HOA From Hell #4

We received a notice from our HOA yesterday with a list of changes to our "rules." The two new rule changes pertained to putting out our weekly trash and visitor parking in the complex. The visitor parking rule changes don't bother me, because they really don't pertain to us. The trash rule change is more of an annoyance than anything else.

Over the last month or so, we discovered that we had a "Trash Nazi" living among us. Most of the neighborhood put their garbage out to the curb on trash day in garbage bags. I would say 95% of the time it wasn't a problem. Unfortunately, on two occasions we had some huge scavenger birds tear up some of the bags and spread some trash around.  So our neighborhood "Trash Nazi" went around and posted pictures of the birds and trash on our doors telling everyone the type of trash bags they should use or the type of trash can to use.  So now our new rules tell us we need to have a trash can with a lid with our address on it. 

No big deal, just annoying.  At least these rules aren't as bad as this woman's story in Orlando, FL.  She was renting a house with her boyfriend of six years and her four kids.  The HOA has forced her to move out of her home because their association defines a family as a married couple.  The rule also allows the HOA to ban gays, singles, and roommates from living in the neighborhood.  They lived in the home for almost a year before somebody told the HOA that the couple was not married.  There was no mention of these rules in her rental lease.

She is now suing the HOA, and I hope she takes them to the cleaners.  Not only is this another example of the unwarranted power these HOA's try to exert on their neighborhoods, it is ILLEGAL.  It is clearly in violation of the Fair Housing Act which states: 

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents of legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability).