HOA Let Members Park In My Private Warehouse, I Towed EVERYONE From My Property!

HOA leted members of their Association park in my private warehouse, and I ended up needing to teach them a lesson. Here is what happened. Let’s dive right into the video.

The first one starts like this: So, I’ve had my shipping business for over a decade, and I swear that I never had an issue with any of the people who lived around my office and warehouse until the neighborhood next door became an HOA. This is the story of how the HOA thought they were entitled to my parking lot because it was next to a building they owned.

I do want to share the lay of the land that my business is on, though. If you’re looking at it from left to right, there’s a small office connected to a large warehouse, where all of the packing is completed and shipments are collected to be sent out. Behind the warehouse is where I have my trucks and vans parked. The area from the office to about 100 ft to the side of the warehouse is a parking lot. It extends in the back of the warehouse as well, but that section is blocked off by a gate that only people with badges can enter so they can park their truck or van. I hope that makes sense.

Now, so on with the story. The issue started when the HOA built some sort of conference hall or meeting area next to the parking lot of my warehouse. I did not have a problem with it. They had every right to build what they wanted, and the construction did not spill over into my lot. Well, that was until the HOA board started hosting monthly meetings. There were a lot more people that came to those, and there would be nights that I would be ready to send one of my trucks out, only to find a bunch of cars I did not recognize blocking the entrance to the warehouse.

The parking was not the biggest issue, but where these people had chosen to park. Instead of using the spaces closest to the HOA building, they were all over my lot. I have two large trucks and five vans and need to have enough space if I’m sending multiple vehicles out of the lot at the same time. With the amount of cars that the HOA members had in my lot and the places that they are parking, it’s hard for my employees to maneuver, especially with the large trucks. The last thing I wanted to see was one of my guys clip a car while they were trying to get out of the lot.

I did try to be polite about this whole situation, though. There were already signs in my lot about unauthorized vehicles being parked there and how this was private property. I let things slide the first two times, hoping someone would realize the signs meant them. I had not put up a warning about any fines that would be incurred, but one sign did mention that I would have a vehicle towed if it was trespassing.

The third month had me coming into the HOA meeting they were having and just letting everyone know that the parking lot next to the building was for my company and not for the building. Before I forget, the HOA building did have a parking lot at the front of the building. It just was not as large as my own.

I hated to do something like that, but I was tired of having to try and plan around when they would have meetings, just so that my workers didn’t have to try and dodge cars when they headed out for a job. I did not get much of a reaction from the group when I headed out. I had hoped that that would have been the end of it, but the next month proved me wrong.

Our state was in the path of a collection of large storms which were causing issues for shipping companies because of flooding and damage to shipments. I was trying to get my guys out on the road before the next storm rolled through. So I and a few of my employees went to the warehouse to grab whatever needed to be shipped out so we could load it onto a truck.

When we got to the warehouse, I noticed that there were still a lot of cars parked in the lot, but I figured I would deal with them later. Time was of the essence here. The door to the warehouse, which is like a large garage door, was open halfway though, and a half dozen cars were parked inside the building, blocking any way for the truck driver to pull in so me and my guys could load up what we could.

Someone from the homeowner association had found a way to open up the door so that a few cars could stay out of the rain inside of my warehouse. I was seething, seeing as I wouldn’t be able to get anything loaded into a truck before the cars moved. Also, the fact that someone had knowingly come onto my property and went into one of my buildings without permission was unacceptable.

Really, who would do something like that? I don’t care if it’s storming. You would ask someone if you could use their warehouse as a makeshift garage.

I was seething, seeing as I wouldn’t be able to get anything loaded into a truck before the cars moved. Also, the fact that someone had knowingly come onto my property and went into one of my buildings without permission was unacceptable.

Really, who would do something like that? I don’t care if it’s storming. You would ask someone if you could use their warehouse as a makeshift garage. I decided that enough was enough and called up a nearby towing company, letting them know that I had about 20 cars on my property that needed to be towed. Then the trucks came, and they worked pretty quickly, removing each and every one of the cars that the HOA members owned off of my property.

By the time they were done, it was beginning to storm again, and I didn’t want to risk my employees getting on the road in rough weather. So we closed up for the night. I made sure to lock up the warehouse extra tight just in case.

