A lot of times, adding some greenery to your property can really make a dead area come alive! Who doesn’t like to go to see a beautiful tree swaying in the breeze out their window?

But a lot of times, the natural installations do a lot more than look pretty. Trees or hedges can provide you a layer of privacy from your neighbors, or in this story, even protect from flooding!

But when this user got some new neighbors who were bent on tearing down all the trees, he politely warned them they helped with the area’s flooding.

When they ignored him, he vowed revenge!

Check it out!

Cut down the trees – let me move my bins so you can look at them

Hopefully this is a short tale. So, we have new neighbors, and they seem to be awful.

They moved in five days ago, and for four days did nothing but chainsaw down all the trees and bushes on their land (All this greenery is about 40 years old).

They also parked all over the place, blocking access for other neighbors. These aren’t big houses but it’s a very leafy green place with trees everywhere.

But OP revealed these trees weren’t just for aesthetic purposes, they served a purpose in the neighborhood!

We live in a subsidence area and the trees drink a lot of water, prevent run-off and help keep the water table down a bit.

I know this because a few years ago, their house developed a large crack due to subsidence, and I spent a lot of time talking to the previous owners about it.

It turns out there are French Drains under most of the houses here to manage the water.

So OP decided to be neighborly and let his the new occupants know about the drainage issues with their property…

So, I went an introduced myself (very politely) and explained the drainage and subsidence problem, and asked them to leave up the trees at the front that divide our houses …

Not only do they help with the drainage, but they give a nice privacy barrier – I can’t see them, they can’t see me.

I come home later in the day and they’ve cut the lot down, and there’s just bare earth and a huge hole in the greenery.

So OP decided if they didn’t want the view of green, he’d give them a view of trash!

The petty revenge: yesterday my wife comes in with a huge smile on her face.

She’s moved the bins up to where the hole is (but still on our path).

They could be looking at trees and bushes, but now they get a glorious view of my recycling, waste and garden bins from their front door and living room window.

My confrontational self could never. I ask you nicely to leave the trees and without a word to me you passive-aggressively cut every single one down?

Reddit felt for OP, but said that not all new neighbors have such an intense disrespect for trees!

This user was reminded of two people in his town whose property dispute led to a very creative solution.

Many said that if their property does flood, OP should remember their attitude when its time for prospective buyers to look at the house.

Finally, this user said that hopefully their property was the only one whose property was affected by the lack of drainage.

Don’t like the trees? Don’t come crying to me when your property floods!

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