Some neighbors treated city codes like weapons instead of guidelines.

When one homeowner’s perfectly legal shed got reported anyway, they decided to follow the rules so closely it backfired on the nosy neighbor who complained!

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

So you want to make sure our shed is to code?

I love malicious compliance.

Our neighbor reported our old (but sturdy) shed to the city for being too large without a permit.

An inspector came out and measured it. Nope — the shed was well under the size limits and didn’t need a permit.

That got these homeowners thinking.

My husband started asking questions about the rules and got all the specifics on what was allowed.

The shed was old and very basic, so why not have a bigger, better shed?

Oh, and by the way, the inspector knew the neighbor.

Apparently her reputation preceded her.

She used to work in the planning department, knew the rules, and was clearly just trying to make trouble — her usual M.O.

He looked into her property and said he could see a good half dozen issues if we’d like to report them.

We laughed and said nah. We were going to go the malicious compliance route.

So the homeowners decided to make the neighbor think she had won.

We ripped down the shed, hoping the neighbor was smugly gloating to herself.

We did nothing for three weeks — well, except draw up plans, buy materials, lay the foundation, and line up a couple of construction friends to help.

But that’s when their real plan went into action.

Then one Saturday, our glorious big new shed went up.

We hadn’t heard from the neighbor during those three weeks, but now she was asking about our new shed and said she’d love to see inside if we didn’t mind.

We did.

The next inspection also went fine, but the inspector couldn’t help but notice some problems in the neighbor’s yard.

Cue another inspection notice for building a granny flat (the shed) on our property.

Obviously, the inspection went fine.

Well, except for those violations on the neighbor’s property.

That unpermitted open fire pit built right against the retaining wall and fence was a concern. We didn’t want it burning down our new shed, haha.

So this time, she was the one making some last-minute changes.

She’s got a couple of guys out there right now jackhammering out concrete.

I think I’ll go offer them some cold drinks from the mini-fridge in the new shed.

This lady really should have just minded her business!

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

It’s time to show this lady what being neighborly really means!

Neighbors often don’t realize that by telling on others, they often end up telling on themselves.

Not all city inspectors are the best at their jobs.

Granny flat — what a delightful name.

The new shed stood tall, legal, and fully stocked with a mini-fridge.

The neighbor, however, got a crash course in unintended consequences.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.