There is a fine line between being a good neighbor and being the unofficial maintenance crew for your entire street — and some people will keep pushing that line until someone draws it for them.

A wife had watched her husband extend small courtesies to their elderly neighbor for months, sometimes getting paid (but never getting paid enough), and gradually being treated less like a helpful neighbor and more like on-call help.

When a 6:30 AM Saturday text arrived with a photo of standing water and a demand about the sprinklers, she had seen enough. She responded before her husband even had the chance.

The neighbor got a very clear redirect to the management company.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

Enough

Elderly neighbor keeps asking for my husband to fix stuff.

Sometimes she pays him, but it’s not really enough based on the job.

But lately, the relationship is getting a bit more transactional.

She’s starting to take advantage.

We live in a townhome with a management company to provide services as anyone may need it.

My husband does small things as a courtesy to everyone — blows off leaves, tidies up hedges — it’s exercise for him, but we have a landscaper.

Now this elderly neighbor is really starting to blow things out of proportion.

I’m triggered this morning due to a 6:30 AM text from that neighbor with a pic of our shared backyard with standing water, telling my husband he needs to fix the sprinklers.

It’s Saturday.

Do not treat my husband like “the help” to summon.

So she didn’t hold back in her criticism.

I ripped her a new one, told her to call the management company and quit asking him to fix things.

It was so disrespectful.

Plus, she went to me to ask him.

She has his number.

Sounds like this elderly neighbor’s entitlement had ran unchecked for a while now.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a firm who was fed up with a client denying they’d asked for changes, so they simply stopped following up with them.

Did redditors agree with her intervention?

Another strategy is just to start ignoring this neighbor.

This maintenance man isn’t too keen on the idea of someone else taking his work from him.

The “block” button was invented for this very reason!

Over the course of months, this neighbor proved she was the type of person to take advantage of generosity instead of just appreciating it.

This husband had already done more than enough for her, so when her only response was to demand more, his wife had to step in and say the quiet part out loud.

The sprinkler had dried up — and so did the endless favors.

Sorry, lady!