8 Neighbor and HOA Feuds Reddit Ruled On That Floridians Know All Too Well

Something a neighbor does is bugging you, and you’re debating whether to speak up or write to your homeowners association (HOA).

You’re not sure you’d be in the right.

On Reddit’s popular AITA forum, people ask strangers to judge whether they were in the wrong.

Here are the neighbor and HOA feuds Reddit ruled on that many Floridians know all too well.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Association rules vary by community and are subject to change, so check your governing documents.

1. Frog Statue Standoff

A woman says a neighbor’s frog statue has her 6-year-old daughter refusing neighborhood walks, Fox News Digital reported.

She and her husband, ages 35 and 34, find the statue creepy.

The owners refused to take it down, she says.

So she took it up with her next-door neighbor, the HOA vice president.

By her account, the HOA treated the statue as a bylaw violation, ordered the owners to remove it and began fining them.

Would you have gone to the board?

Fox said her husband thought she’d gone too far, and commenters judged her in the wrong for escalating the dispute so needlessly.

Fox added that it couldn’t verify the poster’s outrage over the statue.

Before you take a neighbor’s yard art to the board, imagine the complaint aimed at your porch.

2. Fence Over the Line

Someecards retold a homeowner’s claim that a neighbor’s new fence sits several feet onto the poster’s land.

The poster says the neighbor wanted it to keep high school students off her yard, and the poster agreed as long as it stayed on her side.

A crew built it in a day while the poster was at work.

Now the poster plans to order a survey and ask her to move the fence if the line proves out.

According to the poster, she looked surprised and irritated when it came up.

Several Reddit commenters Someecards quoted said the poster wasn’t in the wrong, and one warned that you can lose rights to land you ignore.

In an update, the poster said two survey estimates came to about $4,000 to $5,000.

You’ll want the line marked before your fence goes up, not after a neighbor asks you to move it.

3. Animal Control Citation

A woman, 30, says her next-door neighbor’s dog keeps wandering into her fenced yard, Fox reported.

She says the dog has dug an opening under her fence and leaves messes in her yard.

She talked with the neighbor, a man in his 40s, about it, but nothing improved.

She then called animal control, hoping an official complaint would get his attention.

According to her post, an officer wrote a $400 ticket and warned the neighbor that animal control could take the dog if it happened again.

He was furious, she says.

He told her she’d overreacted by not giving him longer to deal with it.

Fox reported that most of the 400-plus replies judged her not in the wrong.

If you’ve already raised a problem with a neighbor, a dated text gives you a paper trail before you call anyone.

4. Sewing Room Noise

Newsweek reported that commenters almost unanimously put a woman in the wrong after she complained about her downstairs neighbor’s sewing machines.

In her Reddit post, she says she lives upstairs from a neighbor who operates a craft business out of the bedroom below hers.

The neighbor invited her in to see the setup, the poster says, including anti-vibration padding under the machines.

She replied that she makes no noise.

The neighbor disagreed.

She said she could hear the poster’s kids running around in the evenings, the post says.

She added that she would never complain, since noise comes with sharing a building.

One commenter, who said they live in a city, felt the same way as the poster, Newsweek noted.

If you share a wall or a floor with someone, you’ll hear them, and they’ll hear you.

5. Guests in the Driveway

One 34-year-old woman answered her next-door neighbor’s overflow guests with no-parking signs and a towing warning, Fox News Digital reported.

She says the neighbor, 45, hosts large gatherings but has a one-car driveway.

His visitors sometimes leave cars in her driveway that block hers.

He apologized and agreed when she raised it, she says.

Nothing improved.

So she put up no-parking signs and a note warning that unwanted cars could be towed.

According to her post, he called her unreasonable.

Fox reported that most Reddit commenters said she wasn’t in the wrong, though one worried about an emergency.

Fox also quoted etiquette expert Elaine Swann, who backed the poster’s no-parking signs.

Swann said that when you want something from a neighbor, your request sometimes has to be firm, clear and direct.

6. Wet Concrete Handprints

A homeowner and a neighboring mother clashed over kids’ marks in fresh concrete, Fox News Digital reported.

The poster says neighborhood kids pushed rocks and sticks into a new walkway and added their initials and handprints.

The poster smoothed the surface and posted a sign asking people to let it dry.

According to the post, the mother, who is usually friendly with the poster, called the poster a grouch for denying the kids a keepsake.

The sign didn’t last.

It was gone the next day and turned up near the birdbath.

Fox said commenters deemed the poster in the right, with nearly 4,000 votes within a day, and one commenter recommended a camera.

A drying sign is a fair start, but if you’re pouring a walkway, a heads-up to the parents next door may protect your work better.

7. Locked-Out Neighbor

Etiquette expert Jacqueline Whitmore told Fox News Digital she could see letting a forgetful neighbor in once or maybe twice, though carrying a key is the polite fix.

If you’re the one answering the door, that gives you a limit to work from.

Her comment came in a story about a tenant who says his neighbor skips her key and knocks on his windows after 9 p.m.

He says the building requires residents to carry a front door key after 8 p.m.

He let her in twice.

Then he ignored her until she’d waited outside with her dog for about 45 minutes.

The thought of her and the dog outside kept him from sleeping, so he opened the door.

He warned her it was the last time, he says, and that he’d tell management and call the police.

Fox said about 7,500 reactions came in, most Reddit commenters sided with him, and one thought the consequences were a bit harsh.

8. Towed Car Showdown

A man says he wondered afterward whether calling police on a neighbor was the right move, Newsweek reported.

In his Reddit post, he says he and his fiancée moved into a home whose driveway fits two cars.

He says a neighbor whose corner house has no driveway asked to park there, and they agreed for the time being.

After their son was born and they bought a second car, they asked her to stop.

He says she ignored the request, and one morning she parked behind his car when he needed to leave.

Then he called police.

They had her car towed, he says.

Reddit commenters largely told him he was within his rights, Newsweek reported in May 2022.

If you let a neighbor use your driveway, agree on an end date up front.

Florida HOA Fine Limits

Florida HOAs are common, since a 2024 Florida House staff analysis puts approximately 45 percent of the state's homes in an HOA.

Under state law, an HOA fine can't exceed $100 per violation unless the community's governing documents say otherwise.

A violation that continues can be fined daily, but the total can't pass $1,000 unless the governing documents allow more.

Before your HOA can fine you at all, it has to follow a hearing process.

Settling an HOA Feud Before Court

Florida law requires many HOA disputes to go through presuit mediation before they reach a courtroom.

Those include disputes over how your property or the common areas are used or changed.

Collecting an assessment, a fine or other money owed falls outside that requirement.

Once you receive a mediation demand, you have 20 days from the mailing date to answer in writing.