[Rhetts_mama]

HOA stands for homeowners association. Lots of rules and covenants about what you can and can't do with your property. In theory, they are in place to help preserve property values. In reality, they are a giant pain in the wazoo.

As for my neighbor, she did get fined. She fought it because the covenants said no permanent alteration to the structure could be made without prior approval. She takes it down every couple of days for a few hours and then puts it back up. The HOA continued to try and fine her and tried to amend the covenants...unfortunately for them, the covenants can't be changed without a majority approval. And since the majority of households here have either a pet or a small child that we would do anything to prevent from being injured, the board didn't get too far.