The next morning, I got a call from the police department asking if I was aware of vehicles that had been stolen close to my property. I asked the officer on the phone for a description, and he listed off the cars that I towed away. I explained the situation to the officer, letting him know that the cars were parked on my lot without permission, and that I had spoken to the owners previously. I also told him that I had clear signage that indicated that cars not authorized to park in my lot would be towed.

The officer thanked me for clarifying, and I gave him the number of the towing company so he knew where the cars were and could pass the information on to the owners. For about a week, I didn’t hear anything more from the tow company or the police, so I figured that the HOA members had gotten their cars back and that they learned their lesson.

Instead, I got a call from the head of the HOA who said that she would be taking me to court in order to cover the cost of getting all 20 cars back from the tow company. I reminded her that those cars were parked on my property, not hers, so she would not have much standing in court. She then pulled out some excuse that the HOA’s property did extend onto my company lot and that I had no right to remove the cars.

I told her that I would counter sue and hung up with her, and then put in the number for my company’s lawyer. I had decided that I wanted to counter sue for the business that I lost because their cars were in the way of my trucks and the money that I paid to have the cars towed.

My lawyer told me to collect everything I had from the times that the HOA members had parked in my lot. I had not taken a lot of pictures, but I did take pictures of the cars in my warehouse the day that the cars were towed, if only to show that the cars were in a place that could be considered trespassing. I grabbed the planning blueprints for the warehouse that showed where my property line ended, since the HOA insisted that they owned a part of my parking lot. I took pictures of the signs that I had up and around my lot, along with the receipts showing when I purchased them.

It took a few months to get to court, but when we did, the HOA brought another charge of trespassing towards me, and they claimed that the one month that I came into the building to let them know about the cars was considered trespassing. Since I was not a part of the HOA board or a member of the neighborhood, the fact that I entered the building without being invited, as the HOA meetings were private, was apparently trespassing.

My lawyer fought against that charge, deeming that I entered the building with a purpose and not to cause disruption to the meeting. The judge threw that charge out, of course, which made the HOA head angry. The head of the HOA kept hammering away at my legitimacy to the land that my warehouse and parking lot are on, claiming that the property line of the neighborhood extended onto my property.

It was easy to shut that down, since my business was created and the buildings for it were built about 9 years ago. My lawyer was able to find documents from the county’s office that showed the plans for construction. The HOA had not been a thing until half a year ago, so they had no ownership of any land that I’d already built something on.

But then came the issue with the cars. I provided the information on my signs, showing that I had put them up long before the HOA existed, so they were not new or purchased because of the HOA. I showed the court the photo of the cars in my warehouse, how they were parked and how that blocked any way of my trucks getting through, and how it prevented my employees from moving things out and around the cars because of how they were parked.

With the weather problems during that time, it was imperative that I got my employees out on the road at specific times or we lost business. I explained that in order to make sure that no damage occurred to my employees’ vehicles as well as the HOA members’ cars, towing them out of my parking lot was the only option.

The HOA president claimed that I still had no right to tow their cars without informing them, but because of the signage and my attempts the month before, the judge claimed that I had done my due diligence to make sure that the HOA members did not have their cars damaged in a lot that was not theirs.

I won the suit, getting the money I would have made that day if it hadn’t been for the cars, along with being reimbursed for the tow truck payment. The HOA had only been active for less than a year, but the court’s ruling was all it took to dismantle the whole thing.

That had not been my intention at all when I decided to fight them in court, but ever since they left, I haven’t had to worry about anyone using my lot illegally. I’m working on expanding my business to another part of the state, and I’ve been very picky about the location, making sure that there is not an HOA nearby that could give me trouble again.

I’m working on expanding my business to another part of the state, and I’ve been very picky about the location, making sure that there is not an HOA nearby that could give me trouble again.

And the next one is a pro revenge story. If you have enjoyed those stories until here, please don’t forget to like the video and post a comment because that would help me tremendously. Thank you so much.

The next one is a tenant drama story. I’m a landlord, and I have lots of stories, but the worst tenant I had—well, it’s hard to narrow it down. But one was a woman about 50 and her 17-year-old daughter. They seemed normal. The mom was a nurse and the daughter ready to graduate high school.

