There’s nothing more frustrating than a neighbor who thrives on saying “no” just because they can.

One stubborn homeowner blocked another neighbor’s renovation for nearly a decade, but when it was his turn to sell his mansion, he discovered just how costly karma can be.

Read on for this tale of pro revenge from the great Down Under.

Don’t let my neighbour build another storey on his house, loose $600000 when you sell yours.

My neighbor, let’s call him Jon, eight years ago decided that he wanted to build a second story on his house.

But his property had a legal binding on it preventing it from being renovated unless all surrounding neighbors agreed.

This is called a covenant, I think, and it can’t be contested in the local council. This one was over 100 years old.

This covenant would prove to make Jon’s renovation plans tricky.

All his neighbors except one, let’s call him Alex, agreed to let him renovate.

Now, Jon is a big guy — ex-military and muscly. He has a wife and two children, but he is not quick to anger.

He instead tried to politely persuade Alex.

About twice every year, Jon would write Alex polite letters asking him to lift the ban on renovating his house, and every year Alex declined, complaining that it would be an eyesore.

(Literally every other house on our road has two stories except his.)

Alex also claimed it would ruin the aesthetic of the street. (Seriously?)

But for being such a stickler for other people’s houses, Alex lived his own life very differently.

Alex was also a complete jerk and a hypocrite, playing loud music past midnight.

Anyway, for eight years, Jon would get turned down by Alex.

Then suddenly, Alex decided he was going to sell his house.

The revenge was on.

Jon immediately got to work to sabotage the sale.

After he heard the news, Jon bought one of those professional metal signs that people put in front of their houses when selling and placed it in front of his own house.

On it read something like:

“5 new apartments being built! Get in quick, two sold already. 3 entire stories!! Loud noise expected for a year.”

The number given on the sign was disconnected.

This was repeated in Mandarin and Arabic as well.

The sign was put right next to Alex’s house, on the edge of Jon’s property.

Alex immediately tried to get the signs removed.

The auction for the house was happening in a month, and Alex was quick to get a lawyer to make Jon take the sign down. I think it was because the sign was encroaching on his land.

Jon wrote about 60 letters to the lawyer, and it cost about $50 for the lawyer to read each letter and give his legal advice to Alex.

The lawyer contacted Jon and told him that if he did not take down the sign a week before the auction, they would take him to court.

So the signs were a bust, but Jon had more tricks up his sleeve.

A week before the auction, Jon took the sign down—but he wasn’t done.

The day of the auction arrived, and Jon parked his four cars along the front of Alex’s house so no one could see the “Auction Here” sign or park nearby.

Now it’s time to crank up the volume!

Jon has an inbuilt speaker system in his house and was blasting construction sound effects and music throughout his home.

He put back up the sign he had taken down and added another one that read:

“House Demolition Furniture Sale.”

He really went all out to make the story believable.

Jon brought most of the furniture from his garage and house outside onto his lawn. If people came to buy something, he would overprice it outrageously because he didn’t really want to sell his stuff.

It was just to make the apartment construction more believable and give the auction-goers a taste of how loud it would be.

When the auction took place, we could barely hear the auctioneer.

When Alex complained to Jon about the noise, Jon said that he had the builders on a contract and didn’t want to reschedule.

It turns out that all Jon’s efforts did pay off in the end.

The house was estimated to go for $3 million but ended up selling for $2.4 million instead.

Alex had to halt construction of his new house because he didn’t have the funds.

Alex was obviously furious, but Jon still got his way in the end.

Alex, who according to Jon sounded like he was “seething with anger,” phoned to tell Jon that he owed him $600,000.

The new owners of the property lifted the covenant when Jon told them about his plan.

“You guys should be thanking me. I saved you $600,000.”

Pettiness begets more pettiness.

What did Reddit think?

Alex got off a little too easy if you ask this commenter.

Jon had better watch his back for a hefty lawsuit.

This commenter agrees.

This user is less than sympathetic of both Alex and Jon.

Turns out, bad neighbors might stop construction, but they can’t stop karma.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.