‘My wife only uses like 3¢ of water’: Greedy neighbors freeload off of man's water supply for a month without his knowledge, then throw a fit when he puts his foot down

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Oct 15, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

You already know how it is with neighbors. You either live next to some of the best people sent from Heaven's angels themselves, or, you are dealt a rather entitled hand of personalities. Having to share a fence and a driveway is already pushing it when you live next to some impolite people, but when you also unknowingly share a water supply with them, that's when you need to draw the line and stand up for yourself. It's not up to you to fund your neighbor's utility bill, and it's baffling that some people think they're entitled to that luxury—if you can even call it that.

The man in this Reddit story had only been living in his duplex for a month when he realized that his neighbor's hose might be connected to his faucet, draining his water supply. So, when he sees his neighbor outside watering the lawn and washing some shoes, he goes up to her and asks if she can confirm. She brings her husband out to problem-solve, and then the entire situation makes sense.

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    Cheezburger Image 10416247552
    via Unsplash+ (Charlie Harris)
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    AITA for telling my neighbor to use their own water?
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    Some background my wife and I moved to a duplex last month. We've lived in apartments our whole lives and never had to pay for water/sewer/garbage and now we do. We haven't gotten our utility bill yet (comes every two
    via igeekr
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    months) and I'm dreading the number. There is a detached garage building at the front of the lot. On this garage unit are two faucets, one on their side and one on ours. When we moved in, there was a
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    hose already attached to our side so I thought the previous tenant just left it and bought myself a nozzle. We recently noticed that the neighbor's wife will use that hose several times a week to water the garden area and wash shoes. I
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    was looking for the right time to ask them about this and it just so happened today she walked by while I was building a shelf in the garage. I asked if the faucet was connected to our meter or theirs and
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    she said she'd ask the husband. He came out a few minutes later and asked what the problem was. I asked the same question and he said we can check by closing the valves on our side but added I was
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    the first to ask and the previous two neighbors never made a big deal out of it and that his wife only used it to water the front lawn. But here the wife interjected and confessed she washed shoes a few times a week (which she
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    had to as I was just there 10 minutes before when she was washing shoes). He cut her off and said "No, you don't, you never wash shoes". Lo and behold that faucet is attached to our water meter. I asked if the hose
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    was his to which he answered yes and then he asked if I would like to move the hose to the other faucet to which I nodded. I could tell he was pretty upset from the earlier comments and he was continually grumbling stuff like: "oh ok since
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    you want to be so strict", "my wife only uses like 3. cents of water", "i was gonna give you a power washer to help wash your car but ok I guess not", and shit like that. Guess he was pretty flustered as he couldn't
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    unscrew the hose. He came back with a wrench and still couldn't do it. While he was gone a second time, I unscrewed the hose (he probably loosened it, I'll give him that), took my nozzle off, and screwed the hose onto his faucet. When he
    via igeekr
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    came back, he saw it was done then talked to me a little about putting a "Smile, You're on Camera!" sticker to our backyard door as he was concerned about dog walkers not cleaning up after their pets on our front lawn (I obliged and
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    the sticker is on our yard door). Should I have just let them use our water? She doesn't really use too much and he could be right about the 3 cents (ballpark). [The way I read the water billing here
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    we pay $5.29 per CCF for the first 10 CCF, $6.17 per unit thereafter]. TL;DR: Noticed neighbors using our faucet for gardening/washing shoes; confronted them and got a hissy fit from
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    the husband as it was never a problem with his two neighbors before.
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    Fear5d • 1d ago • NTA. Even if he really is correct about it being a minute amount of money, that means that it shouldn't be any problem for *them* to pay it. Why should you fund their water usage?
    via Fear5d
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    JPenelope · 1d ago • NTA If it's only 3 cents and they have their own faucet basically in the same location they don't have a leg to stand on as to why they would use yours.
    via JPenelope
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    Maybe pay attention to your water bill over the next few months and see what the difference actually is. I don't know how big the lawn is, but watering a lawn takes quite a bit of water. I'd hazard a guess it's more. than pennies' worth of water they've been stealing from you.
    via JPenelope
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    PDK112. 1d ago • NTA. Funny how the neighbor claims that it is no big deal to use your water, but he makes it a big deal. If it was such a minor issue, he would have moved the hose to his faucet without being passive aggressive about it.
    via PDK112
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    TheWoman2. 1d ago. NTA. During the summer watering my lawn uses more water than my entire household uses for everything else, even when we had 6 people living here. It is absolutely more than pennies unless she is just sprinkling a tiny area occasionally.
    via TheWoman2
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    _s1m0n_s3z • 1d ago It is unlikely that their hose was on your faucet by accident. NTA.
    via _s1m0n_s3z

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