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Rules become wonderfully slippery when lawmakers regulate labels more carefully than actual hazards.

One homeowner faced an expensive fencing mandate for a large swimming pool his family barely used.

After a council inspector demanded that he resolve the issue within 30 days, Dad researched exactly what the law considered a pool.

Something fishy was about to happen.

It’s not a swimming pool.

“Not mine, but my Dad’s (RIP).

To the malicious compliance.

Many years ago, it became law that all swimming pools needed to be fenced separately. The fact we lived in a fully fenced property with a gate was not enough.

The swimming pool needed its own fence.

He blew it off.

Dad ignored the rule as we didn’t really use the pool anymore (approx 30 feet long and 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep in the shape of a kidney). I swam at nationals a couple of times and my brother was able to bob along pretty well.

We didn’t have young children come to the house. None of our friends had children. Zero point in fencing it.

A couple of years after it became law, the council started doing inspections to make sure that pools were fenced.

The guy was a typical council employee. Strutting around in his fiefdom, flexing his muscle and threatening fines and court, etc.

It wouldn’t be cheap to put a fence around the pool.

Dad got some quotes to have it fenced which were pretty expensive as the hard paving surrounding the pool was curved and the fence couldn’t be a typical wooden fence as a) wood doesn’t follow curved contours easily and b) the council bylaw wouldn’t allow it as little kids (who were nonexistent at our house) could climb the fence using the cross member to get a footing.

So dad kinda ignored the issue for a while until the council guy came back and again started threatening again and gave dad 30 days (or something like that) to remedy the issue and sort out the swimming pool.

A ha!

Dad started researching and came up with a solution.

The council guy came back 31 days later and was furious that the pool wasn’t fenced.

Dad took him out to the pool. (The approx 30 feet long and 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep in the shape of a kidney) he showed the council guy the dozen or so fish and water lilies that now occupied the pool, thus turning it into a fish pond.

A pond that was the same size and depth as the swimming pool it used to be, which under the law did not (and still doesn’t need to be fenced.

Game, Set, Match.”

That was a clever workaround!

Check out what folks said on Reddit.

This reader had a lot to say.

Another individual spoke up.

This Reddit user chimed in.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a renter who receives a text saying his landlord has passed and asking for checks to go to a different account, but he’s not sure it’s real.

And another reader shared a story.

OP’s father added fish and water lilies, legally transforming the unfenced swimming pool into an equally deep pond requiring no barrier.

The furious inspector returned one day after the deadline only to discover that every demand had technically been satisfied.

The council tried making him fence the pool, so he simply changed the current classification.