He's now turned to the internet to ask if he was in the wrong.
With Christmas just around the corner, households all across the world are busy buying gifts, decorating Christmas trees, and putting up Christmas lights.
That said, not everyone feels the same about Christmas decorations and the holidays overall. One man, who goes by username u/Alternate_chaos5150, has turned to Reddit to ask if he is in the wrong for refusing to take down his Christmas lights.
The now-viral Reddit post has already collected an impressive 19,700 upvotes and 2,400 comments.
The influence of HOAs, and the laws around original settlers.
The author begins his post by explaining that while there is an HOA (Home Owner's Association) in his neighborhood, his family lived there before the HOA was started. For this reason, his property is exempt from any rules or regulations set by the HOA itself.
The author then goes on to explain that the HOA for his surrounding neighborhood has very specific rules about 'how many lights can be placed outside a home and the earliest time that can be put up'.
In a recent survey Holiday Home Hosting Survey of more than 1,000 US respondents conducted by home management tech company Thumbtack, it was found that '43% of respondents decorate on the weekend before Thanksgiving or right between Thanksgiving Day and the following Sunday'.
The man details that on November 30th a woman who represents the HOA came to the man's house and told him that his lights were against the policy, and that he had put too many up'.
Having dealt with this woman before, the author of the post wrote,
"I told her that we'd been over this before, that I am in no way beholden to their policies and don't care."
Justified behavior, or far too passive-aggressive?
The man continued putting up his Christmas lights, and told the woman representing the HOA that he was going to turn the lights on as of November 30th, and keep them on until Christmas.
The HOA representative did not take kindly to his retort.
He wrote,
"She told me that breaking the rules upset other members and that I should respect their rules even if I don't follow them, because I technically live in the neighborhood. She offered me a flyer which apparently had their rules for lights. I tossed it in the trash and told her to get off my property."
While the author recognizes that he could have been more lenient with following the HOA restrictions, he felt that he is fully within his rights to decorate his house as he chooses, considering he had lived in his home long before the HOA existed.
He concluded his post with,
"I'm so tired of unhappy people trying to ruin Christmas for others."
What are your thoughts? Is this man entirely in his right to decorate his house as much as he wants, and when he wants? Or should he be more willing to follow the guidelines of the local HOA, even though he is not contractually bound to do so?
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