Community Forced to Leave Garage Doors Open and Wacky Idaho HOA L

Can you even imagine being forced to leave your garage door open with all of your valuables exposed?! It's been done in this community and there's a $200 fine attached if you break the rule!

I've been under an HOA for nearly 15 years and although they can be finicky about leaving your garbage cans out or taking down your Christmas lights by the first week in January, I guess that's what they are there for.

I've certainly never dealt with anything like this. According to the Idaho Statesman a Homeowners Association in Auburn, California has told the residents of Auburn Greens that they must leave their garage doors open between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. or they will be slapped with a $200 fine.

The residents have obvious reason for concern that thefts and a violation of privacy will occur, but the Homeowners Association is justifying their demands after discovering that one resident had someone living in their garage, which was against the original rules.

I researched to see if their are any wacky HOA laws here in the Treasure Valley and came up empty handed other than the story of Nampa resident Bekah Graves who was in a long-term battle over a black wrought-iron fence. According to KTVB, in February Bekah said the fence was coming down and that they were moving to a new neighborhood.

The Shalimar Terrace Homeowners Association told Bekah and her husband Eric that they couldn't have the decorative fence even though the previous owner had a similar fence in place. Article Five of the neighborhood CC&R's said homeowners couldn't build a fence without the associations approval and they didn't approve.

Turns out Homeowners Associations can pretty much put whatever they want in place as long as the board of directors agrees upon it.

But forcing residents to leave their garage doors open?! In my opinion that's taking the power of the HOA a little too far!