Employees get satisfying petty payback on landlord who evicted them: 'We had 7 days to move everything we owned'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 6, 2025 11:00 AM EST

This landlord could've made a ton of money if he could've just kept his mouth closed. 

Landlords are notoriously shady dudes. Have you ever heard of the "landlord special"? It's a joke about the way that landlords paint an apartment before a new tenant arrives. They take some kind of thick white paint and paint everything in that apartment. Door knobs? Painted. Light switch? Painted. A bug just hanging out on the wall? Too bad, that's getting painted too. They have a reputation for cutting corners and always trying to save money, no matter how much it displeases their tenants. 

This landlord almost got away with a scheme that would've made him tons of money. He suddenly evicted an entertainment company, giving them just one week to gather all their belongings and leave. It was the type of place where you can play laser tag or indoor soccer and spend a fun afternoon running around the place. Well, the landlord was advertising it already, and when the employees caught on to his scheme, they were determined to get him back. The results were hilarious and very righteous, as you can read all about below. 

Next, read about some truly infuriating design flaws, like one person who discovered that there are "unremovable ads on my $2,500 TV." 

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    wwww BOWLING Super Bowlin Super Bowling Super Super owling Bowling LASER GAME
    via Giulia Squillace For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    'Landlord advertises all of our company’s equipment for sale to our competitors. Best follow our eviction to the letter.'

    Tl;dr (SPOILERS) landlord gives us 7 days to vacate our leisure business from the building, he thinks we cant empty the business during lockdown, and proceeds to advertise OUR equipment for sale to our competition. We sell everything in 7 days and destroy the rest. Enjoy no rent and the loss of your potential buyers. I work for a leisure company, think soft play, indoor soccer, laser tag (can't be specific) Prior to lockdown, Managers and the big bosses were negotiating the renewal of the lease
    via u/poshbo
  • 03
    Then 2020's sth the fan. All of our sites were closed, and everything was thrown into a mess. Negotiations began to slip down the priority list; nobody thought the landlord would push an eviction for an expired lease during this period. Especially with it still getting rent, despite the sites closure, and the closure of every business and restaurant in the immediate area. We were wrong. A few days ago we received a letter saying we had 7 days to leave the premises and take everything with us. We
    via u/poshbo
  • 04
    Now a lot of construction goes into installing our equipment into a new building, which makes emptying one even harder. Add a lockdown, with no staff and most businesses shut, it meant that saving much of our assets would prove to be extremely difficult. To lose a profitable site and all of its assets is definitely a blow to our company. But here is where it gets worse;
    via u/poshbo
  • 05
    A few days into our 7-day eviction, we find out that the landlord has been advertising our park to our competitors. But he isn't offering just the building, he is offering ALL OF OUR STUFF PRE INSTALLED. "Ready to go, just needs re-branding." The landlord has evicted us from the property in an attempt to increase rent and make a solid profit from our equipment installed because he thinks we won't be able to empty the park. We were furious.
    via u/poshbo
  • 06
    And here is where the malicious compliance came in, we were told we had 7 days to move everything we owned out of the property. so that's what we did. Local businesses from all around offered up free space to store our things, a few people came back out of lockdown and they all spent the rest of the week removing, selling or destroying everything that was related to us. We didn't even leave light fittings. In every other sight vacation we have seen, we always end up leaving thousands of $$ worth
    via u/poshbo
  • 07
    We ripped up the flooring we installed, tore down the walls that were not part of the original structure (Wooden walls to divide up the space) ripped apart our manager's offices and removed all artwork, and lockers. The landlord now has every new deal he has been making de d in the water, a large renovation bill to install new flooring etc. (or a company willing to do it themselves like we were).
    via u/poshbo
  • 08
    Lockdown has been extended another 4 weeks, so he has at least another 4 weeks without rent (we were paying) and won't have any potential buyers. Silver lining: The assets we got out of the site (fridges, tv's, equipment, food, tables) have all been sold, and the lack of rent and additional income has helped the business and paid staff wages.
    via u/poshbo
  • 09
    UPDATE Hi Everyone! I'm so sorry for how long an update has taken, I was waiting for things to unfold. Here is what happened next: We handed in the keys and it was probably the quickest handover we've ever had. The landlord Cleary didn't want to make any kind of conversation and there was definitely an elephant in the room, but he definitely said NOTHING about the lack of our equipment.
    via u/poshbo
  • 10
    Complications did arise when we went to get back various deposits, But he had no case to withhold the deposits from us as the building was in excellent shape. (we had conducted much of the maintenance work ourselves, so the building was in a significantly better condition than we found it, (we also cleaned up 99% of the rubbish and dirt from our demolition crusade so he couldn't bill us for cleaning)) A very minor bit of pressing from our legal team meant that we received everything owed back in
    via u/poshbo
  • 11
    At this moment in time our company is still standing despite the pan mic closures and lack of business, staff are all still employed and doing well! A huge thanks again for everyone who took the time to read this and to those who were dedicated enough to remind me for updates :D Big shoutout as-well to the amazing people who gave awards, I really really appreciate it and I've been making sure to pass on the good karma :)
    via u/poshbo

