When a neighbor needs help, you are supposed to help them, even if you are the landlord of an apartment building rather than a single-family homeowner. This is especially true when the issue he needs help with was caused by your building.

What would you do if the sewer line kept backing up into your yard because of the apartment buildings in the area, but the landlord of those buildings told you it wasn’t his problem and that you could deal with it yourself?

That is what happened to the homeowner in this story, so he fixed the problem by blocking the line on his property, which caused the water to back up into the apartment buildings.

Hey, the landlord refused to be reasonable, so this is what he gets. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.

You have a terrible drainage system and you don’t want to help me, your downstream neighbor, fix it? Enjoy losing your tenants.

The area we live in has changed drastically in the last decade or so.

Ineffective sewer systems can be a disaster.

Almost all of our neighbours have pulled down their homes are have constructed apartment buildings.

The problem is that the sewer system is quite old and is not built to handle the current volume of waste. A Chinese company is as well in the process of constructing a new sewer system, so the old line experiences a lot of blockage.

This could lead to serious water problems.

In our home, we have a septic tank. We use the sewer system only as a drain for rain water. The compound is about halfway up a hill. The upper boundary has a live fence but the lower side next to the road has a wall.

This essentially means that when it rains, water from up the hill can flow into our compound but has no outlet. The dirt road on the other side of the wall is also poorly built and pools a lot of water next to our wall.

They can’t wait for the new system to be finished to deal with this.

So, to get rid of rain water, there is an underground connection from the lowest point in our compound to the sewer line, which runs parallel to the wall on the other side of the road. It’s not the most ideal setup but it has worked for decades.

Anyway, the new constructions have overtaxed the existing system. When there’s a blockage, the backflow ends up in our yard since it’s the lowest exit.

He is trying to avoid property damage.

There are about five apartment buildings upstream of our connection each with over thirty units, so the backflow is usually pretty heavy.

Most of the times, we react quickly and remove the blockage, but it’s really a pain to deal with. To add on to this, the caretakers for the five apartment buildings don’t do anything to help me.

It is not unreasonable to expect a little help.

So, last week, the Chinese construction cut into the existing line. However, they just filled the hole with the breach with dirt and carried on without telling anyone. I came home to a stinky flooded compound with pieces of waste floating by. I call my usual guys but they aren’t around. So, I decide it’s time for the upstream caretakers to help out.

I find three of the five chilling. I’ll be Me. They will be C1 C2 C3 (Conversation translated from native languate):

Me: Hey guys. The sewer line is blocked. I need a hand.

Now they are lying about it.

C1: Why you always bothering us with this? It’s your problem.

Me: It’s OUR problem. We all use this line. You need to contribute to its maintenance.

C2: We’ve moved to the new (Chinese) system. My building doesn’t use the old one any more (this was a lie. The Chinese construction was being done in stages and it was nowhere near our street).

Clearly they aren’t going to help.

Me: Guys, we’re all moving to the new line when it gets here. Just help me out until we can switch.

C2: (mad at being called out) That’s not our problem. You handle it however you want. We don’t care. Deal with your own mess.

He is going to get this done one way or another.

This really made me mad since they had no idea how much I did for them. You want me to deal with my problem however I want? Sure thing.

First of all, I found the location where the blockage was. Luckily, the crew were still there and they were super chill in helping me unblock it although I had to buy new pipe to repair the section they had broken and also ‘bought them some tea’ if you know what I mean (corruption is a cancer in my country).

What exactly is this going to do?

But I didn’t stop there. Motivated by the caretakers’ arrogance, I asked some of the guys to help me out the following day. Basically, what we did was we removed the connection between our compound and the sewer line.

Instead, we levelled the depression in the road right outside our wall to allow rain water to flow freely down-slope, then we removed a brick from the bottom of the wall to give rain water an exit from our compound. All I had to do was wait.

The backup is now happening in the apartment buildings.

Yesterday afternoon, the crew working on the Chinese construction caused another blockage on the old line. Again, they didn’t tell anyone.

They only covered it up with dirt and rocks just like before. By dusk, the five apartment buildings started feeling the blockage.

Hey, he was told to handle it however he wanted.

The people living on the ground floors, some of them my friends, start to complain. Apartments are getting flooded. Sink drains are not working. Toilets are not flushing well. Showers smell of human waste and are flooded with greywater.

This evening, almost all the ground floor residents in the two closest apartment buildings are moving out. The stench in the houses is unbearable.

Who can blame him for not wanting to help the caretakers?

I just laugh as I help my friends move. The caretakers are too ashamed to ask me for help.

They have no idea where the blockage could be since they have never had to fix one before. I am not about to tell anyone.

He tried to be a good neighbor, but that was clearly not an option. Now he is just taking care of himself and his own property and letting the landlords of the apartment buildings deal with the fallout.

Check out what the people in the comments have had to say about this story below.

If he had the money, this would be a great idea.

Bribery is the worst.

He played it perfectly.

I agree with this commenter.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about annoying neighbors who end up regretting their request for a property survey.

He would be a great neighbor.

They told him to fix the problem however he wanted, and that is just what he did. This is what happens when you refuse to be a good neighbor.

While this was undoubtedly very satisfying, the apartment building owners will undoubtedly be able to fix the problem before long.