September 8, 2024 at 7:21 am

Neighbor Floods New Homeowners With Anonymous Complaints, But They Stand Their Ground And Let The Grass Grow Freely

by Benjamin Cottrell

Source: Canva/annastills, Reddit/Petty Revenge

Navigating the quirks of a new neighborhood can be quite the chore, especially when nosy neighbors poke their nose where it doesn’t belong.

In this story, anonymous letters started showing up at these new homeowners’ door regarding their lawn care.

Refusing to be intimidated, they found a way to fight back and come out on top of this turf war.

Read on for the full story!

Neighbor sends passive aggressive unmarked letters in complaint, so I’ll make sure they keep sending them.

My wife and I are first time homeowners in our mid twenties who just purchased a small place 2 months ago in a nice little neighborhood not too far from our old apartment.

I work a night job, so I sleep a good chunk of the day and am most active at night, while my wife works all manner of different hours because retail.

We rarely see each other during the day, but always make an effort to spend at least a few hours together after I get home.

He acknowledges that sometimes chores take a little longer to get done, thanks to their unorthodox schedules.

Working such hours, our chores tend to get neglected, but never to the point of being unhealthy. The lawn may go a day or two extra without mowing, but everything gets done.

All the neighbors I’ve had the opportunity to meet and talk with have been nothing short of nice, and no one has been a nuisance so far…

But one day that changed…

Until last month, when we received a letter in the mail from someone who wished to remain anonymous (they left no return address, no names, etc.)

They wanted to let us know that our grass was getting too long for their taste, looks unsightly, everyone keeps theirs short (too short actually, they practically cut it to the roots) and that behind our fence is on our property line.

This isn’t how this homeowner is used to handling conflict at all.

I was taken aback by this, I’m not used to neighbors being passive aggressive by sending “anonymous” letters to those they don’t feel like confronting in person…

Whenever anything arose in my old neighborhood we simply spoke with them politely and it solved pretty much everything.

Then again, most of the time people minded their own business unless it became obstructive or dangerous.

Maybe they had a point. No harm, no foul.

But ya know, they’re at least sort of right. I had neglected my mowing duties, and frankly I should have known the area behind our fence is ours.

No harm, just a bit perturbed.

Then came today.

He thought they had made improvements in their lawn upkeep.

We’ve done a better job keeping up with chores, and our grass wasn’t too high.

The previous homeowner fertilized the lawn so the whole thing grows like weeds, if it goes a week without a trim it gets a bit long, but by no means does it look unbecoming of suburban lawn.

But the pesky neighbor didn’t seem to think so.

Despite all that, another letter came!

Short but sweet this time around, simply stating that they called the city and reported us (lol,) the city is going to come out to now our lawn and charge us for it (lol,) and that they’ll put a lien on our property.

Wut.

So the homeowner did a little digging of their own.

Spoke with the city admin dept. and the police, got the nitty gritty on if anything was illegal or whatever.

Basically everything they said was false. The most I’d get is a ticket and the zoning guy would ALWAYS contact us first and give reasonable time to rectify it ourselves.

Not to mention in our city the unacceptable length for grass is 6+ inches…ours was nowhere near that.

Essentially, they’re totally in the clear and their neighbor was over-exaggerating the threat.

Our friendly neighborhood cop informs me that it’s our property and we can upkeep it however we want!

And so I shall.

So to the nosy neighbor, they give a middle finger!

To make sure Mr. and/or Mrs. Neighbor improve their shaky *** penmanship, I’m gonna let my lawn grow EXACTLY the same length every week or so before mowing it, just like how it looked a few days ago when it was mowed (incidentally, the exact day the letter was postmarked.)

And on top of that, I’ve instructed the post office to discard any mail with no return address that comes our way.

I hope you get a hand cramp every week!

It’s their lawn, they’ll mow it how they like!

What did Reddit have to say about this tale of petty revenge?

This user suggests these homeowners go on a recon mission of their own.

Source: Reddit/Petty Revenge

Too much grass? How about no grass.

Source: Reddit/Petty Revenge

Some people just can’t seem to mind their own business.

Source: Reddit/Petty Revenge

Yes, neighbor, we’ll mow it all! Just not all today.

Source: Reddit/Petty Revenge

With the law on their side, the couple was empowered to keep their lawn just the way they like it.

Never give into peer pressure, even as an adult!

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.