After landlord breaks promise to sell house to current tenants, they settle the score by ensuring no one else would make an offer: ‘We made the place as undesirable as possible’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jul 31, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

Imagine being stuck in a situation you have no idea how to get out of, only to have your friends ready to do whatever it takes to help you out. It must be nice knowing you have someone to count on, and someone to call whenever you need a hand.

This story, despite being all about revenge on entitled landlords, shows how important it is to have friends who are ready to be at your side and fight for what is yours. OP (original poster) tells the tale of how their friends were supposed to buy a house when their landlord backed out of the deal and decided to try and sell it for a much higher price. OP and the rest of their friend group decided to ensure no one else would make an offer, by making the house and the neighborhood as unappealing as possible during the open house. 

Scroll down to find out who ended up buying the house. After that, click here for a story of a boss who demanded employee to lower her work performance.

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    Cheezburger Image 10382838272
    via Canva
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    We reverse gazumped a greedy landlord and it was glorious.
    via u/fibeenn
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    "Gazumping occurs when an agent or seller accepts an offer you make to buy a property at an agreed price but the property is sold to someone else. This usually happens when the vendor sells the property for a higher amount.”
    via u/fibeenn
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    This happened 15 years ago and it is one of the proudest moments of my life. My best friend and her husband have 5 kids together. They lived in an expensive city and rented an old 4 bedroom house for $400 per
    via u/fibeenn
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    week. The house was very rundown with a disgusting kitchen and stink drains but it was all they could afford at the time. Still, they made it work. The owner was a nice old lady who as extremely wealthy and very fond
    via u/fibeenn
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    of my friend. She froze the rent for 5 years and promised to let them buy the house once they had saved enough to get a loan from the bank. As she had helped other people in a similar
    via u/fibeenn
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    way, they knew they could trust her and so they saved every cent they could. It took them 5 years but they finally told her they were ready.. Two days later, the nice old lady passed away; before anything was put in writing.
    via u/fibeenn
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    Enter the new owners. The lady's 4 children. Each extremely wealthy in their own right; they inherited a huge portfolio of properties. When they first spoke to my friends, they assured them
    via u/fibeenn
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    that the sale would still go through but they would have to wait until probate had settled. Confident, my friends started making some changes to the place. They started by stripping
    via u/fibeenn
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    wallpaper, painting and making plans. Finally probate was settled and the owners agreed to go ahead with the sale for the previously agreed price. My friends applied for the loan but to their shock, it was refused.
    via u/fibeenn
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    The owners had raised the asking price by $80000 without telling my friends. To make things even worse, the house would be put on the open market. In 7 days there would be
    via u/fibeenn
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    an Open House and, with the market the way it was, it would probably sell immediately. My friends were devastated. They might be able to borrow enough but it would take longer than a
    via u/fibeenn
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    week to get. To make matters worse, property prices and soared recently and rents had gone up a lot whilst theirs had been frozen. Not only were my friends going to struggle to get
    via u/fibeenn
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    the money. If the place was sold to someone else and they were asked for a higher rent or were evicted, it would be nearly impossible to find an affordable place with more than 2 bedrooms.
    via u/fibeenn
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    I was scared for my friends but I was also incandescently angry. Those greedy sods were some of the wealthiest people in the city. They were sc❤ing over a struggling family for less than
    via u/fibeenn
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    $20000 each. They didn't need the money. It as pure greed and it was obvious that they'd always planned to do this. So while my friends scrambled to come up with the money, I started plotting.
    via u/fibeenn
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    I looked up advice on what helps to make a sale. We needed to make the place as undesirable as possible without making my friends look like bad tenants.
    via u/fibeenn
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    Uncluttered: We moved all the furniture in from the walls, added some extra furniture and borrowed ornaments and hung a load of motorcycle memorabilia on the walls. The place felt more smaller.
    via u/fibeenn
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    Smell: My friend boiled a head of cabbage on the stove and we sprayed ammonia around the front and back doors (because it smells like all the neighbourhood cats had been marking their
    via u/fibeenn
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    territory). We also poured 2 dozen rotten eggs down the drain to make it smell like sewer gas . Neighbourhood: We obtained a mouldy old couch and dumped in front yard of the neighbour across the road (with permission of course).
    via u/fibeenn
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    Neighbourhood x2: We started calling friends for help. Anybody with a loud and c➡py car was asked to do a few laps in front of the block during the Open Day.
    via u/fibeenn
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    The street was unusually busy that day. Everyone we knew found a reason to drive by. It was practically rush hour. Neighbourhood x3: We called out mates from the rugby club (full
    via u/fibeenn
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    contact football without any of that soft padding). A big portion of our club are very large men. The next door neighbour set up a bbq in their front yard and we offered free food and cheap
    via u/fibeenn
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    beer. They came on motorcycles, wearing their roughest gear. There was quite a crowd. A lot of people showed up for the Open Day. Quite a few were in and out within minutes. One lady
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    sat in her car and watched the party next door before driving away. The one bloke who stayed any length time, was brave enough to start up a conversation with someone leaving the party. He asked if
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    they were often there and was told every couple of weeks or so, they have an after party morning and the party the night before was 3 doors up. The party goer also helpfully mentioned the
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    troublesome drains that are always getting blocked by tree roots and stinking up the place. The potential buyer left without making an offer.
    via u/fibeenn
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    So my friends were the only ones to make an offer. They still had to pay more than they'd planned but not as much as the greed bastards wanted. My friends signed the papers and paid the
    via u/fibeenn
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    deposit that day. So when the brave buyer put in an offer of $30000 more than my friends, there was nothing the owners could do about it (strict anti gazumping laws). I would have loved to see the owners faces when they found out.
    via u/fibeenn
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    Haunting_Being · 1 day ago Such a satisfying story to read. The world needs more of this.
    via u/Haunting_Being
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    Witchy- -21 23 hr. ago I think the entire world needs more friends like you- the effort you went through is heartwarming. Absolutely brilliant.
    via u/Witchy-**-21
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    fibeenn OP. 22 hr. ago Thank you. It may have been my idea, but we had a huge amount of help. My friend is very kind to others. They are good people and as a result has so many friends willing to go the extra mile to help them.
    via u/fibeenn

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pro revenge landlord house revenge homeowner tenant buying a house reddit story petty revenge entitled Reddit payback funny home entitled people
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