'Now they are all "my" leaves': Homeowner gets back at leaf collection company who left their leaves on their neighbor's curb

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 29, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

This person has a lot of leaves to put out, but the leaf removal company they hired is being so picky about removing them. 

If you hire a company to do a service, you'd be shocked if they just decided not to do that. How useless of them! This place has created some pretty strict rules for how their leaf pickup has to go, but the rules are comically picky. 

This person has way more than your average share of leaves. While many of us find ourselves raking up the leaves of a couple trees on the property, this dude has roughly 50 trees! Plus, two of those are sugar maple trees, which have tons of leaves to shed. If the OP didn't get rid of all those leaves, there'd be a pile 12 feet high. 

Raking and then jumping in a big pile of leaves is one of those fall activities you just don't get to do enough in adulthood. The OP did mention in a comment, though, that there was enough doggy doo to prevent any potential leaf jumpers from making the leap. Oh well---maybe their next giant leaf pile will be different! 

Up next, these employees had super dumb bosses, like one person who was "lucky person tasked with 'printing the intranet.'"

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  • 01
    Brown
    via Cris DiNoto on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/nillanute4283 They must be MY leaves on MY curb? As you wish. M OC The leaf collection company for my neighborhood has absurdly strict rules about where leaves must be for pickup. I live at the end of a cul- de-sac, so my curb is curved and pretty short (about 30' / 9m) long. My property is wedge-shaped, so my back yard is quite long (200' / 60m) and has 40-50 oak trees. I also have two sugar maples in my front yard. So, leaves. Lots of leaves.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 03
    Font - Pickup rules state leaves must be within 5' of the curb, but on the road. They must also be at least 15' from a mailbox. Because subscriptions for leaf pickup are by individual homeowner, neighbors are not allowed to combine leaves and cannot buy a group subscription. Subscribers must only put "their" leaves from "the current year" out for pickup. Pickup trucks use GPS to identify homes who have signed up and ignore leaves in front of homes that did not sign up.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 04
    Font - Because I have so many leaves and so little curb (only 15' of available curb due to the required distance from a mailbox), I called the leaf collection company and asked to put the leaves along a longer curb I share with my neighbor. "No problem," they said. Great.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 05
    Font - The truck came through and picked up a fraction of the pile and left the rest of the pile the driver decided was in front of my neighbor's property. I called the company back and a different person said those are the rules. I'll just have to figure it out. Fine. Now it's on.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 06
    Font - I have 15' of width and 5' of depth. There is, however, no limit on height. I moved the remaining leaves to my available curb space. I collected the rest of my leaves and added them to the pile. I spoke with my neighbors and acquired the rights to their leaves by paying them $1 each. Now they are all "my" leaves. I shoveled / swept the leaves off the streets. They went on the pile. I collected the purchased leaves from the neighbors. They went on the pile.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 07
    Font - Leaves continued to fall, so I kept adding them. It was a lot of work, but the pile was over 12' tall. I spent a ton of time using a snow shovel to fling the leaves to the top of the pile that was more than 5' above my head. Neighborhood residents stopped to gape at the epic leaf mound.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 08
    Font - I am happy to battle willful ignorance with malicious compliance. I reminded myself of this every time I spent another hour tending to the obscenity on my curb.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 09
    Font - The truck came today. The pile dwarfed the truck. They had to drive away and dump leaves, then come back and reload. Twice.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 10
    Human body - tl;dr Leaf collection company won't let me put leaves on a longer curb so I collect everyone's leaves and create a 12-foot pile.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 11
    Font - EDIT: Not surprisingly, many want to see the pile. Since I did this alone, I didn't have a way to take a picture of myself in front of the pile (attempts failed). I also don't want to show too much house for fear the company could single me out for denial of future services. Apparently, however, my son took a picture when he got off the bus on the first day when the pile was about 10'. He's 6'1". https://imgur.com/gallery/xOuhbg N Not really the proof that satisfies, but it's all I have.
    via u/nillanute4283
  • 12

    Here's the legendary pile, as shown by the OP's 6'1" son.

    Brown
    via u/nillanute4283

    It clearly towers above the man. That's a pile of leaves a family could be proud of. 

  • 13
    Font - Lyle_rachir The child in me just wanted to jump into your pile of leaves. 3.4k Reply Share nillanute4283 OP. It's normally quite the temptation, but 1. There is an unknown quantity of dog mixed in with the leaves since it's virtually impossible to find the po among the leaves before collecting them and
    via u/Lyle_rachir
  • 14
    Font - 2. Even my 15-yo son admitted that he wasn't sure he could get out of that pile if he jumped into it and said leaf suffocation sounded like a terrible way to die
    via u/Lyle_rachir
  • 15
    Font - Ok_Investigator8544 Thank you for all your hard work to produce this epic Malicious Compliance story! Extra points for going the legal mile to make the neighbors' leaves your leaves. 5 stars
    via u/Ok_Investigator8544
  • 16
    Font - Stabbmaster This is why I just run over everything with the mower. Good mulch, helps the grass stay healthy, no leaves to deal with. Then again, I live in Florida, my "carpet of leaves" is probably nowhere near as expansive as yours
    via u/Stabbmaster
  • 17
    Font - Boxofoldcables Here, leaf collection is a township service, so all curbs are fair game. People on a cul de sac still have that problem though, where there's little curb space between mailboxes and driveways.
    via u/Boxofoldcables
  • 18
    Font - bosozokulove Leaf subscription?? GPS tracking for picking up leaves from houses?!? What the f kind of HOA dystopia do you fu live in
    via u/bosozokulove

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autumn hoa housing neighbors leaf malicious compliance neighborhood malicious-compliance-reddit neighborhood-drama neighborhood-stories leaves
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