No one who regularly reads Reddit would accuse landlords of always being friendly and on the ball.
I mean, being sneaky and greedy is kind of what they do.
That’s why everyone should be happy about this incredible, petty revenge that took place after a tenant was not reimbursed out of his own pocket for the cost of repairing a heating system.
Try it. You will love it!
I used to rent a house.
The landlord lived abroad, so his brother (nice guy) took care of the maintenance and the landlord’s lawyer (an idiot) took care of the contract/legal stuff.
I had the brother’s phone number because he was my contact if something needed to be repaired.
When the boiler broke, he tried to take the right path.
One winter the boiler broke. This was in Northern Europe, so it was an emergency repair.
I called the brother several times, but it always went straight to voicemail.
The doorbell didn’t even ring.
I left tons of text messages and spent the first night shivering under the sheets in the house as the temperature outside reached freezing.
But when he was cold and couldn’t hear anything anymore, he just took care of it himself.
The next morning I left more voicemails and texts, but by the afternoon I still had no response.
At this time the temperature in the house was about 7 degrees Celsius.
I decided to take matters into my own hands and call a technician who could fix the problem.
They came that same evening, diagnosed the problem (a worn out motor), removed the defective part, installed the new part, and billed me for the cost of parts and labor.
I texted the brother to let him know what I had done.
A few days later, the brother finally responded and apologized for the lack of contact.
He had been on vacation.
I said there was no major damage, but I demand reimbursement for the repair costs.
He told me to call the lawyer and gave me his number.
The lawyer refused to refund him the money because he had not followed “due process.”
I called the lawyer and explained everything.
He acted like a brick wall. Completely unreasonable, with no understanding of the situation and accused me of breaking the terms of the lease.
I said they had also breached the agreement by failing to respond to an emergency repair within a reasonable time.
Under these circumstances, I felt I had no other choice and hope that we can come to an agreement.
He said no.
I asked if we could split the bill – I’ll pay for the labor and they’ll pay for the part that will stay in the boiler on their property indefinitely.
He said no, then told me to “write this down as a lesson and move on,” and hung up.
He hesitated.
I was not very happy, to say the least. The bill was quite high and I had practically repaired the boiler for free.
Not to mention the inconvenience and discomfort of being without heating in winter.
I looked at the technician’s invoice and wondered what I could do. Then I noticed: The invoice had my name, phone number, and signature, and the part and its cost were clearly listed.
And then the perfect little revenge presented itself.
I waited 8 months until the lease was up and then moved out (which I was planning to do anyway).
I called the same technician and asked him to remove the motor from the boiler.
He wanted to know why, but I talked him out of it, paid him cash, and all was well.
Of course it cost me more money, but in the end it was absolutely worth it.
When I moved out the next day, I made sure everything was spotless and left the property like a perfect tenant.
The brother came to inspect the property. He took a cursory look at the property to make sure there was no obvious damage, then said goodbye to me and I gave him the keys.
Luckily, he didn’t check whether the boiler was working.
Why should he?
He knows that I would have informed him immediately if it had broken again.
Anyway, the deposit was returned to my account a few days later.
He knew that soon he could grin and take revenge…
A few months passed and then I got a text from the brother asking if the boilers were working properly when I left.
I said yes, why? No answer.
And it was delicious.
The next day I received a call from the lawyer.
He was angry.
Lawyer: Did you remove the engine from the boiler?!
Me: Yes. Why?
Lawyer: Tirades about damage to the landlord’s property, etc.
Me: Sorry, I’m a bit busy right now. Please write everything down to me at my email address.
Later that same day I received a VERY long, ranting email threatening legal action. He obviously took some time to put it together, but frankly it reeked of intimidation tactics.
I waited about a day, just to annoy, and then replied:
“Dear Attorney,
Thank you very much for your email.
Enclosed you will find a document proving that the boiler engine in question is my personal property.
I recommend that you take all this as a lesson and move on.
Sincerely,
“OP”
I attached the technician’s original invoice and clicked “Send”.
Never heard anything again.
To this day, I’m not 100% sure if I was legally safe, but it was definitely worth the risk, even though I knew they would have to pay for it in the end.
It’s impossible not to be happy for this guy.
I bet Reddit thinks it was time and money well spent.
Doubtful.
Surely someone would have helped?
Probably not any easier in the long run.
Everyone loves stories like this!
He could have been meaner if he wanted to.
He will tell this story for the rest of his life.
And I’m sure it will delight everyone who hears it.
Did you find that satisfactory? Check out what this employee did when his manager refused to pay him for time while on a business trip.
