Being responsible for lawn care when you rent usually means mowing the grass, raking some leaves and occasionally wondering whether anyone actually enjoys yard work or we’ve all collectively agreed to pretend. It probably shouldn’t mean becoming the neighborhood’s unofficial branch-removal service—especially when you own a sedan.

One renter learned that distinction during their first summer in a new neighborhood, after some unexpected roof work left branches scattered around the property. With no municipal yard-waste pickup and a landlord insisting cleanup was the tenant’s responsibility, they did the only thing they could think of: folded down the seats, loaded the branches into the car and made what sounds like an extremely questionable journey to the disposal site.

Annoying, but problem solved.

Then a neighbor knocked on the door.

Apparently, the roofers had left branches in his yard too, and he expected the new renter to haul those away as well. Wanting to keep the peace, they reluctantly did it.

Unfortunately, word may have gotten out that the new neighbor with the sedan accepts branches, because it wasn’t long before an entirely different pile appeared in the backyard.

And this time, somebody had apparently tossed it there on purpose.

AITAH for not hauling both of my neighbors’ branches?

I rent a house in a neighborhood. I’m pretty new and this is my first summer. According to the lease, lawn work is all my responsibility. Recently my landlord surprised me with sudden roof work. He also owns a construction business, so the guys who came and did the work I think either work for him or they are close friends of his.

In any case they left branches all over the yard. Now there is no yard waste pick up, so branches and leaves and grass clippings all have to be hauled to the city yard waste disposal site. I don’t have a truck.

I don’t even have an SUV, only a sedan, I tell the landlord this and he says it’s my responsibility. So I cleared out my trunk and put my seats down and hauled everything to the waste disposal site. It was a very sketchy ride.

Suss much?

About a week later I get a knock on the door, I have a next door neighbor and he says the roof guys left a lot of branches in his yard as well. He has a giant tree in the front yard that is way overgrown and goes all over the roof of my porch, it also drops pine cones everywhere.

He says I gotta haul these branches and also tells me he’s seen me throwing pincones in his yard when I’m mowing, and I need to stop that (yeah I do this.) anyways it’s this tree the roof guys cut the branches off of and apparently just gathered them all and laid them at the base of the tree.

I call my landlord and tell him this and he says that’s bullsh*t, it’s the neighbors tree, he’s responsible, and I need to work out this not having a truck thing and stop calling him.

Pretty please.

So to keep the peace, I haul the branches, sticking out of my trunk and getting leaves all over my backseat again.

Well yesterday I walk into my backyard and see a bunch of branches. These ones came off of trees in my yard that were cut down from the neighbor on the other side and thrown in my yard.

So I go over and say the same thing that the first neighbor told me, and he refuses and says the trees came from my yard, I have to haul the branches.

Oh boy.

I call the landlord again and tell him, he says this is why I shouldn’t have hauled the neighbors branches cause these ones are my responsibility.

I don’t think it’s right to do a yard chore and just throw the work onto someone else. So I throw the branches back over the fence, and today they’re back in my yard. The messed up thing is both of these neighbors have trucks.

AITA?

Commenters largely sided with the renter and called them NTA, although there was plenty of frustration to spread among nearly everyone else involved in this increasingly ridiculous branch relay.

The second neighbor’s behavior was particularly difficult to defend. Regardless of whose trees the branches originally came from, cutting them and then tossing the debris over someone else’s fence isn’t exactly a reasonable way to resolve a property dispute. The fact that the branches reportedly went back and forth over the fence only demonstrates how badly this situation needs an actual conversation about responsibility rather than another round of woody volleyball.

The first situation is murkier because those branches were apparently cut by the landlord’s roof crew from the first neighbor’s tree. But that’s also precisely why commenters questioned why the renter was being dragged into it at all. The renter didn’t hire the contractors, didn’t instruct them to cut anything and certainly didn’t decide where they should leave the debris. If the roof work created a mess on neighboring property, that sounds like something the property owner and contractors should have sorted out.

And then there’s the landlord, whose repeated advice appears to amount to “figure it out and stop calling me.” Lawn maintenance being included in a lease doesn’t necessarily mean every pile of debris created by contractors or neighbors automatically becomes the tenant’s personal hauling assignment.

The renter’s biggest mistake may have been trying too hard to keep the peace the first time. Hauling one neighbor’s branches established a precedent that was generous but clearly wasn’t sustainable—particularly when the person doing all this owns a sedan while, somehow, both neighbors own trucks.

Being responsible for your yard is one thing. Becoming the only person on the block expected to transport everyone else’s branches is quite another.

This person says the landlord is the jerk here.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighborhood that’s up in arms after HOA and city clash about whether or not homeowners can place cones.

This person says heckkk no.

And this person has some suggestions on what to say next.

Two neighbors have trucks, the renter has a sedan, and somehow everyone decided who should run the neighborhood branch removal service.