Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.

[brenda]

You may be more patient than I am, Aqua. Okay, I'm quite sure you are. LOL

If it were me, I would be in their face with all of this in a freaking long letter demanding they provide all the above information. If not provided within a specific and rather short time period that I chose, I would then make it clear they had no case and that they were simply trying to intimidate people for no good reason other than to charge fees to the HOA, of which the parents are paying members. I would further make it clear that it would be no problem to notify all the related authorities of the safety violations (open , unmarked, empty hole), lack of utility locates (evidenced by lack of little flags), and failure to complete in a timely manner (witnessed by the adjacent property owners, such as said parents).

Make'm work, and give them some pressure. They really don't want to have this get media attention, do they? Yeah, you may want to ask them about that, too. LOL

[Aqua Letifer]

@brenda said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

You may be more patient than I am, Aqua. Okay, I'm quite sure you are. LOL

If it were me, I would be in their face with all of this in a freaking long letter demanding they provide all the above information. If not provided within a specific and rather short time period that I chose, I would then make it clear they had no case and that they were simply trying to intimidate people for no good reason other than to charge fees to the HOA, of which the parents are paying members. I would further make it clear that it would be no problem to notify all the related authorities of the safety violations (open , unmarked, empty hole), lack of utility locates (evidenced by lack of little flags), and failure to complete in a timely manner (witnessed by the adjacent property owners, such as said parents).

Make'm work, and give them some pressure. They really don't want to have this get media attention, do they? Yeah, you may want to ask them about that, too. LOL

All very excellent points! Honestly, this goes back a little ways. My parents got approval from the HOA to make a back patio kind of a thing about 10 months ago. I don't know how it worked with the HOA but they got approval, despite the president really not wanting them to. My dad's pretty sure that's who's behind the letter.

So none of this should be taken at face value. The HOA doesn't honestly believe any of the bullshit they claimed, the president just wants to get back at my dad. No one's actually prepared to continue on with this.

If I turn out to be wrong, then sure, there's plenty we can do about it. After all, they've obviously been sloppy with the sign thing, and what's more, no one can prove it was my dad who filled up the hole. (They're just blaming him because they know the kind of person he is and it's adjacent to his place.)

So they wanna get pushy, sure, we can get real. But because I know this is just a petty president getting even by using his access to lawyers to sound scary, we can have a lot of fun with it first.

[brenda]

@Aqua-Letifer

Yes, I just described my version of fun!

[brenda]

I want that emoji of the laughter while pounding the floor. That would be perfect, thank you very much.

[brenda]

[Aqua Letifer]

Well, we have different motivations. Your advice is absolutely perfect in the event that they get serious (and knowing this guy, it's absolutely possible). So the points you brought up will be very helpful when that happens.

Until then, though, my goal is going to be to keep it as stupid and sustained for as long as possible. I asked my dad to send me pictures of the hole, along with pictures of the HOA office.

"Why do you need pictures of the HOA office?"
"To show them I have pictures of the HOA office."
"What does that matter?"
"It doesn't. I'm just going to refer to the pictures in the next letter. 'The Association Office [see attachment]'."
"What the hell does that do?"
"Absolutely nothing, aside from infuriate the shit out of the HOA president. Also it's hilarious."
"Okay, got it."

I don't know HOA housing provisions, but I have 30-plus years of stupid experience under my belt, so I'm playing to my strengths for now.

[George K]

This is the thread of the week.

[Loki]

@George-K said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

This is the thread of the week.

Crowdsourcing TNCR style is a distant (mutant?) cousin of the original concept.

[brenda]

@Aqua-Letifer Oh my gosh, I love the picture of the HOA office. That's awesome!

[brenda]

@George-K said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

This is the thread of the week.

Yes, I can see Aqua's goal now, a different version of fun that will entertain us for weeks. It's like an early Christmas present. No, it's like an advent calendar with gifts over several weeks.

[mark]

@George-K said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

This is the thread of the week. year.

fify

[LuFins Dad]

Aqua, have you thought about submitting an invoice to be paid to your father for services rendered?

[Aqua Letifer]

@LuFins-Dad said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

Aqua, have you thought about submitting an invoice to be paid to your father for services rendered?

I'm gonna do that afterward.

In Maryland, you technically have to sell your car to someone else in order for them to legally own it. I gave my car to my dad before I moved to Australia as they needed a spare and I no longer needed one. We went to the MVA, and that's how we learned that I technically had to sell it to him. So we leave, get the paperwork in order, and return to the MVA with the intention of my dad buying the car off of me for a dollar.

We get up to the counter after our number is called and when we present our paperwork I tell my dad, "so you intend to buy my car, correct?"
"What? Yeah, that's what-- that's what we're doing here."
"Well I see the price down here as being a dollar, and I think we should talk about this."
"Har har. Just sign the forms."
"Are you aware of the Kelley Blue Book value of this particular car?"
"Just sign the forms, okay?"
MVA guy: "Do you two, uh, need a moment?"
My dad: "No, we don't need--JUST SIGN THE FORMS."
"Well, I don't want to be ripped off here, I think we should talk about this."

I dropped it but when we left the MVA he turns to me and says, "what the HELL was your problem?"
"You didn't buy me a crash test dummy when I was seven."
"WHAT?"

I'm a real barrel of laughs.

[kluurs]

Reminds me of this famous exchange of letters.

The Response

Looking into this - decades later, James Bailey said, "I was all of 28 years old when I wrote that letter. I should have been more cautious. I’m just glad my mother’s not around to see that letter.

After I wrote it, I heard about it right away from [Browns owner] Art Modell. He said something like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ He was not a guy lacking passion."

The originator of the letter, Mr. Cox, said, "I’m still a Browns season-ticket holder. I found out that Bailey and I both went to the University of Michigan Law School.

No [I wasn’t angry with his response]. I thought it was pretty cool. I’ve used that letter a couple times myself since."

[Mik]

[LuFins Dad]

@Aqua-Letifer I meant having the HOA pay your dad for filling in the hole...

[Aqua Letifer]

@LuFins-Dad said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

@Aqua-Letifer I meant having the HOA pay your dad for filling in the hole...

I thought about that, but denial of ever having filled it in opens up more avenues of stupidity in which to explore.

[Mik]

Do they have video?

[Aqua Letifer]

@Mik said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

Do they have video?

They have absolutely nothing.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

@Mik said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

Do they have video?

They have absolutely nothing.

So...how do they know who did it?