When you rent a house, you assume that you will have exclusive access to the entire home and the property.
What would you do if you found out that the landlord is allowing his family members come over to use the pool without your permission?
That is what the tenant in this story experienced, but he managed to find a way to get his revenge.
Check it out.
Two months ago, due to a work promotion, I had to relocate to another city.
All accommodations were paid for, housing included.
The company rents a nice place for me in the vicinity of the branch office.
It’s a modern minimalist two-story house which I will be going to live in for the next ten months.
It’s privately-owned and comes with a spacious front-yard and a small oval-shaped swimming pool in the spacious side-yard adjacent to a gazebo where I usually hang out on my days off.
Sometimes my colleagues come over to use the swimming pool which I have encouraged them to because why not?
The owner of the house used to live in the newly-built house for a couple years before he and his family moved to another city to accommodate their kids’ education since they would be going to a university there.
Everything was great and went smoothly until a few weeks ago.
It was my day off.
I was taking a nap when I woke up to loud splashing and people laughing and talking.
No big deal.
Assuming it was probably just my friends showing up unannounced and enjoying their Sunday afternoon, I went back to sleep.
But when I woke up a few hours later, I was shocked to find empty cans of coke, cigarette butts, and food warps strewn about on the ground near the gazebo.
I rang my friends up to remind them to pick their stuff up next time before leaving but they told me they had no idea what I was talking about since they hadn’t come over that day.
I resorted to random guessing: The Neighbors had trespassed, thinking I was not home.
But since I had no proof (no security camera around the side yard), and had no idea who the culprit was, I decided to wait and see.
The following week, when I returned home after picking up lunch, I found five teenage boys hanging out by the swimming pool.
To say I was surprised is an understatement.
I asked them who they were and what they were doing at my place and they told me they’re the family of the owner of the house and he told them they could use the swimming pool whenever they wanted.
I was shocked beyond comprehension.
I told them that this house is being rented to me and the rental cost has been paid fully and the lease agreement is not even nearing the end of its terms yet.
I am the rightful ‘owner’ of it at least for the next ten months and responsible for it.
I really don’t appreciate them just showing up unannounced like that when I am supposed to have the house for myself legally according to the lease agreement.
One of them told me “Ask my brother, then. He told me we can still come over and use the swimming pool. We won’t go into the house or touch your stuff or anything like that. It’s just the swimming pool.”
Wow, I would be so mad.
Apparently they live in the same neighborhood and have access to the backyard, through which they get to the swimming pool because the owner gave them the key to it.
I insisted that the house come with the swimming pool and they have no right to just barge in whenever they feel like it.
And he insisted I call his brother.
Which I did later that night after they left.
Much to my annoyance, the owner told me that yes he has given permission to his family to use the swimming pool.
I have the house all to myself, yes.
They won’t get inside.
But they’re free to use the swimming pool.
Nowhere does it say specifically on the contract that I have full temporary ownership of the swimming pool or that he or any of his family members is not allowed to use it.
That landlord is shady.
Like his brother had said earlier. It’s just the house.
I asked him why he didn’t mention this to me or my manager before we signed the lease, because if he had, I would have made sure we wouldn’t be renting his place.
He calmly said he didn’t think that would be a problem at all.
I was fuming.
I rang up my manager and he agreed with me that there’s a considerable amount of deception going on here, and he would get someone to contact the owner.
That’s a difficult situation.
All in all there isn’t much we can do.
So last week, again I went home to find empty plastic cans, cigarette butts and other stuff strewn about across the side yard.
This time I didn’t bother cleaning up the mess they had left behind.
And the more they came over, the more food leftovers and other stuff they left behind, some of which had ‘accidentally’ fallen into the pool, contaminating it with grease and dirt.
One afternoon, the boys showed up again.
They have some nerve.
But since the pool was too dirty to swim in, they started knocking on my back and front door repeatedly but I ignored them.
That night, the owner of the house rang me up to ask if I was home, and I said yes.
He said great and told me his brother would be coming over to drain and clean the pool.
But he needed to connect a hose to the tap which is in the back bathroom, which you guess, is INSIDE the house.
He must have know this was revenge.
Here comes my second petty revenge.
I said no.
They can have all the pool to themselves since nowhere does it say on the contract that I have full temporary ownership of the swimming pool or that he or any of his family members is not allowed to use it.
He tried to reason with me saying it would take only a few hours for his brother to clean and fill it and he’d be out of my face before I knew it was over.
Good, there is no way I would have let them in either.
But I wouldn’t budge.
I recited to him the part of the lease agreement that says I have all the house to myself, which of course includes the downstairs bathroom.
I even went on to warn him that if his brother or any of the family members tried to break in, I would make sure the police got involved.
It’s been more than a week now.
They haven’t shown up.
The side yard and the pool are reeking of death baking in the sun for days.
I just close all the windows and turn on the AC.
There is no way they should be allowed to use that pool.
Read on to see what the people in the comments had to say.
Here is someone saying to stop all maintenance to the yard.
Yup, the landlord made the rules clear.
Good point, who is liable for any injuries?
This commenter says to call code enforcement.
This person suggests taking legal action.
This landlord was way out of line.
No one wants “guests” like this.
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
