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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We lived in a small townhome community in VA, with one crazy guy. We decided to replace our original windows (which were horrible) and found that the wood around the windows was rotted (most of the homes were brick, just the area around the front windows had wood). My H was on the HOA board so we talked to them and replaced the wood with siding in an approved color by the board. We had emails to prove approval and color was extremely close but not exact.

Well, the crazy guy threw a fit. The "color change" affected the whole neighborhood. He decided that he was going sue us and the HOA board over this change. So...he was going to pay for his OWN lawyers, and also (through HOA payments) pay for the HOA lawyers as well. It was ridiculous. Everyone else was like, your house looks so much better.

Eventually he dropped it. But he had his "those people are trying to take over" moments (directed at our lovely, sweet Middle Eastern neighbors). Our president at one point was an awesome Jewish guy with an Asian wife...they eventually sold and left due to this guy. I can't say it wasn't a factor when we sold, since my H isn't white.

The funny thing is after we left, he complained to the county about the mailboxes in an open space that would occasionally flood. Fix it! he said. WELL. The mailboxes didn't have a permit to be where they were so the county moved them to a much less inconvenient spot outside the community. Thanks, crazy guy! Sometimes these kind of people create MORE problems than less.[/quote]x

We have a neighbor like this. Moved in two years ago and all they do is complain about everything all the time. They take they approach of "well this should have been fixed years ago before we even moved here" which is baffling because if they thought the community had so many issues, why did they move here? Anyway, a lot of the problem is that they don't understand the context of anything and when people try to explain it, they get angry and defensive and accuse people of ganging up on them. Like they threw this big fit about a metal gate in a community area that has peeling paint and were demanding it be repainted immediately. People explained to them several times that the gate will be removed this summer as part of a larger improvement project that has been budgeted and planned. They think this is stupid and that this [decorative, non-functional] gate needs to be repainted immediately before being scrapped in two months. They have been roundly overruled but will not accept it. There are many examples similar to this, where they think they are making demands to "improve" the neighborhood but because they haven't been here very long, they don't understand there are good reasons why certain low priority improvements might be skipped. They also don't seem to understand that if we were to do everything they demand, everyone would have to pay like double our current HOA fee, which no one wants, including them. They voted against a very modest increase in HOA fees last year! While also demanding a laundry list of expensive upgrades including hiring a full time landscaper (!!) for the summer months to keep the grass on community property perfectly trimmed at all times.

They also have this idea that because they paid more for their home than most of the rest of us (due to having bought in 2021 whereas most people have been here for anywhere from 8 to 25 years), they are more entitled to make demands. Again, people have explicitly told them that the premium they paid on their home all went to the previous owner -- it's not like the community takes a cut. And I paid twice for my home in 2014 than my neighbor who bought in 2001, and it's never occurred to me that this means I'm more important than she is? It's just a weird, entitled attitude, but they don't let logic or basic human decency get in their way.

At this point I think many of us are hoping they just get so frustrated and mad they move, but it also feels just as likely they will escalate. They've screamed at neighbors and send a multitude of lengthy screeds to the HOA via email. Alternately refused to come to HOA meetings (fine, it's easier without them), tried to send a proxy without following proxy rules, and shown up to meetings and then disrupted boring, necessary business with their rants.

Until this, the idea of the crazy, miserable neighbor was a construct to me, something that gets exaggerate for drama in a TV show or something. I didn't realize how insane people could be in real life. These are just otherwise normal white collar professionals with normal jobs and backgrounds. I remember meeting them after they moved in and thinking they seemed nice and reasonable. I had no idea. I think the husband may have had some kind of psychotic break. Or potentially a personality disorder that he was able to conceal for the first few months they lived here.

I tell my kids to stay away from their house and we avoid making eye contact if we see them out and about.[/quote]

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