Feeling Proud
After she signed the necessary documents and deposited the first mortgage on the house, Eliana was ecstatic to move into her new home. She drove behind the moving truck and got out, smiling up at the beautiful green exterior of the house and the gorgeous front yard she couldn’t wait to fill with flowers.
Eliana was more than proud. She was overjoyed at the fact that she could finally do exactly what she wanted to her space, and she was itching to start making it her very own. But soon after walking into her new home, it was clear there were others who disagreed with her choices.
One Month In
To say Eliana was busy during the first month in her new house was putting it lightly. Every free moment she had was spent unpacking her boxes, moving around furniture, and adding little touches to her home, both inside and outside.
She painted her mailbox a lovely forest green to match the house, planted flowers in the front yard, and added lights and gnomes around the garden to give it the homey feel she’d been yearning for all her life. During all of her activities, she barely had time to meet her neighbors. But she was finally about to meet one of them.
Meeting the Neighbors
Eliana was on her hands and knees in the garden when she heard a sweet voice say hello behind her. She turned around and saw a woman who looked to be in her late sixties. The woman introduced herself as Patricia, and though she smiled at Eliana, she wasn’t there just to say hello.
“I know you’re new here, and I wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. You’ll find we like things a certain way here. You might want to rethink the color of that mailbox,” Patricia said and handed Eliana a letter to punctuate her sentence. Patricia waved goodbye and walked away before Eliana could really process what had just happened. Then, Eliana opened the letter.
The Letter
Her eyes scanned the page, and her mouth fell open in shock. It seemed to be a “welcome to the neighborhood” letter, but woven in were passive-aggressive sentences and a note at the bottom that Eliana’s mailbox had been painted two shades two dark, resulting in a $100 fine. At the bottom, the page was signed by the HOA board.
It had only been a month, Eliana thought to herself. How could she have already broken a rule? She sighed, throwing it on the table, and telling herself she’d return to it later. But a week later, she opened her door to see another envelope lying on her doormat.
Another One
She looked around, trying to see if any of her neighbors were around, and caught the eye of a woman staring from the windows of her house across the street. When Eliana made eye contact with her, she quickly disappeared, making Eliana all the more suspicious.
Eliana opened the envelope, already having a feeling of what was written inside. This time, the complaint was that three days out of the past week, her car had been parked one inch over the designated line of her driveway, which, yet again, meant she owed $100. She couldn’t believe what she was reading! She looked back up at the house where she had caught the woman staring and marched across the street.
Woman Across the Street
There was no sound for a moment after Eliana knocked on the door, but she waited anyway. She knocked once more and then heard footsteps approaching the door before a face popped out. The woman seemed to be in her late forties and was clearly shy. Eliana extended her hand anyway.
Then, she began to explain how she was new in the neighborhood and had been receiving ridiculous letters from the HOA. “Is this normal? Have you received any of these letters before?” she asked. The woman simply nodded and pulled Eliana into her house.
Moment of Camaraderie
The lady was called Beth, and she had long grown past the phase of wanting to fight the HOA. She had lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and they had only gotten more strict and more ridiculous. “It’s best to just follow their directions unless you want to be kicked out of the neighborhood,” she said.
Could they actually do that? Eliana was beginning to feel more and more upset, though knowing she wasn’t alone did make her feel better. She thanked Beth for her kindness and went home, trying to convince herself to just go along with the rules. After all, she didn’t want to lose her home. However, just a few days later, she reached her tipping point.
Hand Delivered
The next Sunday morning, Eliana woke up with the sun and made herself some coffee before going to sit on her porch. This was life, she thought to herself. But when someone walked up her driveway to where she was sitting, she could tell her morning was about to be ruined.
This time, it was a man, and when he smiled at her, it didn’t reach his eyes. Eliana greeted him, and he told her his name was Kyle. He was there on behalf of the HOA, and he had another letter to bring her. This time, she opened it there before he had gotten off her porch, and Eliana couldn’t hold back her anger.
Here to Help
“What is the meaning of all of these fines? How can my gnomes possibly be offensive to anyone else, when they’re in my yard?” she said to Kyle. He turned around at the bottom of the porch, and once again flashed his smile, though this time, it looked more like a grimace.
