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About 10–20 years ago, a friend’s parents were building a house in a neighborhood with an HOA. He was something of a shade tree mechanic and
found out that one of the rules stated that he could not work on his car in his own driveway-up to and including changing the oil in his car. They had money, so he installed a Jiffy Lube-like oil change pit in his garage. The HOA told him that he could not do this, but he pointed out he would be changing the oil inside his garage with the door down, that there was nothing prohibiting this and challenged them to show that he was out of compliance. They harassed him for nearly 2 years. He kept every bit of correspondence with the HOA and when they filed a lawsuit against him, he showed up with the receipts… the HOA document, which did not prohibit what he had done as well as all correspondence between him and the HOA. the lawsuit was dismissed and the HOA had to pay for his legal expenses. He then turned around and sued the HOA for harassment using the same documents and won. I wasn’t privy to the monetary damages awarded to he and his wife, but shortly afterward, they went on a very nice international vacation that they said was paid for by the HOA. |