Some neighbors treat the block like it’s their personal kingdom.

So when one family owned a rental Victorian next to a self-appointed “Mayor” who nitpicked everything and finally forced them to repaint, they decided to follow the order to the letter.

But when they chose a bright pink color, the neighbor could hardly believe his eyes.

Keep reading for the full story.

You need to paint your house

My parents had a few rental properties.

One was a three-story Victorian divided into apartments.

Two of the neighbors didn’t like that it was a rental.

This neighbor had quite the chip on his shoulder.

One was often referred to as Mayor because he spent most of his time going around the neighborhood telling people how to do everything—from mowing their lawn to pruning shrubs, whatever he saw that he didn’t like.

I had a few friends on the local cemetery maintenance crew, and they had stories about him (they gave him the title of Mayor).

He seemed to try and throw his weight around no matter where he went.

He would come up there regularly to tell them what they were doing wrong and what they should do instead.

The other neighbor was a childhood friend of his and never had any complaints of his own, but always backed up anything his friend said in any complaints.

The neighbor didn’t like that it was a rental, so he complained constantly.

He would try and report the issue to the city, and the owners soon received a couple petty fines.

In addition to phone calls and personal confrontations (nothing terrible, just going up to the residents and us when we were there to make his feelings known), he went to borough council meetings to complain and submitted complaints to enforcement for anything they could find.

We once got fined because the address numbers painted on the trash cans were 1″ (2.5 cm) too short (seriously, it cost my dad $15).

So when the neighbor continued to complain about the paint color, he finally got his way.

He started to complain about the house needing paint.

At first, with no luck (it wasn’t that bad; the code officer said it was OK).

But eventually, he prevailed, and we got the order to paint the place.

So the owners decided to get the cheapest supplies possible for the job.

We didn’t have a lot of money, so my folks went to the local paint place and purchased all of the stuff they wanted to get rid of.

Returns, stuff not mixed right, whatever they could get.

They even had a few painters donate their leftovers.

They really couldn’t have cared less about how the paint looked.

I spent hours in the sun hand mixing the paint that was poured into a huge trash can.

Once it was mixed, it was poured back into the cans, ready to paint the house.

It turned out to be a bright pink.

We started to paint the place.

Of course, this sent the neighbors into a frenzy.

The color was not well received… not at all.

The neighbor and his friend went to borough council meetings to get it stopped.

They complained to the code compliance people.

Finally, the code compliance informed the nosy neighbors they were out of luck.

The answer?

There is nothing in the code that states what color a house has to be painted, only that it must be reasonably maintained (or some similar words).

They also said that you asked for the house to be painted; you got what you asked for.

He lived next to that place for many years after he got what he asked for.

Bet they wished they’d kept their mouths shut.

Some homeowners save money however they can.

Sometimes it’s nice to go with the unexpected paint color.

Type B neighbors have more fun.

Some people really need to be told “no” more often.

Turns out, malicious compliance can be blinding.

The moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for!

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