Life lesson from an HOA fight over mulch.
What if instead of doing the bare minimum, we stepped up and did more?
Does anyone else have HOA drama? I think it’s a right of passage as you get older and move to suburbia.
If you haven’t experienced it yet, just wait.
Our neighborhood is going through some HOA drama. And while I won’t bore you with neighborhood politics, there is something worth bringing to your attention. Maybe it will be as convicting to you as it was to me.
One of the issues people are fighting about is mulch. Yes, mulch. “First-world problems” as they say.
According to Our HOA guidelines, each homeowner is required to regularly freshen up the mulch in the front of their house. I think it’s something like twice a year. And if your mulch especially looks like freezer-burned ground beef in the back of your freezer, you’re supposed to update it asap.
Here’s the problem: The HOA itself has over 20 acres of space to maintain throughout our neighborhood, and because of some budget constraints it hasn’t been able to freshen up the mulch in all the common areas recently. You might be able to guess what’s coming next.
That means that homeowners who have gotten the dreaded notices recently for freezer-burned mulch have all rolled out the same argument: “Why do I have to freshen up my mulch if the HOA won’t even do it?!”
Can I be honest? I’ve found that a pretty compelling argument. And while I didn’t get a freezer-burned mulch notice, I was ready to use that argument if I did. (Luckily, Home Depot had mulch on sale a couple weeks ago, so I was able to freshen up without breaking the bank.)
But this weekend, a neighbor stopped by my house and completely changed my perspective. She sits on one of the HOA committees, and we got to talking about some of the drama. She brought up the mulch saga. And that’s when she dropped this nugget:
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