What does 'curb appeal' mean to you? This homeowner was at a loss for words when they received a notice from their HOA disciplining them for visible dirt on their perfectly clean driveway: "[I]t feels pretty freaking clean to me."
The OP began by explaining that the expectations set by the HOA were vague: "I moved in a few years ago and the HOA had a few pages of poorly scanned HOA docs. They recently updated the rules, quadrupled our dues, and now I've gotten a violation notice for a dirty driveway," they continued. "Because it has dirt on it?"
"I genuinely feel at a loss for what cleanliness should look like here," said the OP, including photos of their driveway.
HOA rules can be overly restrictive or outright illogical because they value uniformity and aesthetics over environmentally conscious efforts. This can seriously hinder homeowners' efforts to live sustainable lives. HOAs have been known to restrict rewilding practices and vegetable gardening, or even restrict major money-saving hacks like installing solar. These efforts to live eco-minded have a dual purpose—they can save homeowners thousands. HOAs don't always have the wallets of their constituents in mind.
Native plants, natural lawns, or gardens in general can also be banned if they don't align with the neighborhood's "look." Eco-friendly practices like compost bins, pollinator gardens, or clotheslines can be regulated or outright denied; it doesn't matter that they reduce waste and conserve resources. Additionally, the approval process for green upgrades can be slow, costly, or arbitrary, discouraging homeowners from pursuing them to save money or live environmentally conscious lives.
The Reddit community had some choice words for this HOA board. Several sarcastic commenters made suggestions, "You hire a pressure washer guy, HOA will tell him he's not allowed in the neighborhood without xy and z documents…and then they'll refer you to the cousin of the hoa president who happens to charge 3x the amount of anyone else."
"This was my thought when I read 'quadrupled dues'. Somebody figured out how to game the system," wrote another disillusioned HOA skeptic.
Another commenter joked, "The fine print clearly states you are required to perform daily driveway bleaching to stay within their completely reasonable driveway hygiene guidelines!"
"Jeez.. when people gain some type of 'authority', they really go full tilt, don't they?" said another, "Your property is immaculate. Nobody reasonable would expect your driveway to be some perfect, Crest polar white, pathway to Heaven."
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Should homeowners associations be able to determine what you grow in your garden?
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Yes 💯 The top comments were all folks commiserating with the frustrations of HOA restrictions, which makes sense when stories like this come to light. Power washing a driveway wastes an immense amount of water and time that any person, eco-minded or not, might not want to devote to a driveway.
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Not to mention, using chemicals on a driveway just to improve the whiteness of the concrete could deposit toxic compounds into the soil and local watershed—a high price to pay to clean something that is outside and bound to continuously get dirty.
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