‘College-Educated Tightwad’ Neighbor Tries to Outsmart His Way for Paying His Half of Shared Fence, Hoodwinks Himself Into a Higher Cost of Living

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jan 20, 2024 9:00 PM EST

If you're going to poke the bear, expect the claws—or whatever that saying is. Basically, if you are going to try and pull something shady off, you should always be prepared for it to backfire. Karma does not taste so sweet when you're on the receiving end. 

Take, for instance, this know-it-all neighbor trying to finagle his way out of responsibilities. Apparently, this guy was renting a house that shared a fence with its neighboring house. Unbeknownst to the landlord, this guy was notoriously not very "neighborly." When a bad storm hit and the fence got completely destroyed, he was supposed to report it to the landlord so that he and the neighboring home could split the costs of repair. But the renter did not want any reason for the landlord to charge him extra for anything, so he never reported it and lied straight to the faces of his neighbors trying to through jargon at them so they would pay the entire cost of the fence. Well, that wasn't going to slide, and guess what? Karma came and bit him in the behind and now his rent is even more expensive. What goes around comes around. Like that story? Read this one where karma got this guy double the refund.

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  • 01
    "Neighbor played both sides of the fence and paid the price."
    via A Yee via Flickr
  • 02
    We live in an expensive state, and rents are sky high in our modest development, but we own our little home, which shares a fence with "Jake's" rented home.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 03
    Cheezburger Image 9868243968
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 04
    The first indication that Jake was not as nice as he appeared was the way he kept his backyard. He had an agreement with his landlord that he would mow the lawn, but instead allowed blackberry brambles to take over the
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 05
    area immediately next to our fence while keeping the rest of his yard under control. When I asked him about this, he claimed it was too expensive for him to hire workers to clear that area. Eventually we did see
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 06
    workers removing the blackberries as Jake complained about the extra expense. Other times I would overhear him taking to his next door neighbor about us. Jake is very religious and
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 07
    we are not. He is born and raised in the US and my husband is not. We could also tell he disapproved of what he erroneously called our "lifestyle." He kept this under wrap the first couple of years, while he was still getting to know us. One day
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 08
    he let it slip that the fear that kept him awake at night was that his landlord would raise his rent, since he was on a fixed income. This made me feel bad for the guy.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 09
    Then a storm blew down all three sides of our old wood fence. The other neighbors agreed to pay part of the cost after seeing the estimates we produced.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 10
    After we handed him a letter notifying him of our intention to replace the fence, Jake told us he would talk to his landlord about it. We were months away from a replacement but in this part of the US, it rains several months of the year
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 11
    and you only have a small window of time to dig post holes before it starts raining again. The workers who do this are booked well in advance for this reason. So as the deadline approached,
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 12
    we kept checking back with Jake, first reminding him, then pleading for him to do so, and during the last month persistently requesting his landlord's name and address so we could contact him directly.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 13
    None of this worked. Jake kept delaying, and two weeks before the start of the work showed up during our family dinner to "inspect the fence damage," so he could report it to his landlord. I stupidly obliged and gave him a tour.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 14
    On the day the workers arrived, I texted him we were assuming his landlord didn't mind the replacement because we had not heard a word from him. Then we got Jake's text explaining that he and his landlord found the fence "aesthetically displeasing" We were also
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 15
    informed that the landlord would not be paying his half of the cost because "he had not been notified in advance." By then the fence had been completed. I was livid but summoning the little restraint I had left,
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 16
    I knocked on Jake's door to ask how this had happened and why had he not given our estimates and letter to his landlord. And he lied to my face, saying we had never given him a letter or previous notification. As I was turning to leave after I
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 17
    told him how wrong this was, Jake dared to explain he couldn't let his landlord incur any additional expenses "least he decide to raise his rent." Over the next few (sleepless) nights, I plotted
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 18
    our revenge. First I located the landlord's name and address on the internet. Second, I drafted a letter describing everything that had transpired in small claims court style, with screenshots of his texts going back six months,
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 19
    including the ones where Jake claimed that keeping the yard free of blackberries "had drained his finances." The letter gave the landlord three options.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 20
    1. If he hated the fence that much, he would not have to do anything because we were going to remove it by the end of the month.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 21
    2. If he wanted to build a more beautiful fence after that, we would not oppose it, but we'd take out the $2,000 we had already spent from our half of the cost.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 22
    3. If he could live with our ugly fence, he could give us a 1/3 of the cost and we'd consider the matter resolved. I also asked the landlord to confirm he had named Jake his representative.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 23
    We received a phone call no less than two days later, from a very nice gentleman who wanted to send us a check for the 1/3 of the cost. He apologized, saying Jake had never told him about the fence until the day it was being built. Jake's
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 24
    disappointed to read the texts where Jake was taking credit for yard work that the landlord had been paying for. We stopped speaking to Jake for a long time after
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 25
    that, but recently heard from another neighbor that his rent had indeed been raised.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 26
    TL; DR Weasel neighbor tries to get his landlord off his obligation to pay for half of the cost of a fence replacement because he's afraid the landlord will raise his rent. But his rent gets raised after the landlord realizes the neighbor's been misrepresenting him.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 27
    Edit: For you conspiracy theorists out there: the fence is on the property line. We need the renter's cooperation to access said property. The area is expensive - to us! We work to pay our bills, unlike the renter. We told him we
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 28
    would find the owner online when he delayed. He told us "he had it handled" and that the owner had named him his representative because he was a busy man. Not wanting to create a problem for him since he was a renter, we went along.
    via u/100percent_skeptical
  • 29
    Finally, our city was run into the ground by a cabal that has held on to power for the last 15 years. The city planning office is a mess. I had to pay to get those public records. "Jake" is a college-educated tightwad living off investments he made in the 1990s.
    via u/100percent_skeptical

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failblog neighbors neighborhood fence neighbor drama what goes around comes around entitled people karma pay back property dispute justice served entitled new fence r-entitled Reddit home owner karma Renters entitled people petty revenge
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