Well, they moved in and paid first month rent and deposit—and then never paid rent again. They ended up squatting for over 2 months while I went through the long eviction process. They also never put the electric and water bill in their name either, so it was shut off after a while.

I never wanted to go in because it seemed like they were still there, and this is out in the country, so you just never know. When the time finally came, a court-appointed bailiff came with me to see how they left the place—and, well, it was trashed.

Literally smelled worse than dead animals in a dumpster. There were several heavy bags of cat crap and kitty litter from a cat they snuck in. There was food left out everywhere and dishes overflowing in the sink. The dishwater was rancid.

The bailiff walked over by the fridge, and I could see him looking at the liquids from the freezer dripping down out onto the floor. I said, “Don’t you open that.” He put his hands up and said, “I’m not allowed to touch anything.”

We went through so much junk left behind—couches, TV stands, DVDs. The bathroom was disgusting. And the worst part was the low water levels with cloudy dark liquid inside the toilet. I quickly moved on.

I went into the mom’s bedroom and there wasn’t much in there. I was surprised that she just left some clothes on the floor. The closet door was swung open, so I shut it. Behind it was a pair of jeans. I carefully picked them up at the edge to throw them in the pile of other clothes—only to see from the back that they had been pooped in.

She was a big woman, and those were some big crappy jeans—from midseat right down the inside seam. Amazing though—she cleaned most of the room out but left those for me. The bailiff was still shadowing me at this point, and I was amused. He was not.

I said, “Well, let’s check the other bedroom and get the hell out of here.” He nodded. Now, the daughter’s bedroom was very similar to the mom’s—so similar in fact that, yes, you guessed it—there was a crappy pair of pink panties in the closet.

I guess these women crapped themselves and were too embarrassed to take their clothes to the laundromat since the water was off. So the alternative was to leave it for me to find. I wonder if they both crapped themselves the same day—maybe a bad meal?

I was kind of laughing while taking pictures at this point. I mean, it sucked that I had to clean up all this stuff, but it was still funny nonetheless. The bailiff said that’s as bad as he’s ever experienced.

Fortunately, there were very little bugs. Unfortunately, neither occupant was ever tracked down. It was summer, so the girl had graduated and disappeared. The mom was no longer a nurse at the same hospital.

Before they vanished, they owed over $3,000 in bills and thousands more in damages. I took pictures and will try to find them. I hope to track down these women someday and serve them their court summons with pictures of their crappy drawers attached.

And now, let’s move on to the next story. It starts like this:

Giant sequoia trees are not a very common sight—even in America, where they are the most abundant and native. Here in the UK, though, they are even less common. I am—or I guess I was—fortunate enough to have one on my property.

I don’t really know the history of the tree and how it ended up in a residential area. My best guess is that before homes were built, it was all trees, and since they are rare, the homes had to be built kind of around the few of them.

They don’t have the word “giant” in their name for no reason either. These trees are massive. I recommend looking it up after reading this to try and see for yourself. If you’re a person similar to me, you might think that a giant tree is super cool. If you’re like my neighbor Karen, you might think that it is horrible.

She also had no bad feelings about making her ideals known and trying to make the entire thing my problem. The following is just an example of many conversations we had regarding the matter:

Karen: “When are you going to finally get rid of that stupid tree?”

Me: “That tree is amazing and also extremely rare. It’s not going anywhere, and honestly it doesn’t have anything to do with you. The tree is not on your property.”

Karen: “If it falls down, it would end up on my property. Then you will be in a world of trouble for not getting rid of it.”

Me: “Actually, I would not. But aside from that, this is a stable tree on my property, so you can just stop bringing it up every other week, okay? It’s getting old.”

Karen: “Well, you know the shadow is on my property, and that’s basically like the tree being on it. So clearly I should get a vote in what happens to the tree.”

Me: “Take your vote and send it to yourself in the mail, because I don’t care. Goodbye.”

There were more conversations just as pleasant as that one, but I think you get the picture. Also, I think you can understand why I decided to call her Karen for this story instead of some other random name.

