My HOA tried. They’ve hired a management company and that company hires spies who drive around the neighborhood at regularly random times photographing “violations”. Once I figured out who the spies were I’d photograph their car and license plate, (totally legal as they’re in public and the license plate is state property not personal) and that info would go in the neighborhood facebook group. Once the spies reported back that they were spotted, the micromanaging ramped up.

So while the micromanaging was at its peak, i had my garage door open as I was in the garage working on something, I forget what I was fixing. I was accused of running a business out of my garage, which violated HOA rules. When I bucked that I was told to prove it by providing information to verify I wasn’t running a business… how would I do that? Bank information?

The burden of proof rests not with me, it rests with the accuser… so we had that argument and they got told to get bent… anyway, with the nice weather I spent alot of time in my open garage and I noticed the number of HOA management spies watching from the street increased in frequency. So to make that stop if I was in the garage I had a shotgun in my garage visible from the street… never got any more bullshit

Funny story: 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.

My daughter had a 2 car heated garage but only 1 car. She had set up a sort of play area on the one side for the kids ( she had 3 toddlers) when they were little so they could play if it rained or snowed. She would leave the door to the garage into the house open so the kids went in and out.

They were no permanent structures just an area rug and a small kid sized table for them to color at etc. and some toys. She could also just go in and out and she had a monitor set up so she could keep an eye on them while doing the laundry or cooking etc. She and the kids spent a lot of time out there playing and just having a good time. so basically it was just a big playroom for them.

The other side of the garage only had the car parked. They had an outbuilding shed for lawnmowers, snow blowers, etc.

The HOA required an annual garage inspection because apparently some people would use the garage as an extra bedroom or something. So when they did their inspection and saw the play area she was told to remove it because the garage was not to be for anything other than storage.

She removed it let them inspect it and put it back when inspection time rolled around she would put everything in boxes in the garage let them inspect and put it back out. She did this for just a couple of years until the youngest started kindergarten.

As teenagers now her kids use it for a hangout. She does have a TV out there but they just claim it’s being stored so they can’t really do to much about it.

The rest of the furniture she has out there is patio furniture so she can store it. Although she does have a second car now but it only had to be in the garage after 10pm so she can leave it parked on the drive until then.