'You can back off': Karen neighbor disputes property line, accidentally proves their house is over it

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jul 8, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

If there was ever a perfect example of "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face,"—this is it, with this neighbor pursuing a need for vengeance to the point where the only thing they assured was their own downfall. It's like poetry; it rhymes.

A construction supervisor was faced with a challenging situation when an agitated neighbor disrupted their progress by filing unwarranted complaints with the city inspector. This caused a great deal of headaches and resulted in a significant loss of valuable time on the project. However, after examining CAD files, the supervisor uncovered that the neighbor was the one with parts of their structures over the boundary line—quite contrary to their claims. This discovery prompted the supervisor to take appropriate action to rectify the situation and ensure that the project could proceed without any further hindrance.

This thread was originally shared with Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by the superintendent, u/Short_Finger_Dizzy. They shared their story with the popular sub to an approving reaction from readers.

Next, check out this landlord that tried to scam their tenant out of an extra month's rend and got shut down.

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  • 01
    Font - Male Karen and property lines. 2nd Edition. M OC I'm a Senior Construction Superintendent in the DFW area. The project I'm currently on is a 13 acre site, smack in the middle of an extremely affluent area to the north of Dallas. 3 weeks ago, a city inspector that we'll call Joe, came into the site office and said that they received a complaint about a sprinkler/soaker line being damaged during excavation for the fire lane. He, my landscaper and myself went to investigate, discovered where
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 02
    Font - A week later, Joe comes in and mentions that they've reached out again about the noise from equipment - which is odd, because anyone with heavy equipment is currently working on the other end of the property. I again went to speak with them, got no answer at the door, and left a card again. Yesterday, in walks Joe to tell me that they're complaining about our construction fence is on their property and killing their grass. The fence is 12' from their fence, and our specs call for it to be
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 03
    Font - During all of this, I get an email from the city, asking me to place the construction fence squarely on our property line. The email is sent to me, the apparent homeowner, Joe, and my project manager. I brought the surveyors back out yesterday to pinpoint our property corners and give us some 10' off-sets (reference points 10' east of the property line, for line of sight) to measure from. I knocked on the homeowners door again, and got no answer. Mind you, every time there were cars in th
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 04
    Font - Fast forward to this morning, my fence crew showed up and they began moving the fence onto the property line, which takes 31" (2 feet, 7 inches) of their driveway, and 18' of the road where it ends at the property (was previously a cul-de-sac). The client finally reached out, or more accurately; came to the site office in a huff. I explained the issue, showed him the platt and he left with some unkind words flowing from him, like diesel exhaust on a steep incline. I put a pause on the fen
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 05
    Font - He claimed that our platt was wrong. The engineer and everyone else disagreed. The back and forth went on long enough for the client, who is an extremely laid back, and quiet gentleman, to finally speak up and basically say: We're just gonna go ahead and sell you the property you've stolen, at current market value plus 10%. (In this area...that's not cheap.) If that's not acceptable, we'll just have you move your fence, cut out your driveway, and use the east side of your home for adverti
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 06
    Font - Or, you can back off, let these guys work, and we'll give you lifetime use of the area you currently occupy, so long as there's no more hassling of any kind. The guy asked me if we'd move the fence back out, and I told him no. I agreed to take it off his driveway, but the street and green space belonged to us. We only did what he asked us to do. The engineer who asked me to move it, agreed. So, there it is. The story again, the fall-out, and conclusion.
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 07
    Font - The__Riker__Maneuver +1 All fun and games until someone threatens to use the side of your house as a billboard 1.1k JaschaE +3 Reply Share A billboard making wild promises about the services offered by the houses occupants. 304 Reply Share
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 08
    Font - No-Freedom1956 As a municipal engineer, I often wonder how the biggest investment people make (for most it is their home) they do the least research on and have no clue about what they bought. Now if it was a piece of tech, they could just go to online reviews. But real estate actually takes some work so there's no time for that... Reply Share 286
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 09
    Font - Allanunderscore21 I take it that they took the last option? Your client may seem laidback and appear to have taken a loss but that option he offered is quite insidious. Male Karen now owes your client a favor with a defined and significant monetary value. Any argument he makes in the future can then be answered with the same exact words your client said today. Reply Share 111
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 10
    Font - afe AppFlyer MAN. This is great. Great response by the client too. Also, how long until he calls his previous real estate attorney and files an E&O claim? 41 Reply Share
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy
  • 11
    Font - Thoreau80 +1 I'm the kind of person who would keep the driveway given the way he acted. I'm nice until you're not. Reply Share 30
    via u/Short_Finger_Dizzy

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drama malicious compliance neighborhood neighborhood-drama bad neighbors terrible neighbors Bad Neighbor neighbor
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