Sometimes, trying to make someone else’s life hard can backfire on you.

Imagine being told to chop down your lush, green hedge just to satisfy a spiteful neighbor.

Would you go ahead and just trim it down? Or would you make sure your compliance left a lasting impression?

In today’s story, one couple deals with this exact scenario. Here’s how it went down.

We need to shorten our hedge to 3 feet max? Okay!

My husband and I developed an unpleasant relationship with one of our neighbors, mostly because this lady liked to adopt kittens (which we adore) and then basically throw them outside, where they invaded our backyard and preyed on cute native wildlife like tiny birds, chipmunks, bunnies and so on.

There’s a bylaw against this, and we made some use of it while she lived next door.

After a couple of years, we found out that she was selling and moving away. Yay! However, she was still mad at us and shared her feelings with her real estate agent.

The agent contacted officials because the hedge was too high.

The agent thought it over and called the (very nice and polite!) bylaw officer to visit us because the hedge between our two properties was technically too high. It was maybe six feet high and needed to be half that. There’s no real reason for this rule since we are on the outside of a bend in the road, and visibility is fine, but whatever.

My husband readily agreed to have at this lush, beautiful green hedge and got out there right away with his heaviest equipment. I quickly realized why he was so cheerful about this big job.

As he cut the hedge to half its height, of course, most of the greenery was trimmed away, and the result was a stark and (temporarily) sad-looking collection of bare branches and twigs.

She was upset when she saw the results.

He carefully cleaned up after himself, and we kept an eye out for the agent.

We were so lucky to be there when she next arrived and emerged from her car! Let’s say that my husband’s malicious compliance did not exactly improve the curb appeal of the next-door property!

She stood there for some time, then noticed us regarding her from our living room with gratified expressions and marched away. So very satisfying, we still sometimes mention it to each other.

Too funny! She probably regretted that instantly.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about this story.

This person would’ve really rubbed it in.

Here’s an excellent idea.

They would never live in an HOA neighborhood.

Another person who doesn’t like HOAs.

Complaining about a lush hedge is ridiculous. Not only did it provide privacy, but it was probably nice to look at as well.

Hopefully, this lady will learn to choose her battles wisely from now on.

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.