There are some neighbors that don’t play around about their property lines. They will mow that lawn up to the INCH of their property line and not a millimeter further.

But there are other neighbors who are “less concerned” and even expect you to maintain parts of their property for them!

So when this user’s neighbor came to her Mom to demand she maintain her property’s side of the boundary hedge, Mom decided she would rather just cut the whole hedge down!

Check it out!

Neighbour complains about maintaining a hedge wall and then has to construct a wooden fence

This story happened about a decade ago when I was still a teenager and used to live in my parents’ house.

We are migrants and have been on good terms with all the neighbors since the 90s.

But we do have a reputation in the neighborhood of frequently undertaking ambitious DIY home improvements, and in an atypical manner to what locals expect.

Our house is separated from the neighbors with a living hedge wall of cypress trees that grow on our property.

At the time of this story, we already lived in the house for the better part of the decade with the same neighbors and the same cypress trees.

But after years of peaceful living alongside each other, OP’s neighbor came to their Mom with a complaint!

One day out of the blue, one of the neighbours sees my mom working in the garden and starts complaining about the state of the living hedge on her side of the property.

We usually trim the hedge only from our side and most of the top that we can reach. The neighbour complains and demands us to trim the hedge from their side as well.

In her eyes, as the hedge wall is planted on our property, it’s 100% our responsibility and they are tired of maintaining it from their side.

The altercation is very brief as my mother surprisingly quickly replies “OK” and walks off grinning.

What the neighbor didn’t know was that OP’s family was already planning to remove the hedges they complained about!

Unbeknownst to the neighbor, we already were planning to cut down the hedges to the stump so that they could regrow anew.

The existing hedge was very old and was not particularly sightly.

Previously we postponed these works as we did not want to upset the neighbors, but this demand provided the perfect excuse.

So the next day while the neighbors are at work, we cut down all the hedges surrounding our property to barely above ground.

Suddenly the neighbor was missing the very same hedge that they complained about the day before!

As we are finishing clearing up the trimmings the neighbors come back home from work shocked to discover the hedge practically gone.

They look around and realize that with the hedge wall gone, their whole backyard, kitchen, living room and bedroom are on full display through the windows.

The neighbor questions what have we done and why as they would no longer have any privacy in their own home.

But OP’s Mom had the perfect line ready to put the neighbor in their place!

My mom without missing a beat replies “we fixed the problem, the hedge will no longer need trimming from your side” and goes back to clearing up.

Within a week the neighbors came back to us and asked for permission to construct a wooden fence on our property to protect their privacy.

We happily agreed as long as they paid for it all, as we didn’t mind waiting a couple of years for the hedge to regrow (our privacy was much less impacted).

They built the fence within the week and it provided a good surface for some vine flowers to grow instead of the cypress trees that my mother had wanted to plant for a long time.

So the only thing they succeeded in was making more work for themselves? And a hedge barrier to your yard is the ultimate flex, and now you’re stuck with a wooden fence? Tough break.

Reddit loved seeing the neighbors eat their own words, but warned OP not to let them take any of her family’s property by building the fence!

This user thought of a hilarious way to take the revenge even further when the fence needed repainting.

Others thought the neighbors should invest money in some blinds!

Finally, this user said to make sure the neighbors don’t have a claim to their property already just by owning the fence.

Hope you’re happy with the new fence, because you’ll be paying for it!

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.