The issues I had with Karen regarding this tree were not something that happened over the course of a few weeks or even a month or two—oh no. This argument about a tree went on for a good 2 years.

Two years with her not talking to me about anything else except her wanting me to get the thing cut down. When I was going on a vacation with my family to Germany for 2 weeks, you can imagine the joy of just being away from her. Of course, I was excited about a lot more than that, but if you’ve ever gotten away from an annoying person, you know the feeling.

This is not a vacation story, so I won’t go into details, but I will say that I had an amazing time, and I felt great afterwards. Stress from work and home disappeared while I was gone, and my body relaxed for the first time in years.

That all ended when I came back to see my house crushed under the weight of my sequoia tree. I looked where it was cut and I could tell right away that it was done with a chainsaw and not some act of God. My vacation did not end with me going home but instead going to my brother’s house to sleep.

I could give you all three guesses as to who was responsible for this—but you’d only need one. I knew that Karen did this and was already starting to get everything in order I would need to sue her.

Since it was not done by a storm, my insurance did not want to pay for home repairs. I then called in a tree expert to examine and give a professional statement that it was cut down, and to estimate the worth. I knew that these trees were rare, but I had no idea that this tree was worth upwards of $400,000.

I knew that these trees were rare, but I had no idea that this tree was worth upwards of $400,000. And by the way, guys, as with most stories that I read, I usually convert the currency to US dollars simply to make it easier for everyone—just so you’re not confused because the story takes place in the UK but you see dollars in the story anyway.

I was suddenly very thankful that I had installed cameras on my house about a year before this. It didn’t get much, but it showed Karen clear as day on my property right before the tree smashed into the house. The camera broke on impact, but the footage got saved online, so I was able to retrieve it.

That was not the end of the lawsuit against Karen, though, because that huge amount of money did not take into account the fact that my house was destroyed. For that, I needed to get some records of what the house was worth—and it was roughly the same amount as the tree. By the time the lawsuit was getting sent to Karen, she was being sued for $850,000.

I think the huge amount was an advantage for us because she was so focused on that that she didn’t even think to deny or defend her actions. She did not want to deal with just us and the lawyers and wanted the thing to go to court. She really thought the tree was not worth anything and would get away with paying nothing if she went to court.

She talked about trees just being wood and the idea of one kind of tree being better was just made-up BS. She also said that trees are worthless and she can go and buy a sapling for 50 bucks and it would be the same. She also sprinkled throughout her comments the idea that the tree was a disturbance and that I had refused to do anything about it.

Instead, she flat out admitted to coming onto my property with hired help and trying to get rid of the tree. Then it fell on the house, which she also decided shouldn’t be her responsibility. She had the nerve to say that my home should have been sturdier since I knew the big tree was on the land.

Nothing she said helped, and her lawyer wanted her to shut up the entire time. She kept making it worse for herself. Also, the help that she got could not be tracked down because it was not an actual company—it was just some big guy she found and offered to pay in cash to help her get rid of a tree that she probably told them was on her property.

I could not blame them for getting out of there once it fell. Karen was forced to pay me everything and would need to get rid of her assets in order to do that. This included her car, her house, and her savings.

Some might see me as evil for taking everything she had, but she should not have done what she did. Her selling the house made me happy because it meant that I might get a normal neighbor and she could move far, far away from me—somewhere I would never need to see her again.

My entire house had to be rebuilt, and it took a bit to find a company willing to work with that breed of tree and get it off my property. In the end, I’m happy with how my house turned out, but I do miss that giant tree giving me shade and just its beauty.

It felt cool to have something special, but now that it’s gone, I cannot have that anymore. A little bit of sweet, but I can just cry into my money and look into planting something else where it once stood. And here, Ripe Stars, I am so glad that Karen had to pay that massive fine, and I hope she never does something like this again.

And the next one is another revenge story. This was actually my neighbor’s revenge. So when I was nine, a new neighbor moved in across the street. They had a 9-year-old girl who had two pet bunnies.

For 2 years, everything was fine. No one had issues, and we all lived happily in our white picket fence neighborhood. Enter HOA a-hole. Now, this HOA a-hole lived on the other side of the new neighbors. Our HOA was fairly reasonable—don’t paint your house neon pink, cut your grass, otherwise you’re safe.

