I received a notice from my HOA yesterday that stated I was in violation of HOA regulations because of my use of thumb tacks to attach a seasonal flag (halloween - for my kids) to part of my mailbox post. Now I have looked at the HOA regs and there is nothing there that even remotely gets at my supposed violation and they conveniently did not list any particular section - because there is nothing! Being a reasonable person, I replaced the green tacks yesterday with orange ones, so it looks more seasonal. I photographed it and pointed this fact out in my response letter that is going out today. Problem solved!

Any similar stories out there of old retired nazis in your hood that have nothing better to do.

Why even bother? Most HOA regs specify a couple of written warnings before a certified letter is sent, and by that time Halloween will have come and gone and the tacks would be down.

Search your covenants document and make sure they are following procedure, it is possible they are required to cite the section you are violating, and if that is the case then your first warning letter didn't count as first warning. But you don't send something back telling them that, you hand all that to the lawyer when they threaten you with something you'll care about.