Some neighbors seem to relish being annoying!
This couple’s neighbor was a shady and would tell lies behind their back, so they weren’t surprised when he never contacted the landlord when they asked.
So what did they do to him?
All of the details are below.
Neighbor Played Both Sides of The Fence and Paid The Price
We live in an expensive state, and rents are sky high in our modest development, but we own our little home, which shares a fence with “Jake’s” rented home.
The first indication that Jake was not as nice as he appeared was the way he kept his backyard.
Jake had made commitments but wasn’t keeping up with them.
He had an agreement with his landlord that he would mow the lawn, but instead allowed blackberry brambles to take over the area immediately next to our fence while keeping the rest of his yard under control.
When I asked him about this, he claimed it was too expensive for him to hire workers to clear that area.
Eventually we did see workers removing the blackberries as Jake complained about the extra expense.
He was also questioning this couple’s personal choices!
Other times I would overhear him talking to his next door neighbor about us. Jake is very religious and we are not.
He is born and raised in the US and my husband is not.
We could also tell he disapproved of what he erroneously called our “lifestyle.”
He kept this under wrap the first couple of years, while he was still getting to know us.
One day he let it slip that the fear that kept him awake at night was that his landlord would raise his rent, since he was on a fixed income.
This made me feel bad for the guy.
This is where it got worse…
Then a storm blew down all three sides of our old wood fence. The other neighbors agreed to pay part of the cost after seeing the estimates we produced.
After we handed him a letter notifying him of our intention to replace the fence, Jake told us he would talk to his landlord about it.
We were months away from a replacement but in this part of the US, it rains several months of the year and you only have a small window of time to dig post holes before it starts raining again.
The workers who do this are booked well in advance for this reason.
They kept asking Jake for his contribution but he refused!
So as the deadline approached, we kept checking back with Jake, first reminding him, then pleading for him to do so, and during the last month persistently requesting his landlord’s name and address so we could contact him directly.
None of this worked.
Jake kept delaying, and two weeks before the start of the work showed up during our family dinner to “inspect the fence damage,” so he could report it to his landlord. I stupidly obliged and gave him a tour.
On the day the workers arrived, I texted him we were assuming his landlord didn’t mind the replacement because we had not heard a word from him.
He finally came up with a story!
Then we got Jake’s text explaining that he and his landlord found the fence “aesthetically displeasing”
We were also informed that the landlord would not be paying his half of the cost because “he had not been notified in advance.”
By then the fence had been completed.
I was livid but summoning the little restraint I had left, I knocked on Jake’s door to ask how this had happened and why had he not given our estimates and letter to his landlord.
And he lied to my face, saying we had never given him a letter or previous notification.
As I was turning to leave after I told him how wrong this was, Jake dared to explain he couldn’t let his landlord incur any additional expenses “least he decide to raise his rent.”
And she decided to take matters in her own hands!
Over the next few (sleepless) nights, I plotted our revenge.
First I located the landlord’s name and address on the internet. Second, I drafted a letter describing everything that had transpired in small claims court style, with screenshots of his texts going back six months, including the ones where Jake claimed that keeping the yard free of blackberries “had drained his finances.”
The letter gave the landlord three options.
If he hated the fence that much, he would not have to do anything because we were going to remove it by the end of the month.
If he wanted to build a more beautiful fence after that, we would not oppose it, but we’d take out the $2,000 we had already spent from our half of the cost.
If he could live with our ugly fence, he could give us a 1/3 of the cost and we’d consider the matter resolved.
The landlord’s response was shocking!
I also asked the landlord to confirm he had named Jake his representative.
We received a phone call no less than two days later, from a very nice gentleman who wanted to send us a check for the 1/3 of the cost.
He apologized, saying Jake had never told him about the fence until the day it was being built.
Jake’s landlord was also very disappointed to read the texts where Jake was taking credit for yard work that the landlord had been paying for.
Jake got the silent treatment.
We stopped speaking to Jake for a long time after that, but recently heard from another neighbor that his rent had indeed been raised.
Why couldn’t Jake communicate beforehand? He just made this worse for himself!
Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this story!
This person thinks the couple is at fault here.
This person doesn’t understand the dynamics here!
This person thinks it’s absurd how these guys kept bugging the renter.
This person doesn’t understand why the couple never reached out to the landlord earlier.
This person has another question to ask!
No one seems to like what this couple did.
And it does make sense, this was supposed to be between the landlord and the couple!
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.