‘Neighbour used my driveway to dump DIY rubbish so I got revenge’ | Weird | News

A resident has sought advice on social media after questioning whether calling law enforcement over a neighbour’s actions was a case of taking matters too far.

Posting on Reddit, the resident explained that the neighbour had recently used their townhouse complex’s shared narrow alleyway to store his “renovation trash”, which was causing access issues. “The community rules are very strict about keeping this alley completely clear at all times so that emergency vehicles and garbage trucks can pass through,” they explained in a post.

According to the resident, the problem arose when work commenced on the neighbour’s kitchen three weeks ago, and resulted in all of the construction debris being stored “directly in the alley right behind my garage door” rather than a skip. “It started with old cabinets then drywall bags and finally a massive pile of broken tiles with exposed nails,” they elaborated.

“The pile grew so large that I could barely back my car out of my garage without risking a popped tyre. I asked him politely three times to move it. Every time he told me he would hire a truck over the weekend but the weekend would come and go and the trash remained.”

But when an old refigerator was added to the pile blocking an exit, it proved to be the final straw. “I called the city code enforcement and the homeowners association to report a safety hazard,” the resident said.

They continued: “The city came out that afternoon and handad him a heavy fine and a mandatory 24-hour clean-up order. He had to pay a premium for an emergency junk removal service to clear it all out by Friday morning.”

Now, however, the resident reports that the neighbour is understandably “furious” as a result. They closed: “He came to my door yelling that I am a terrible neighbour and that a real community member would have given him a few more days instead of getting the government involved to cost him hundreds of dollars.”

Writing in response, dozens of Reddit users expressed their support for the resident, meanwhile. “Some people like your neighbour will only learn through the hard way,” one Reddit user pointed out. “Asking nicely didn’t work on him. He left you no choice but to call the authorities. You did what was right and necessary.”

A second person concurred, adding: “Sometimes, people don’t learn until they get hit by the law. You already did the right thing of raising the issue and directly confronting your neighbour multiple times.”

While a third agreed: “You gave him a few more days three times. He has had weeks to deal with this, weeks in which he had full awareness that he was inconveniencing you and breaking the law. He kept deciding that saving himself a little money mattered more than obeying the law or inconveniencing you or the safety issues he was causing for the whole block.”

Returning to the post, the resident was grateful for the advice. “It just got worse and I couldn’t take it anymore,” they admitted. “I did give him some time to do the right thing. He could’ve just done the right thing when I politely asked multiple times.”