    These employees made the best of a bad situation! Although it took a lot of effort to clear the place out, it must be a great feeling to see the empty building and know the landlord isn't profiting from their former business. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10475966208
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    People were inspired by this ultra-satisfying tale

    Judas9451 Will you be my mentor when I have need to enact my own revenge?
    via u/Judas9451
  • 14
    Woodie626 Schadenfreude: (noun) pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
    via u/Woodie626
  • 15
    100 sweatiestbetty. Or, wait for landlord to slander the vacating company. Sue, possibly profit.
    via u/sweatiestbetty
  • 16
    YourDimeTime I would have filled the building with trash and debris as the last thing. "anything left in the building after 7 days will become the landlords property"
    via u/YourDimeTime
  • 17
    swahzey Turn it into a makeshift landfill? Genius. 5 bucks to dispose of those old tv's, fridges and all that other crop that's hard to legally get rid of? Ugh what a missed opportunity
    via u/swahzey
  • 18
    Mordarto Eh, I've watched enough Judge Judy (roommate's guilty pleasure, promise!) to know that OP's company would most likely be on the hook financially for the landlord's removal of all the trash and debris. I much prefer OP's version of malicious compliance that I presume won't leave them financially liable for things. Edit: grammar
    via u/Mordarto
  • 19
    marsglow I agree. This was a simply elegant version of malicious compliance. Beautiful! I had a similar situation years ago. My landlord raised my rent by 100 a month-from 350 to 450- so we had to move out. I tried to negotiate a lesser raise to no avail. That apt stood empty for over a year, until the complex went bankrupt.
    via u/marsglow
  • 20
    tomytronics Get a friend or relative who is not familiar to the area and is completely unknown to landlord call in pretending to be prospective buyer/renter. Ask for a tour of the place as it'd determine how quickly the check will get written. Bring video camera and record everything starting before LL opens the door and discovers everything ripped up and missing.
    via u/tomytronics
  • 21
    EmEmAndEye That's diabolical. I like how you think!
    via u/EmEmAndEye
  • 22
    brooklynnineeight Reading this gave me a strange kind of joy.
    via u/brooklynnineeight
  • 23
    SalbaheJim If he hadn't pulled that maneuver you would have likely left much of it intact to his benefit. Instead you got everything out and managed to sell it to the benefit of your company and employees. You should send him a box of chocolates and a note thanking him for motivating you into doing what turned out to be the best option for your people. Although, hand delivering it and having someone record his reaction would be priceless.
    via u/SalbaheJim
  • 24
    poshbo OP When our biggest site got closed down a few years ago, it was down to the landlord raising the price of the rent to an eye watering amount (3 years later, nobody has moved into that building).
    via u/poshbo
  • 25
    We only had 2 days to move out (cant remember why) and because of that we left 90% of our inventory. 50k worth of disco lights, parkour courses, food, ovens, tables. We left most of it. The landlord was pretty nice about it tho, and every once in a while lets us go back in and collect some stock we are struggling to get. (I.e branded T- shirt's, uniforms ect when we have supplier difficulties). 3 years later all of our stuff is still in there because he wants too much rent for any of our competi
    via u/poshbo
  • 26
    The point I'm making is that when it comes down to it, we have in the past left thousands and thousands of $$$ of assets in other venues with forced evictions. (We do do our best, we hire as many lorries, vans and staff as we can, but there's only so many cafe sofa's and tables that you can fit onto a truck and have somewhere as big as our other sites to store) So if the landlord hadn't been a d❤and at least waited a few months before listing it for sale, he could have had a working attraction t
    via u/poshbo

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