“You’ll do well to follow the rules, Ms. Sawyer, or suffer the consequences. We’re trying to help you maintain a proper home, not whatever it is you call this. You can bring your concerns up at the meeting next month, and the rest of the board and I will be happy to hear your complaints,” Kyle said and walked away. Eliana would have more to share than just her qualms—she would make sure of that.
The Rule Book
Though she had planned to do some more gardening and decorating in her new home, Eliana figured that could wait. For now, she needed to come up with a way to find justice for the ridiculous fines they had handed her.
She went inside and found the booklet that had been given to her the first day she signed, and got to work reading every rule and fine print in the Homeowners’ Association rule book. Something in here had to help her outsmart these people.
Creating a Plan
She read up on all of the specific rules about the exterior of the house, what is and isn’t allowed to be planted and kept in the yards, and all of the other seemingly insane regulations. Then, she went to the website for the neighborhood, and read up on the board members. She found out that Patricia served on the board, and her husband, Kyle, was the president.
The other three members lived only a few streets away, though one was planning on stepping down. His position would be open and there would be an election to fill the spot at that meeting next month. Suddenly, Elina’s mind began to work in overdrive.
Door to Door
There was no time like the present to start to meet her neighbors, Eliana thought. Why not turn it into a sort of campaign trail as well? That first morning, Eliana decided to start small and just stay on her street, but she knew this was about to be something much bigger.
She began by going door to door, introducing herself, and saying how happy she was to meet her new neighbors. She was at the gnome house, she told them, and they suddenly all knew who she was. Then, she told them she noticed how strict the HOA was and asked if anything like that had happened to them. That question seemed to open up a floodgate. After asking it, each of them invited Eliana in for a cup of coffee, and a rant.
Collecting Evidence
By the end of the day, Eliana collected endless testimonies from each of her neighbors, who had all received letters of their own. One had been fined for planting a flower that was too bright, while another had painted their fence eggshell white, instead of pure white.
That isn’t right, she would tell them. They would agree, Eliana would hug them and leave the house, telling them they would find a way to do something about the rules. “You should be allowed to plant whatever flowers you want,” she told her neighbor. She went home feeling accomplished, but her work was far from over.
Doing the Research
The next step was to figure out the inner workings of the HOA board. She wanted to know the process for getting elected, and who each of the people on the current board were.
She began to learn a little bit about them, which she believed would help her make her cases against them. But the true evidence that would take them down lay within their homes and histories themselves. There must’ve been something they did that could get them removed—after all, everyone had their secrets. Eliana was deadset on revealing them.
Staying Busy
The next month flew by, as Eliana continued to meet more and more of her neighbors and do more research on the board of the HOA. She did all of this while maintaining her day job.
Finally, it was the evening of the meeting. She walked to the meeting with her neighbor Beth, whom she had become quite close to over the course of the month. This was going to be an evening the neighborhood would never forget. They messed with the wrong person!
Called to Order
The room was packed with a hundred people or so, many of whom Eliana recognized and smiled at, asking them how they were. She was proud that she had been able to meet so many, and she knew that would help her tonight.
There was chatter as people filed in. Then, Kyle stood up in front of the group, hushing them and calling the meeting to order. Eliana felt even angrier than she expected when she stared at his fake smile. As they sat down and explained the events of the meeting, Eliana practiced in her mind exactly what she would say.
First Order of Business
“We’ll start with our first order of business. This is our last meeting with Howard on our board, and we’ll be very sad to see him leave,” Kyle said. There was scattered applause around the room. “We will start with complaints, questions, and concerns. Then, we will have a short vote and election to replace Howard. If you want to run, you may state your case and we will elect together a new member. Capiche?” he asked.
As he went to sit behind the table in front of the room, a line began to form, and people waited their turn to bring up issues and unfair fines. This was Eliana’s opportunity.
Giving Out the Information
One by one, Eliana’s neighbors went up to the microphone, stating their case of why they believed they shouldn’t have to pay a fine for open window shutters, for putting up a flag that had flowers on it, instead of the state flag, or even for cutting their grass a quarter of an inch too short.
As they shared their concerns, Eliana began to pass out packets of paper she had printed out beforehand. She tried to make it as subtle as possible, not calling attention to herself before she handed them all out. But handing out these papers was only part of her plan.
Spreading the Truth
Eliana had really done her research. Not only had she looked back into the public records of each of the board members, but she had also gone around to their houses to see if they had maintained the same standards they were expecting of the rest of the neighborhood.
