Imagine living in an apartment where there’s a water faucet right outside your apartment. What would you do if the water in the faucet had a horrible smell? Would you simply not use it, or would you try to get the apartment building to fix the issue?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she decides to use malicious compliance to get the stinky water issue fixed.

Keep reading for all the details.

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.

There’s a lot of arguing.

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.

This story involves 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.

The smell is 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.

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

The smell has to mean something.

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.

Things weren’t going well for the mom in the meeting.

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 what she was doing.

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.

She turned her problem into everyone’s problem.

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!

That was really clever. Her mom certainly knew how to make sure she got her point across.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is a good advice.

This person shares a theory about why the water smells.

Here’s an idea for the next meeting.

Another person thinks she should keep watering the flowers.

If you want a problem fixed, make the problem big enough that everyone else wants it fixed too.

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