If I had known how much the HOA was going to interfere in the ownership of my house, I would not have bought this house. Not only does the HOA feel they should be able to tell us what to do with the house, but they also charge us dues to live here, but they won’t share the mortgage. This doesn’t seem to be fair to me. My sister and I were thinking about beautifying our lawn. They wanted to know what plants we could put in and told us we could purchase one tree, and it had to be an evergreen. When they weren’t on the property, we bought whatever plants we wanted and bought a magnolia tree. I also painted the air conditioning unit blue. That caused more furor than the plants and trees. The president of the HOA told us we had no right to paint the AC unit. He and his cronies told us it was written in the handbook that we could not touch the air conditioning unit, unless it was to have it replaced. I don’t think the HOA was ready for my sister and I. We told them we paid for the air conditioning unit and the house, and if they didn’t like our new blue air conditioning unit or our plants, they could evict us. Instead, they took us to court, and we sold the house and moved. We didn’t want to be under anyone’s rule, except our own. Our air conditioning unit and furnace belong to us and we are free to do what we want with our home and property.