Ridiculous HOA Demands Neighborhood Residents Keep Their Garage Doors Open

Sometimes, we think that homeowners’ associations might get a little bit of a bad rap. After all, it is basically their job to keep a neighborhood safe and home values high. Sometimes, though, this means playing hall monitor. Neighborhoods that have an HOA in place usually have good intentions at heart. However, as we have seen time and time again, they find a way to abuse their power sometimes. In a situation like this, it is certainly a cause for great cringe.

This story is a touch of a throwback. However, it just seems so absurd that we couldn’t help but bring it to you.

The ordeal unfolds in the city of Auburn, CA. Apparently, the Auburn Greens HOA caught wind of people using garages as living space. Apparently, this went against some sort of deed restriction or other regulation because the HOA wasn’t happy.

Now, if this was an issue, how do you enforce the rule?

In what might actually be one of the dumbest measures of enforcement that we have ever heard of, the Auburn Greens Homeowners’ Association took action. In order to make sure that garages weren’t occupied as a living space, they required residents to keep their garage doors open from 8 am-4 pm Monday-Friday. We had to do a little bit more research to make sure that this wasn’t a creation of a satire website and we found that it’s oh so real.

As anyone with an ounce of common sense in their brain would imagine, many residents had an issue with this. After all, going to work all day and leaving your garage open isn’t necessarily the most secure thing in the world. However, people who did not abide by the rules would be slapped with a $200 fine and forced to go to an administrative hearing. Some residents thought that taking the fine would be better than risking a potential burglary.

The news report below has first-hand accounts from the neighbors that chose to voice their opinions.

Following the report, the HOA would send out letters to residents stating that they could close their garages again without fine. It also stated that they would be working with homeowners to come up with a more “Reasonable” policy.