Any advice for dealing with a condo HOA board that is out to get us…?

I’ve owned my condo for several years and we have 2 kids. My partner and I have noticed that the complex is general doesn’t enforce hardly any of the HOA bylaw rules. People park for months or even years in visitor spots, members of the board use the garbage bins for construction materials etc..

Anyway, my husband decided he was going to get a portable basketball hoop, strap it to the top of his truck, and take it out to play with the kids in the parking lot. A ton of our neighbors were very supportive of this and brought their kids out to play. We always stay with the kids and put the hoop away when not in use. We also have a trailer that we parked in our spot for a night while moving some things (we have off property storage for long term and don’t park it here normally).

We’ve now been fined for $200 without any warnings for both these things. The rules state we should first get a warning, chance to remedy, then next step is a $25 fine. The paperwork is from a law firm and says it’s already been sent to collections and that we may even be liable for lawyer fees.

Our next door neighbor is on the board and while we’ve always tried our best, she’s complained a couple times to us about the noise of our kids and music during the day time. Again- we have kids so we are never loud past 8pm and we do generally try to be quiet.

It’s feeling very personal since we know of so many other violations around the property that absolutely don’t get fines placed on them.

There are currently no open spots on the board so getting onto it ourselves isn’t an option. Moving also isn’t an option for us…