Every time someone mentioned a complaint about a fine they’d received, Eliana whispered to the people around her which of the board members had broken that same rule. Then, she got up and moved around, so she could continue to spread the truth to the rest of the neighbors.
Murmur in the Crowd
At first, the neighbors were hesitant to believe Eliana. But when she mentioned which page and section on the handout she passed around had the information she was referring to, they had no choice but to believe the evidence in front of them.
As more neighbors went to the front to complain, more neighbors had their full attention on the packets of paper in front of them, and they continued to read what their board members had been up to. A slight hum fell over the crowd, which grew into a murmur and then a chatter. Suddenly, Kyle stopped the woman speaking. “Is there a problem here? Why is it so loud?” he asked.
Getting in Line
The crowd quieted for a moment, but just a few minutes, before rising to a volume that made it difficult to hear over the next neighbor. “Folks, please, if you can’t quiet down, we’ll skip right over the complaint section and move right to the vote,” Kyle said, clearly annoyed.
The people in the hall quieted once more, but Eliana knew it was now or never. She got in line to speak next. Oh, she had some complaints, alright. She took a shaky breath, knowing that what she was about to do would change the dynamic of the neighborhood forever.
Finally Speaking Up
“Ah, our new neighbor,” Patricia said from her seat behind the table when Eliana stepped up to the microphone. “After just two months here, I couldn’t possibly understand what your complaints might be,” she continued.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Patricia,” Eliana started. “At first, I wanted to come here and dispute the fines I had received due to my mailbox color, my parking, and my beloved gnomes. It made me upset to realize the board of this neighborhood didn’t value individuality. But after doing a bit of research into the rules of this neighborhood, I found something much more interesting,” she went on.
Catching Them By Surprise
“What I really came to complain about is just how corrupt the Homeowners’ Association board is and how unfair it is to fine the rest of the neighborhood when all five of you have been evading the rules as well,” Eliana said confidently.
With that, Eliana handed her last five papers out to the board members. She smiled at Howard, hoping that he knew he had no role in this. After all, he was already stepping down, and he was the only one who hadn’t broken a rule, as far as Eliana could tell. She gave them a moment to read over the papers and let the information sink in before she turned to the rest of the room.
Calling for Justice
“I know I’m new to this neighborhood, but I’ve come to value my neighbors so much, and I don’t think we deserve to live in a place where the board members of the HOA display clear hypocrisy,” Eliana said.
She went on to point out each of the board member’s fines they accumulated over the years and never paid. She pointed out instances where each board member had targeted a neighbor in the crowd for their own personal gain. Finally, she explained how Kyle and Patricia had both gotten on the board in the first place—by threatening anyone who voted against them with a foreclosure on their home. “You didn’t deserve that,” Eliana said to her neighbors who were nodding along with everything she said. Now it was time for the final blow.
A Proposition
“This is my proposal for you all. We elect our board members, so we can renounce their positions. With behavior like this, I believe all five should be replaced instead of just Howard’s position. What do you think?” Eliana asked.
The hall was filled with noise as the crowd immediately began to talk amongst themselves. For a few minutes, Eliana stood there watching, the hope and confidence she had dwindling. Then, her dear friend Beth stood up. The crowd stopped talking and leaned forward as they waited to hear what their sweet, terribly shy neighbor had to say.
In Agreement
“I agree with Eliana. Let’s replace all of the positions,” Beth said quietly. It was exactly what the neighborhood needed to make their decision. One by one, they all stood up, expressing their agreement as well.
The board members were appalled. They had just been humiliated and exposed for things they hoped would never surface, but now, they were losing their positions on the board. Eliana ignored them, and together, the neighbors in the hall called a vote to re-elect the board of the HOA.
A Re-Election
The neighbors went through a small debate over who the next board members would be, but it didn’t take long for them to agree upon the best people to represent their neighborhood.
Beth was elected to a position, along with three other kind and rational individuals. When it got to the last position, the whole neighborhood agreed that there was only one other person they wanted on their HOA board—and it was a unanimous vote for Eliana.
Looking to the Future
Even though moving into a new neighborhood where the HOA set the rules made Eliana feel hopeless, she soon found that with a bit of kindness and a lot of determination, there was a way to unite her neighbors and change the way things were done.
We’re so inspired by Eliana’s strength and the kindness she extended to her neighbors. We wish her luck on her HOA board and hope there is a real change in the neighborhood.
