Bad neighbors can turn even the nicest neighborthoods into a miserable living situation. Things get even worse when your landlord refuses to do anything about the problems that are caused.

That was the situation that the renter in this story was facing, and the neighbors weren’t just loud. He found out that they were actually criminals who were running an illegal chop shop in their garage. On top of that, they threw loud parties, which attracted regular visits from the cops.

After months of trying to get the landlord to take action with no progress, one of the other renters came up with a plan to help ‘encourage’ the criminals to move out. His clever scheme involved a professional demolition company, a fake appointment, and just enough confusion to make the criminals think their operation was coming to an end.

About a week later, the bad neighbors were packing their things and moving on to a new location, much to the relief of the entire neighborhood.

My roommate ‘encouraged’ our criminal next door neighbors to move.

Several years ago my roommate and I rented a flat.

Oh wow, some neighbors are bad, but this could actually be unsafe.

Neighborhood was great except for the next door neighbors. They were running a chop shop from a garage in our alley, had noisy parties till all hours of the night and were periodically raided by the dept of corrections.

You have to wonder if they were giving the landlord a little extra to let them work there.

They had the same landlord as us and all complaints we made went unanswered. He never had the courtesy to call us back.

My roommate came up with an idea of a way to ‘encourage’ them to move.

Let’s see what their plan is.

He called a demolition company and made an appointment for an estimate. They were a company with bad google reviews and seemed desperate for the business.

Roommate informed the demo company that he was the landlord and that he was out of town but the tenant will be there to let him in.

This is kind of rude to just waste that company’s time.

On the day and time of the appointment we could see from our flat when the demo people paid their visit. We could see that there was a small argument but the demo people left.

The demo people called my roommate and he apologized and said that he will wait until after the tenants have been evicted to reschedule the demo.

Wait, I don’t get it. Why did they leave?

About a week later the next door neighbors left in the middle of the night. The landlord sold the house to some house flippers and we got better neighbors.

The other people on our street threw a party to celebrate. My roommate didn’t tell anyone what he did. The people leaving was enough reward for him.

I feel like there must be some important details that are missing. Or maybe I just don’t understand what happened because I’m not a landlord (or someone who chops cars). Whatever the case, at least it all worked out for them in the end. Except not for the demolition company. I hope these neighbors at least paid them something for their time.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an apartment tenant who is being called petty for blocking her parking space with trash cans.

Let’s take a look at what the people in the comments had to see. Maybe they understand why the criminals moved away.

This person had the same question I did. The person in the story gave an answer.

I feel bad for them too. They really should have paid them for their service.

Sometimes you have to get creative to get what you want.

These two think that the plan was great.

This person was also able to get criminal neighbors evicted.

I suppose it makes sense that someone engaged in criminal activity would not want to be around when there will be lots of workers present. And if they really did believe that their building was being demolished, they would assume that they need to move out right away.

On the other hand, if they never got an eviction notice, they should know that they aren’t getting kicked out anytime soon. That type of thing takes time. Whatever the case, it worked out for everyone (except for the demo company) in the end