In a rare incident, a homeowner has been fighting a homeowners association’s inaction to address potential environmental hazards in the community.
In the “Neighbors from Hell” subreddit, one poster recently explained that so far, they haven’t had any real issues with their HOA. But problems arose when their neighbor started parking a work truck on the street, violating HOA rules. The truck then began leaking oil.
The HOA responded by issuing a notice, but neighbors appear to have started pressure washing the oil off the streets as a solution. This caused oil to accumulate in front of the original poster’s house and flow into an overflow drainage field at a nearby park.
OP tried talking to the neighbors directly and reporting the current issues to the HOA, but nothing changed.
“Not sure how many times I have to complain and agree that HOA complaints are not anonymous, but I will continue until this person cleans up the oil in front of my house,” OP wrote in the Reddit subreddit.
Oil and other runoff washed toward the park could seep into the soil and cause groundwater contamination and could contaminate drinking water supplies. But unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for HOAs to let things go, as was the case in California when damaged sprinkler systems were not repaired, resulting in severe water damage.
Reddit users offered some suggestions in the comments.
“First I would call the city because it could be an environmental issue if they are spraying washing oil and other stuff,” one wrote.
Another suggested not only contacting the company that owns the work truck, but also forcing the HOA to provide photo evidence: “Does this every time. Post this on Nextdoor, too.”
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