It pays to keep the receipts, people!

That goes for work, school, and your personal life.

And, according to this story from Reddit, it also goes for your living situation.

Take a look at what happened…and remember to be a good neighbor, okay?

PSA: Always document EVERYTHING.

“The story begins in the summer.

The Wife and I moved from my mother’s basement to a fantastic apartment just down the road from my university.

The building is mega soundproofed, the neighbors do piano lessons, lots of people with kids and dogs and we can’t hear any of it.. with the exception of one dog from across the hall.

The neighbors across the hall are retired, perhaps their senior father lived with them… I’m not sure on that detail.

But they were enjoying their retirement going out all of the time for hours at a time, and whenever they left their dog would bark the entire time.

Ugh…

An 8-12 hour continuous barking session wasn’t uncommon, typically 3-7 days per week.

Now a few details about myself. I am a dog person, I love them and I understand this little guy is probably just anxious without his owners.

I am a student, as mentioned before, and I didn’t mind listening to the dog while school was out for summer but come fall this problem needed to be dealt with. And lastly I am incredibly patient and kind to a fault.

I also look like a strange combination of Dave Grohl and Hank Hill but that’s more of a bonus fact.

Let’s see how this goes.

So after two weeks of this listening to this dog I put a sticky note on their door that read something along the lines of “Hey, just so you know your dog barks constantly when your not home.”

Of course nothing changes so after another two weeks, I put in a single formal complaint that goes something along the lines of “Hey, last thing I want to do is cause trouble but this dog has been barking for a month and it’s really annoying, I hope we can all come to a peaceful solution.”

Over the next week we notice a drastic change, Dog no longer barks. It still whines loudly which is still crazy annoying but an improvement. Also the noise reduces to about 2-6 hours a day, maybe 3 days a week max. Turns out they got anxiety meds for the dog.

That’s a little bit better…until…

Regardless, I’m happy. The problem seems to be slowing and perhaps it wont be so loud come school. A month and a bit goes by and I’m writing a timed, online quiz for a class in my home and this dog is barking like it used to when we first moved in.

I can’t concentrate and it’s driving me insane. I leave my quiz and leave another sticky note, this one along the lines of “Not a complaint, just letting you know your dog was crazy loud tonight.”

I’m just about done my quiz when there is a knock on my door. I answer the door and low and behold. The lady from across the hall, holding my note, looking ****** off. She asks me if I wrote the note. “Yes”.

Do I understand how frustrating that is. Well, I sure understand frustration, so “Yes”. She is screaming at this point. I ask he if she would like to have a calm conversation. She talks over me to say how unfair it is that I would treat her dog like that.

I ask again if she would like to have a calm conversation. She talks over me to tell me how much anxiety pills are. Would you like to have a calm conversation. She talks over me again to tell me that her poor dog she leaves at home 8 hours a day has to wear a shock collar because of me.

Enough!

I decided we were not having a calm conversation. “Listen here you piece of ****, you started this, all I wanted is to live in peace.” I take a step into my apartment, she steps towards me as if she is entering.

I’m pretty sure I literally hit her with the door when I slammed it in her face. All i know for sure is something stopped her in the middle of screaming the word “******” at me.

I come back to my computer and see that the quiz timed out while I was arguing with the neighbor. I failed to submit it and got a zero. **** this *****.

It’s Friday night and I am ****** off, so start the most meticulous back pedaling. First I make a complaint about her interrupting my homework late at night to yell at me. Next I move onto texts from my wife.

The neighbors had a habit of slamming the door which my with would text me about. Check the time signature on the texts, find the reference code for the applicable hallway camera, hoping they slammed the door from the outside, and e-mail a single detailed noise complaint.

He kept track of everything.

Next slammed door text was another separate e-mail as a separate noise complaint. I remember once they parked in our spot once when we came home from Costco. So I do what any sane, reasonable person would do and check the credit card charge time stamp.

Separate e-mail parking complaint, noting the two camera codes that can see our parking spot. I wasted so much time. I print off my original e-mailed complaint, highlight the words “peaceful resolution”, and write the words. “You ****** up” at the bottom.

The next day there dog is barking for an hour. So I record the noise from the bedroom, kitchen and hallway. While in the hallway I give the security camera a little thumbs up. I must of looked like a lunatic.

I do this every day, mutiple times per day. I called bylaw after 10:00 pm as there is a city law about noise at that time. Turns out Bylaw in my city has no authority within apartment buildings; however, the bylaw officer let me know the RCMP can issue tickets for noise.

Now she’s in trouble!

So I submit a police complaint. Now a police file is open. By the end of the weekend I had called the non emergency line of the RCMP twice. Had her ticketed once and filed 17 individual complaints to my building manager.

And I carried on every day. video recordings, audio recordings, witnesses in the hallway. Contractor comes in to fix something on the 3rd floor, him and I get talking and he agrees to smile for the camera while I record the dog barking way off down the hallway.

Today I was informed that they have been evicted.”

Here’s how people reacted on Reddit.

One person spoke up.

Another individual was surprised…

This person chimed in.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

Always keep the receipts, people!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.