HOA wants me to paint screen door all of a sudden

[Sam Abe]

I bought the place almost a year ago and now it is rented and the president from HOA call me to say that I need to paint my screen door to match the green color. She realized this as the neighbours installed a different door and she says they did it because they say my door was a diffrent color. My door is the right color just the screen door is black. where as the neighbor actually changed the entre main door to be a mismatched color. I dont feel its right for me to be asked to do this as I brought the property as is from the previous owner and I dont have the time and resource now to take care of this.

[Lauren Frost]

You have to refer to your HOA bylaws and rules/regs documents. There is a certain standard that you agreed to when you bought the house, regardless of what the previous owner had done prior to your ownership. Some HOA's can be a big pain in the neck, but they are only trying to preserve the resale values in the neighborhood. If a neighbor used your house as an excuse to use mismatched colors, then the HOA's logic would dictate that other neighbors will too - they just want to prevent a trend in the neighborhood so that everyone doesn't start putting mismatched doors on their homes.

An alternative option if you don't have the time/resources to get it painted would be to just remove the screen door completely until you do have time (assuming the HOA doesn't require you to have a screen door on the house).