Resident discovers neighbor keeps going through their trash to ensure they "meet HOA standards", they report her to HOA management: ‘I just want her to leave me alone’

With all due respect to keeping the community "up to HOA standards", there are some lines that should not be crossed, even in an HOA neighborhood.

Like going through your neighbors' trash bins to ensure they are recycling correctly… That is definitely crossing privacy boundaries. 

When the neighbor in the story below started leaving notes for one of the residents, complaining about non-recyclable items in their bins, we admit that our mouths fell open a little bit. What do you mean, some people think it's acceptable to go through someone else's trash bins, and then correct them about how they throw away their trash?

Not only that, but this neighbor also informed the HOA about the "improper sorting." So not only was this resident finding notes and receiving texts from her neighbor complaining about their trash, but the HOA was also sending them emails about not meeting the neighborhood standards. Now, we know that those who choose to live in an HOA neighborhood basically sign themselves up to these annoying and often unreasonable standards, but even those should have some boundaries.

If an HOA representative wants to go through a resident's trash to check if everything there meets the guidelines, that can be excusable. But a complete stranger, who is definitely not a member of the HOA council? What is she doing, going through someone else's bins and basically spying on neighbors in the name of the HOA?

After being confronted a few times by this entitled neighbor, this resident started to feel the pressure of always feeling like they were being watched. It even got to the point of them feeling nervous about taking out their garbage. They just want to live their life and feel the privacy they are owed in their own home. 

The question is, how can this neighbor be stopped? The resident can try ignoring her, but that doesn't seem to help. They can confront her face-to-face, but that definitely is a risk in an HOA neighborhood. Which leaves the only feasible solution, and that is actually going to the HOA management to complain about her behavior…