HOA Fines Georgia Family $25 a Day Over Front-Yard Vegetable Garden
An Acworth, Georgia home has added some unusual Halloween decorations to its yard ahead of the holiday. Mixed amongst the typical ghosts and skeletons in the neighborhood stands a massive sign telling a “spooky” story about the family’s home.
No, it’s not a terrifying tale of ghosts in the attic or other spectral beings. Instead, it’s the story of how the family was targeted by their homeowners association (HOA). The reason? A front-yard veggie garden.
Shawn Richardson posted the story to his @bamfhammer Instagram page, telling his followers about all of the fallout the family had experienced after receiving a letter from their HOA, which included Richardson’s wife, Alexandrea Duarte, getting kicked off of the association’s executive board.
Now, their story is going public, with outlets like Atlanta News First sharing the details of what happened and how Richardson and Duarte are planning to deal with the mounting fines their garden has caused.
The Family Grows Vegetables in the Front Yard
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Richardson’s video starts off with him standing in front of his house, talking about how an “entity” is “lurking” somewhere in his neighborhood and it will “take $25 a day off of you if you plant tomatoes without permission.”
His cheeky video included a close-up of the sign he hung in his yard, which said, “Beware! Your spooky HOA will charge you $25 a day for a garden.” In the caption, he added that his wife was kicked off the board as a result of the garden, which hadn’t been a problem the previous summer.
When speaking with Atlanta News First, Duarte said that the garden had been up for at least two years without any issues. However, she had recently added a cucumber trellis, which she removed when the summer growing season had ended.
“I asked what I could do,” Duarte told the outlet. “I offered to paint [the trellises] any color of the board’s choosing. I offered to do a width around a brick or rock surround, anything I could do to keep my garden.”
Neighbors Complained About the Garden
Duarte went to appeal the HOA’s requirement to remove the garden, which is when she was told that at least four neighbors had complained. When Duarte refused to comply, the HOA began fining her $25 a day, starting on Sept. 28.
“I can’t afford to keep racking up fines, but I also don’t want to lose one of the ways I feed my family … because three people decide they didn’t like my yard,” she told the outlet, noting that her backyard just doesn’t have enough sun to use for the veggies.
People shared their annoyance in a Facebook post about the Atlanta News First story. “Food is simultaneously too expensive and hazardous for many of us to eat,” one person wrote. “Good on her for providing for her family.”
“Move to a place without an HOA; they have way too much legal power,” another added.
As of now, the family has racked up hundreds of dollars in fines with no end in sight. It sounds like they will continue to pursue their legal options, which include filing a complaint with the Georgia Secretary of State, to see if there’s a way they can keep the garden without breaking the rules.
