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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/parodytx on 2025-10-09 19:54:55+00:00.

One of my many HOA stories when I regrettably was a member for the longest 2 years of my life was regarding decorations. All of our homes had a porch and rules regarding front of house “decorations” - the R&R said you could only have one decoration. Fine. I had no desire for any decorations at all in my front lawn.

We DID put 2 nice chairs on our porch to use on pleasant evenings with a sunset potential. We received a notice regarding our “violation” of having “two decorations in front of our house and the R&R only allowed one, and we had 24 hours to comply.”

Alllllllllllllllllllrighty then.

I removed both chairs from the porch. I searched for hours online for the most obnoxious decoration I could find - because the R&R made absolutely NO mention of WHAT the decoration could or could not be, only that you could only have one item. I ended up with an at least 7 foot tall blow up sphere, with an obnoxious nekkid mermaid-like thing floating inside it, flapping like one of those wind-man devices at a car dealer.

I also posted a small sign stating “Surveillance Camera in Operation. SMILE!” to curb any vandalism ideas.

The HOA BOD went absolutely NUTS. I received no less than 6 letters in 2 days about how inappropriate, vile and other various adjectives my “decoration” was, and that I was obliged to remove it. I responded with a certified return receipt letter with the appropriate section of the R&R highlighted and invited them to return mail with the exact language that my decoration was in violation of, and failure to do so with continuing violation notices would result in legal action on my part against all the BOD members.

This went on for about a month, and finally my lawyer buddy sent them a threatening notice on their letterhead stating that depositions and full financial disclosures from each and every member would be demanded for discovery purposes in my damages lawsuit unless I received an acknowledgement of their errors and a formal apology.

They waffled for about a week then caved. Got a written apology published in the HOA newsletter signed by all the BOD members.

The next HOA meeting resulted in a rules change that porches were excluded from the decorations restrictions, and that all lawn decorations needed to be smaller than 4 feet in height.

Many of the homeowners came to thank me for my resistance and results.

Like I said, moved after 2 years for my job and never considered an HOA since - every realtor we worked with that was absolute no-way rule #1.