But this HOA a-hole was high-ranking on the board and had a tendency to nitpick about stupid things. After 2 years, HOA a-hole had gotten bored and decided it was a problem that new neighbors had bunnies. Why, you ask? Because deep in our HOA bylaws, it states that you cannot have any non-domesticated pets.

Bunnies—even though theirs had never been left outside or heard—any of the kids were considered non-domesticated. HOA a-hole made a stink to the board and insisted that something must be done immediately.

HOA sends a letter that the bunnies get gone ASAP or fines would start accumulating. New neighbor tried to go talk to HOA a-hole and explain that they are his daughter’s pets, are harmless, etc. HOA a-hole wanted none of it—smirked and told his daughter to tell the bunnies bye-bye.

What HOA a-hole did not know is that the new neighbors were only a few weeks away from moving back across the country to be closer to family. They had done a private sale on the house, no signage outside, and most people did not even know.

New neighbor could have just ignored the letter and he would have been gone before the fines could hit. But no, that would be too easy. What did he do instead? He drove to a friend’s property in a rural area of town, captured four wild bunnies, and set them loose in the neighborhood the day before he moved.

And boy, did those bunnies do what bunnies do. And where did they do it? In the HOA a-hole’s backyard, where he and his wife had spent years creating a bushy, flowery oasis. Within a month or two, the bunny population doubled. A few more and it tripled. Within a few months, our neighborhood was overrun.

For the most part, they were harmless—stayed out of the way and added a homey feel to our yards. For HOA a-hole, it was havoc on his beautiful yard, and he spent months petitioning that the HOA eradicate them—to no avail.

20 years later, and the neighborhood is still a bunny hideaway. HOA a-hole still lives there and has long given up on protecting his beautiful backyard from the bunnies. All because he would not leave a 9-year-old girl’s pet bunnies alone.

And the next one is a story from r/AmITheJerk. We put in a pool a few months ago, and the pool deck is still in progress. It’s all dirt, some stone currently.

The kid down the street, who’s a bit older than our kid, saw us in the pool from the road today and came down to ask if he could swim. We really didn’t want anyone because it’s still a disaster out back, but I said he could if his mom was coming over. He came back 10 minutes later in swim trunks with a towel and no parent in sight—and said she couldn’t come.

My wife let him go in anyway and was texting his mom, but I told her I’m going to talk to the parents and tell them that, going forward, the rule is no parent, no pool. I’m not running a daycare all summer, and I don’t feel like being held hostage to stay outside because the kids are all playing.

The kid is quite a bit older, but just because they are fine with him running around the neighborhood does not mean I want him stopping by uninvited every time he sees us outside. My wife does not want me to say anything. She just says to just tell him next time that we are going inside, but I don’t feel like lying. And he would still see us from the road.

I want to set the ground rules early. So, Reddit, would I be the a-hole for telling them he cannot just come by every time we are out back and that, when he does, they need to be with him?

So, comment number one: Not the a-hole. Your private pool is not a community pool. FFS, and I’d be ashamed and embarrassed as if that were my kid. I would not even go with him. I would tell my kids we have no business bothering others to use their pool because that is so rude.

Comment number two: Not the a-hole. It’s a reasonable rule. Plus, you have to think of liability. If anything happened to this child—I agree with you—lying to this kid is not going to help. If he shows up without a parent, send him to go get one. Are you positive that he’s even asking his parent to come, or just telling the parent, “Neighbor said I can use their pool?”

And yeah, Ripe Stars, let me know what you think about this in the comments. I’m very curious about what you have to say.

And now we will read an update to the story. It reads like this:

So just to add for everyone that is worried, we already increased our homeowner’s liability and purchased a policy on top of that to cover the excess liability. So we are good with the liability side. It’s more about the watching them.

Edited again to clarify for the unified defense people: Yes, we are well aware we need a fence. The pool was just built, though. The patio is just being put in this month, and the fence comes after the site work. It will have a fence. Just chill out.

Added for more clarity: There is a temporary fence. My God, stop harping on something I literally cannot make happen any faster than I can get someone out there.