The meaning behind the word ownership does lead some to assume that “if you own it, you’re king.” However, that’s not always the case as real estate is subject to things beyond one’s royal power, i.e. building regulations.

As such, if those go ignored and folks end up doing things that aren’t “any of the city’s business”, then sit back and eat some popcorn as one display of malicious compliance snowballs into some heavy fines and “I told you so” moments.

Landscaping and construction in and of themselves are serious deals—so much, in fact, that there’s an entire body of regulation governing it

Image credits: Zohair Mirza (not the actual photo)

This is so that neighbors like the one seen below don’t cause bigger problems by ignoring friendly warnings and crucial building requirements

Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)

Image credits: duallogic (not the actual photo)

Image credits: TenebrousSunshine

The best part is that the husband did exactly as he was told—minded his own business—and it still spiraled into chaos for the neighbor

Long story short, a Redditor recently shared how her husband tried to be nice and friendly to a neighbor who was doing some landscaping the wrong way, but was told on multiple occasions to mind his own beeswax.

And you know what—that he did. His malicious compliance essentially allowed the neighbor to self-destruct all of his attempts at landscaping his own land in the most entertaining ways. Needless to say, the city and the HOA issued fines.

Folks online enjoyed the story—so much, in fact, that some had to admit it’s not often that they agree with and support the actions of an HOA in a Reddit post.

Besides folks pointing out how amazing karma is, others also pointed out how not consulting an arborist and building a “retaining wall” using cinder blocks could’ve ended in tears by making the whole property slide downhill and destroying the natural drainage.

Turns out, many others were also annoyed by all the landscaping and construction the neighbor decided to do

Bored Panda reached out to r/TenebrousSunshine, the author of the post, who explained that they turned to Reddit to vent about how obnoxious the neighbor is. And she’s not alone in this—pretty much the whole neighborhood thinks so.

“A lot of the neighbors have been getting irritated by him. When cutting down the trees, they had chainsaws and wood chippers going off by 6:45am,” elaborated OP. “When pushing the dirt around and stuff, they had the bobcat going by 7am, six days a week, for weeks at a time.”

“When people asked if they could not put the dirt in the street, they got told off too. And a few people have slightly lost control of their cars driving over where the dirt had been, thanks to the rain turning it into slick mud. I’m also sure the school bus complained to somebody as well.”

OP explained that the neighbor’s “project” has been pretty much on and off since Black Friday—nearly 3 months at this point—with each part being shut down gradually.

“I don’t think they learned their lesson because they’re still doing stupid [stuff]. (They did a lot of it to their front yard too, but this post was mainly about them trying to fight the city),” explained OP. “I really do think they’ll keep just doing whatever they want and will see what happens.”

We also asked OP if she knows why the neighbor is acting the way he is, and she was stumped. Her best guess was that the neighbor probably never lived as part of an HOA and just didn’t know any better, or they did landscaping in the past and just got away with whatever the result was.

But OP noted that what the neighbor is doing isn’t too alarming as institutions are keeping an eye on him: “The 10ft wall caused us to panic for a little bit, but thankfully that got taken down after a week. We aren’t too worried (at least for the foreseeable future) about him doing anything that could hurt our property. Especially not with the city and the HOA keeping such a close eye on them right now.”

Image credits: StockRocketStudio (not the actual photo)

Rules for construction and landscaping are there for a very good reason—it’s all about safety and sustainability

It goes without saying that building and landscaping code is put into force to keep very dangerous problems at bay. Safety being the keyword here, having a property that’s up to code means that things like the wiring will be safe, fire prevention will be at its finest, and the roof won’t collapse just because it decides to rain. There’s more, but you get the point.

Besides that, building codes have been proven to prevent a sucker punch to the wallet in case of things like natural disasters. The study pointed out $132 billion as a minimal ballpark. And that’s not just losing your own stuff, but also the subsequent cleanup, rebuilding and whatnot.

Building codes are always improving, so safety standards will only get better with time. As such, your house will become progressively safer with time and upkeep, ensuring sustainability on top of that. And all it takes is to follow rules. Rules that benefit you and everyone else around you.

This is besides ending up on the receiving end of potential violations caused by others. Potential violations that could have been avoided if someone was open, up front and followed the rules when it came to buildings. And no, this doesn’t mean that every house will look the same—that is actually not even a bad thing. But I digress.

So, what are your thoughts on any of this? How would you have one-upped the malicious compliance in OP’s case? Share your takes and stories in the comment section below.

Folks approved of the karma that ensued, not only because it was maliciously compliant, but because the neighbor deserved it for being a jerk

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