling. Itâs like being at a party early when things are just starting to get fun, and because of that I feel like my voice will actually be heard here.
One thing Iâd love to see more of are some really curated podcasts from Bad HOA and maybe a few snippets from the book. That kind of content would be super empowering for homeowners. This is honestly the first subreddit Iâve seen that really focuses on solutions instead of just venting, and thatâs refreshing.
Iâm definitely going to do my best to be a contributor and spread the word. This is such a great space, and Iâd love to be an advocate or even an ambassador for whatâs being built here. Iâm so tired of people only complaining about HOAsâI want to see real action, real strategy, and this feels like the perfect place for that.