When someone from the city moves to a country neighborhood, the different ways of living can cause some conflict.

What would you do if your new neighbor came from the city and thought everything had to be done his way, and was rude to everyone?

That is what happened to the man in this story, so he found a way to cut off his water supply and force him to sell the property at a huge loss.

Check it out.

The Long Game

To set the stage, many decades ago, Barney and Betty immigrated from Europe and bought a farm.

A few years later they had kids, and sponsored Wilma from the old country as a nanny.

She met Fred, a local boy, fell in love and got married.

Wilma stayed on as the nanny, and Fred worked as a farm hand.

Their kids and Barney and Betty’s kids grew up together, and it was pretty much a big, blended family.

Years go by, and Barney and Betty decide to sell the farm fields to Farmer Frank, but kept the land the house was on.

They made enough off the sale to build a nice, new house, and rezoned the property lines.

What a kind gesture.

They broke the lot up into 2 parcels, one for the new house, and one for the existing house, which they gifted to Fred & Wilma as a recognition of their years of dedicated and loving service.

Both houses shared a well and a septic field.

More time went by.

Barney and Betty passed away, and their house was inherited by their son, Bam-Bam.

Fred also passed away, and Wilma stayed in the house.

She was an angel.

Everyone in the town knew and loved her, she was like the town’s Grandmother.

She was active in the church, and liked nothing more than crocheting booties for anyone in town that had a baby.

Sadly, Wilma passed away too, and her house was inherited by her daughter, Pebbles.

She was well established in a nearby metropolitan city, and made the decision to sell the house.

….and so it begins….

The parcel for sale backs on to protected park land, and is bordered by Bam-Bam’s land, and Farmer Frank’s fields.

It was purchased by a builder from the city, which we’ll call Dick.

The name suits him.

He wanted it as a country getaway, as he already had a place in the city.

He got approval to improve the place, and his plans were to convert the barn into a multi-car garage with a man-cave and an apartment in what was the loft.

He started by tearing down the house, with plans to replace it with a bigger, more modern house.

The house was torn down, and the new build was started.

The lower part of the property represents a very narrow driveway, between that driveway and Farmer Frank’s field was a drainage culvert.

So the contractors started parking their vehicles on Bam-Bam’s lot.

Bam-Bam asked the contractors not to do it, but they didn’t stop, so he approached Dick, and the conversation didn’t go well.

Dick was an entitled big-shot, dealing with what he thought was a country bumpkin.

To give you an idea, Dick once went to the local diner, and asked for the wine list.

He was aggressive and disrespectful, and this pretty much set the tone for all future interactions.

Bam-Bam had enough, these contractor trucks were tearing up his ground, so one weekend, he built a fence along the border between his house and Dick’s.

It wasn’t a complicated fence, he just got a buddy with a post-hole digger on his Bobcat, sunk posts, and strung planks between them.

This caused no end of trouble with the build.

I can see how that would be inconvenient.

There was no room to park in the area for the contractors without getting in each other’s way, and they couldn’t park in the driveway which was only wide enough for one vehicle at a time.

Contractors were upset…they had a long walk from the road to the build site, and had to carry tools and equipment back and forth, either that, or take turns dropping material, waiting hours for the carpenters to finish unloading the lumber so that the plumbers could unload the pipes.

Dick was furious, and came stomping over to Bam-Bam demanding that he dismantle the fence.

Bam-Bam told him no…then a day later, Bam-Bam saw that “someone” had removed some of the fence and the contractor trucks were back on his land.

Okay, thought Bam-Bam. Let’s play.

The following weekend Bam-Bam irrigated the area where the contractors were parking.

Irrigated it long and continuously.

He probably had to get a water delivery to make it happen, as the well had a limited capacity.

On Monday, the first contractor to arrive turned off Dick’s driveway to go through the fence, and immediately sank up to his axles in mud.

Did I mention that Bam-Bam owned the local service station, and knew every tow truck company within 100 miles?

As it turned out, everyone they called was too busy to pull the truck out, and they had to call a tow truck from the city, almost 2 hours away.

You can see how the relationship between Bam-Bam and Dick became somewhat less than neighborly.

Time went by, and Dick’s house was completed.

It was a low-maintenance setup, with interlocking brick over the compound, tall hedges separating Dick from Bam-Bam.

At least they are avoiding each other now.

They kept out of each other’s way, but they certainly weren’t pals.

Dick’s kids would come up on the weekend and have a party now and then, but Bam-Bam put up with it.

One issue that arose was when Dick decided to fill the small swimming pool that he had installed.

This drew the well dry, and caused some sand to be pulled into the water treatment equipment.

When Bam-Bam approached Dick about the cost of the repair (via email), Dick basically replied that it was Bam-Bam’s problem.

The same when the septic holding tank needed to be pumped.

Bam-Bam offered to split the cost of the pumping, and Dick refused to part with a dime.

Years passed, and Dick decided to list the house for sale.

That’s when Bam-Bam made his move.

He cut the water and capped the septic line leading from Dick’s house.

Then he informed the real estate agent of what he had done.

Well, that induced a thunderstorm, for sure.

There’s no way Dick could sell a house that had no water, or any way to dispose of waste.

He couldn’t build a septic field on his property, it was too small.

He approached Farmer Frank to buy some of his land, but was rebuffed.

His only option would have been to install a septic holding tank, but the only place to put it would have been right in the middle of his compound, and septic tanks can be….aromatic.

It would also have meant removing the in-ground pool.

He didn’t want to maintain it, he doesn’t get access to it.

Dick tried to argue in court that he was entitled to access to the well water and the septic field, but Bam-Bam won, arguing that the Wilma and Fred were given water and septic as a courtesy, and that there was no contractual obligation to provide Dick either well water or septic access.

There was nothing in the deed to Wilma and Fred that could be grandfathered in, and Dick’s emails refusing to pay for maintenance to either system was the nail in the coffin.

The property sat vacant and unusable for months.

The price dropped through the floor, and the few people that expressed an interest in the property approached Bam-Bam with varying offers of cash to restore service.

Bam-Bam declined.

No offers were made to Dick for the house.

Finally, Dick did receive an offer from a numbered corporation, an offer that was about a quarter of the asking price.

As is, with a statement that the buyer was aware that there was no water or septic service to the property.

Without much choice, Dick accepted the offer.

Now that is a genius move.

And that’s how Bam-Bam bought himself a beautiful, modern country home, at a steal of a price.

He reattached the water and septic in an afternoon, and moved his furniture down the driveway.

He rented his old house out, for extra money, and had the numbered company negotiate with…himself…for an arrangement for perpetual use of the well and septic, thereby jacking the value of the house by a factor of 4.

Later, if he decides to sell it, he’ll be making a massive profit.

Bam-Bam now enjoys a country paradise, and is the social king of the hill in his town.

All because Dick decided to be a jerk.

Being rude to your neighbors is never a good strategy.

Let’s see what the people in the comments say about this story.

This commenter would have shut off access to the water much sooner.

Here is someone who loved the story.

Apparently septic access issues are more common than I thought.

No lawsuits here.

This person thinks this could work as a legal exam.

Don’t be rude to neighbors and you don’t have to worry about things like this.

It’s as simple as that.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.