Living with an HOA is so frustrating. I’ve heard worse stories than this, but they just showed up and trimmed all the trees in our backyard without any say in what we wanted. So our backyard that had some really nice flowering tree branches that we enjoyed—all gone.

@jnjosh Wow! That's so intrusive. All this for staid uniformity.

@pratik I know. The thing making me the most frustrated is… it's the backyard. The stupid conformity is supposed to be for the front yard, not the back yard which can't be seen from the street.

@jnjosh Really infuriating. I'm so glad we live in a neighborhood with no HOA. There's the odd unkempt yard but mostly love the diversity of front yards and curb appeal.

@fgtech It's a good point. I've been here 20 years and it's been mostly an unobtrusive HOA—but I may need to get involved if this is the future. We are on a cul-de-sac with now back yard neighbors, just trees. Trees that don't really drop leaves either. So I really don't know where this came from.

@jnjosh Probably just someone not thinking when they scheduled the tree trimming then. Perhaps a thoughtful letter about what you experienced would be enough?

I have a bit of compassion after dealing with “condo association” issues. It was only two units but still lots of issues to navigate including insurance, which is sometimes behind tree trimming as well.

@fgtech Yeah, I already wrote them a letter asking for more clarity and for more discussion in the future—I expressed my frustration with the situation and the lack of explanation about the plan. I hope this is a one-time issue. So many HOA stories are much more devastating and I don't want us to be on that path! :/

@jnjosh wow that seems so intrusive. And we have the opposite problem - we have huge trees in our backyard we actively want to get rid off for many reasons and HOA has blocked us from doing so. Basically HOAs are a frigging pain and just make up rules as they go I feel like.

@supremus Ugh… it'll be hard but my criteria for my next house is "no HOA" 🙃