You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Funny HOA Stories with Tom

Episode Blog

INTRO: On this week’s episode of CACM chat HOA life. To hear exclusive insights and expert perspectives on community association management from leaders across California. This podcast is about the hard work that managers do to positively impact the lives of more than 15 million residents living in over 50 ,000 homeowner associations across California.

TOM: Hey, welcome back kids. Thank you to the people here, out there and on all the ships at sea. Thank you, Stephen Colbert for that little plug. Hey, listen, the following, this episode is going to be about fun stories. You know, we have a tough career and I think it’s important to highlight some of the interesting or strange things that managers run across in our career and our day -to -day operations, our day -to -day life. This is not going to be a super long episode.

But a couple of fun stories from managers and then I’ll share one of my own. So, I’m going to just, you know, eliminate names. You may or may not know the story and may or may not know the community, but I’m not going to reference them just to protect the innocent.

 So, this first one comes from a manager that let’s just call it the pink flamingo rebellion. So, in a quiet California suburb. An HOA board known for its stringent and often overly strict regulations found itself in a bit of a pickle. The board had recently enacted a new rule that strictly prohibited any “non -traditional lawn decorations.” Now this included garden gnomes, ornamental bird baths, and especially plastic pink flamingos.

Which the board deemed again “tacky and detrimental to property values.” So, one Sunday, sunny Sunday morning, a homeowner will call him Jim known for his sense of humor and community spirit decided it was time to challenge the HOA new rule. Now as managers, I’m sure this never happens in any of your communities where someone decides, let’s see what happens if I just push the envelope.

So, Jim decided to do that. Jim had always kept his yard immaculate and well decorated, but you know, he felt the new regulation was a step too far. So, he concocted a plan to bring a little humor and a point into the mix. Jim ordered a hundred plastic pink flamingos and with the help of some friends, arranged them artistically all over his front yard overnight.

When the sun rose the next day, the neighborhood was greeted by the sight of a sea of pink flamingos, darning Jim’s property. The display was both impressive and I’m sure you’d agree absurd, drawing the amused attention to his neighbors and passersby. The HOA board, however, was not very amused. They quickly issued Jim

a formal notice demanding the immediate removal of the flamingos, citing the new regulation. However, Jim was prepared. He had meticulously read the HOA’s governing documents and found a loophole. While individual non -traditional decorations were prohibited, there was no specific rule about large -scale themed displays.

Jim responded to the notice with a politely pointing out the loophole and suggesting that the flamingos were part of a temporary art installation celebrating community and unity. He even invited the board members to an informal art exhibit tour of his lawn. You can’t make this stuff up. The story quickly spread through the community and even made local news.

Most of Jim’s neighbors found the whole situation hilarious and started showing their support by placing small pink flamingo decorations in their own yards. The HOA board realizing they were fighting a losing battle and becoming the subject of ridicule decided to back down. They rescinded the flamingo ban and allowed Jim’s display to remain for the month as a temporary “art installation.” In the end, the great pink flamingo rebellion became a legendary tale in the neighborhood.

Now it highlighted the importance of community spirit and the value of not taking things too seriously. Jim’s pranks not only brought laughter to his community, but also encouraged the HOA board to reconsider their approach to rulemaking.

Ultimately fostering a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere. So, a lesson from this would certainly be, you know, when you’re making rules, pay a little attention. It’s really not, you know, logical to make rules that are not enforceable. There was a community I personally managed in, well, somewhere, a large-scale community that it was in a blue-collar area filled with blue-collar residents and owners.

And they decided to try to pass a rule that said they didn’t want commercial vehicles parked in the street or on driveways, basically in view. And it took a couple of months of trying to convince those board members that that rule just simply would not make sense in that community. It of course didn’t hurt when one of the board members brought home his work vehicle and was called out.

So, another quick little story. This is also somewhat humorous. So, this manager was out, you know, previewing their property, doing their property walk. And she called the local police on what she believed was someone trespassing, basically sleeping on the clubhouse deck. This person was all tucked in his sleeping bag and had his phone charging in the electric outlet, you know.

Like we see every day. Now, she didn’t get real close according to her, and I would never suggest doing so either. And she just didn’t know who she would encounter. So, she backed off and just kind of, you know, let it go by the side, you know, called the appropriate authorities and so on. Well, it ended up being the board president as his wife kicked him out of the house the night before.

He was quite embarrassed as was the manager. And a little side note, as an FYI, I’m told, he and his wife are still together. Go figure. So, we have some fun in this industry. I used to manage, a brief story for me, I used to manage a large-scale community, 7 ,600 units or homes, roughly 30 ,000 residents.

 It was a little substantial, but we had full staff, full architectural division, compliance division, and so on, like a lot of the large co communities do. And my architectural director, covenants director came in and said, “look, I’ve got a homeowner that I have to give a formal violation to for, you know, a fence that’s falling down and a rotted out front door.”

Okay, so why are you in my office? Why don’t we just go ahead and send them a notice? And he was adamant. “No, no, I can’t do that.” I was like, yeah, yeah, you can. And yeah, you have to. “And no, no, Tom, I just, I can’t see it. I’m personally, I’m concerned.” I just kind of went, okay, well, that’s, this is interesting. What, what, do you mean that you are concerned? I said, do you have some kind of something going on here? “No. The homeowner’s Lorena Bobbitt.”

And I kind of went, are you living with her? “Nope.” Okay. Well then center the violation notice. You have nothing to worry about. Now for those listeners who aren’t aware of the Lorena and John Bobbitt story, Google it because it’s pretty scary, but that was awfully humorous. So, look, share your stories with me. Will you please? Because I have a whole lot of them, but these are just short clips that I want to make sure you guys get a little laughter periodically.

Get a little humor in our lives because we deal with a lot of problems on a day -to -day basis, high level stress, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different personalities that we’re trying to manage. So, I think once in a while, you just need to look at life and you look at our careers with a little bit of humor. So do me a favor and share your stories with me, email them to me at podcast@cacm.org. Please make sure you follow us on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

Until next time, I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

OUTRO: And that concludes this week’s episode of CACM Chat HOA Life. Have questions you want answered? Send them to podcasts@cacm.org and we’ll address them in an upcoming episode. Make sure to regularly check out our website at cacm.org. And don’t forget to join our rapidly expanding social media community. Just follow @CACMChat on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Thanks for joining me.