Some neighborhoods have an HOA, and in order to get anything fixed, you have to go to a meeting and try to convince your neighbors to fix your problem instead of theirs.

What would you do if there were a really big problem you needed to get fixed, but nobody seemed to think it was important except you?

Would you accept defeat or find a creative way to show them just how important it really is to fix this problem?

In this story, one mom is faced with this situation, and she chooses the second option.

Read on for a stinky tale of malicious compliance.

Fine, I’ll water the flowers…

So, where I’m from, a “HOA” isn’t really a thing… For the “fortunate” ones among us however, who live in an apartment building, get something similar.

A council of sorts who vote on what we can all split the budget on for maintenance, and that makes the decisions about what can/ cannot be done on the outside of the building.

Naturally, what should be an objective and reasonable discussion is known to turn rather petty.

Everyone wants to fix THEIR thing first, after all, and to hell with the rest-

There’s been more than one instance of “You want to place an AC unit outside..? Well, first we’ll have to do X”- Naturally, the person making that demand would later place their own AC outside, after it’s been approved by everyone.

Let’s turn our attention to OP’s mother.

So, I’m not going to point any fingers to who’s “guilty” here… I’m just to recount the story.

So, my mother, like everyone else in the meeting, had gathered a whole list of “bullet points” of things that needed to be done… In the hopes of getting only a couple done, really-

There were points she didn’t “really” care that much about, but if they were another thing she was willing to “forget” about in order to have something done she did want, then that was all that mattered.

One of those things was our outside tap.

There’s a big problem.

Now, we’re not the only ones with an outside tap, but we are the only ones with a small path to the front of the building-

Remember that, it’s important.

However, something with these taps (they’re separate from the inside taps) is broken- We believe it may be a filter or something, or maybe the pipes are just bust, but one thing is clear…

The water REEKS.

How disgusting!

It’s like someone has pulled stagnant water out of the swamp, right next to an exhaust pipe above a mcdonalds.

Supposedly it’s fine, but it doesn’t SMELL like it’s fine.

So of course, when we need water outside, we usually just use the tap water inside…

Now for the malicious compliance.

Her mom was pretty frustrated at how the meeting was going.

So, the meeting starts, and everyone of course starts listing off their own respective issues… And she ends up in an argument with another resident over a couple issues.

Eventually the resident comes up with the fact that with the heatwave, the little garden in front of our residence is completely wilted- And that with us being the only one with “easy driveway access”, it should be OUR responsibility to keep them watered.

Of course, my mom was a little bit peeved, since none of her demands were being listened to, and now they had the audacity to make demands of her-

However, the gears of malicious compliance were already ticking…

She knew just what to do!

She asked that if she did it, if something else could be arranged.

Apparently not thinking anything of the sudden friendly smile, an agreement was made, and the meeting concluded as all meetings do, still disgruntled and no one happy.

Except her, of course.

The next day with a smile, she pulls out the garden hose, and plugs it in the outside tap… Strides all the way up to the front of the building, and then, let loose.

They regretted asking her to water the flowers.

From a distance everything probably seemed fine.

If you got closer though, you’d believe that the building might actually be retrofitted to serve as the local toxic waste recycling area, as the hose was directly linked to Satan’s garden faucet.

The water forming a thick, smelly barrier that I heard later on drafted upwards… Straight to the other resident’s building just as well.

This only seemed helped by the summer heat, causing it all to evaporate rather than sink away in the soil, lasting almost all day… Which turned into a 24/7 haze as she wanted to make sure the flowers would survive the heat, of course!

The next meeting she was politely requested to stop watering the flowers… And now they’re considering finally fixing those taps!

Wow! That’s one clever way to get the problem solved. She made everyone very aware of how this is also a problem for them.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

They really should’ve been suspicious.

This is a good guess at what’s causing the smell.

Here’s another suggestion.

She should really keep watering the flowers until the problem is solved.

This person knows how hard it can be to agree to issues in community meetings.

Sometimes, the only way to get a problem fixed is to make it worse.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.