The Renters Above Him Were Horrible Housemates, So He Cut The Power And Never Looked Back
by Trisha Leigh
Renting is such a crapshoot. If you get a good landlord your roommates could be nightmares and vice versa.
Finding both that are good at the same time is pretty much like shooting for the moon!
This guy was happy when he moved in, but when new renters took over the lease, things went downhill fast.
Here’s how he got out of it!
The real power.
Was living in a two room flat under a three bedroom house that was rented out.
I was invited to live there by a group of three girls who had moved in upstairs and wanted someone to help cheapen the rent.
I knew one of the girls previously and it worked out really well for me.
We had a good understanding of shared roles and responsibilities.
I would mow and maintain and got a small amount off my share of the rent for that but otherwise everything else evenly shared.
It was an older house and did need a bit of work but overall a good setup.
After a year or two the girls upstairs had a falling out. They decided to quit the lease and move out to separate places.
I liked where I was so organised to take over the lease and get new tenants in.
The guys who took over were lazy and gross.
Unfortunately being young and inexperienced I took the first interested parties to look at the place (being afraid of having to pay the whole rent by myself).
They were a group of three 18/19 year old boys, (I was maybe 22).
They were unemployed wastrels who hadn’t lived out of their parents homes before and were enjoying their first taste of freedom.
My rooms under the house were directly below their living room. As a result a lot of their time was spent there.
One night they were partying. I was kept awake by their stereo blasting music not to my taste.
At some point in the early hours, I went to my bathroom and noticed some liquid coming down one of the poles supporting the house.
It was urine. One of them was so drunk he was peeing in their kitchen…
So, he decided to move out.
A few weeks later, I’d had enough. I contacted the landlord and told them I was moving out but the upstairs group was going to stay in the house.
I was going overseas on a surf trip and that was going to be my leaving deal.
Should also mention that the mowing was to be shared between us. I had mowed previously and it was now their turn.
Being lazy, it hadn’t been done for many weeks and was now over ankle high.
On his last night there, he decided to leave them with a parting gift.
On my last night the boys were partying again. But I had to get up at 3am for my flight overseas.
Cue petty revenge.
At about 9:30/10pm frustrated by the noise of their shitty music, and concerned about kitchen pissing possibilities, I got up and removed the mains power fuse.
As it was an older house, it was a large ceramic one that had replaceable fuse wire. About 7/8cm by 3cm by 4cm, so a substantial chunk.
I gently lobbed it into the overgrown backyard. The boys not knowing or having enough experience thought there was a blackout and went to bed.
I got a decent enough sleep and left.
At best, I hope they worked out how to replace the fuse, which would have cost a few dollars to replace at the hardware store.
But they would only have found the original one by mowing the yard and chances are that discovery would have been by the mower blades.
You reap what you mow.
I doubt these guys learned a thing.
Does Reddit agree with his tactics? Let’s find out!
They’re wondering why he waited so long to take action.
The landlord needs to be more assertive, actually.
A lot of damage probably happened.
This was the theme of the comments.
You don’t often hear people sympathizing with landlords.
But I guess there’s always a first time.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.
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