Renting is a balancing act of trust, and when that trust is broken, the fallout can be dramatic.
When one tenant’s deposit disappeared, so did their patience.
So they enacted a clever revenge plot that would bring the shady landlord’s illegal business empire crumbling down!
Read on for the full story!
4 years ago, I was renting out a basement in a married couple’s home (they were living there too).
I always paid my rent on time and barely interacted with them.
Then it was time for me to move out, so I gave them plenty of notice in accordance with the lease.
In my last week, I reminded them to pay me back the deposit I had paid before moving in (1 month’s rent).
The renter didn’t know better and the landlord took advantage.
I was naive enough to pay the deposit in cash and not get a receipt for it.
This was definitely my fault, but hey, I was in college, and it was the first time I was renting a place from someone.
They refused to refund my deposit and made up some stories about how I had damaged the carpet, broke some lease rules, etc.
None of this was true, and I even had pictures of the whole basement.
I didn’t want to bother with legal recourse since it would be really hard proving a cash transaction with no paper trail, so I cut my losses and let it go.
Until… I had some ideas.
Luckily, the renter had some dirty on this shady landlord.
The husband was running an eBay store from his garage.
That was his full-time gig; The entire garage was filled with items, boxes, shipping materials, etc.
It was a very successful business, to say the least.
So he knew just the number to call.
I looked up the HOA for that community and contacted the head.
I asked him if running a business from one’s home in that community was a violation of the agreement.
HOA mentioned that it was. I told him everything about this husband’s business and gave him the information I had.
He said he would contact the homeowners and “look into it.”
But that wasn’t all.
There’s a law in my city that, according to the zoning ordinance, “No more than one family, plus two renters may live in one house.”
Guess what?
It was a pretty big house, and there were four other renters living in the same house.
I obviously let HOA know about this but also called into the code compliance hotline and gave them a tip.
Both said they would “look into it.”
After a while, it appears the law finally caught up to the no-good landlord.
Fast forward to earlier this year.
I had almost forgotten about this whole ordeal until something reminded me, and I tried to look up this guy’s eBay store, and it had disappeared.
I tried to find him by his name and couldn’t find any clones or other accounts/sites.
After letting curiosity get the best of me, I got in touch with the head of HOA (after many emails and follow-ups).
It seems karma finally caught up to him!
I got official confirmation that, soon after my tip-off, HOA sent him a “cease and desist” letter to stop running a home-based business immediately.
The landlord also received a violation for failure to abide by the zoning ordinance.
The landlord’s misdeeds cost him more than just a reliable tenant – it cost his entire business!
What did Reddit think?
If this errant landlord had so much to lose, he should have just stayed in his own lane.
It’s clear he flew way too close to the sun.
Even though the landlord deserved his punishment, this commenter feels for the small business owners who may be impacted by HOA rules like this one.
He’s obviously a bad landlord, but maybe there’s still hope for his other business.
By refusing to play fair with his tenant, the landlord ultimately dealt themselves a losing hand.
Justice was served – along with a hearty cease and desist.
Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.
