Homeowner's $100,000 Revenge on Neighbor Over Parking Dispute Applauded

A homeowner who exacted an act of financially devastating revenge on their neighbor has received praise online.

While the internet appeared to back the disgruntled resident's actions, one expert has been left wondering if a more reasoned solution might have been better.

Disputes between neighbors are commonplace in the U.S., with a study commissioned by Homes.com finding that 36 percent of respondents had issues with a neighbor that escalated into full-blown arguments.

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The research also revealed that 25 percent were engaged in long-running feuds with someone living next door to them. For one homeowner taking to Reddit, however, a long-running feud escalated into something far more serious.

According to the post, written by the Reddit user killjoy2408, the dispute centered around parking. "My neighbors have 9 cars total parked in the street," they said. "They always park two of those cars in front of my house and won't move them."

This might have been OK were it not for the fact their neighbors already have "a pretty big driveway where they can fit four cars" yet, according to the post, "it's always empty" because the neighbor said it looked "tacky" to have them there.

Infuriated at this reasoning, the homeowner decided to exact revenge last year after noticing the neighbors had very quickly built a second unit at the back of their house. "This raised some red flags because it takes anywhere from 2-3 months with city inspections taking the majority of time," they said.

Increasingly aware that corners might have been cut, the resident said they contacted the authorities to tip them off that "there might be an 'illegal residential building without permits.'"

Fast forward to last week and the homeowner was witness to his neighbors being forced to tear down the second unit in a development that saw them suffering a significant loss of "over $100,000."

That's a devastating financial hit for anyone to take, and despite the severity of the homeowner's response, many online felt they had been right to hit back.

For _FizzGiggy, it was a case of what goes around, comes around. "Don't be a dick to your neighbors if you're building illegal s**t," they said. OliveGS added: "they had it coming."

Bugscuz, meanwhile, felt the neighbors only had themselves to blame. "Really, they cost themselves that money for trying to cut corners," they wrote. "If the building was up to par and correctly placed, the inspector would most likely have told them to apply for the permits retroactively."

While those commenting online appeared to endorse this approach, U.K.-based negotiations expert Steve Jones felt a more measured approach was needed.

Jones told Newsweek that while it's always better to communicate an issue face-to-face, timing is crucial.

"Talk to them at a time when it isn't emotionally charged," he said. "What normally happens in neighborhood disputes, is people will talk to the other party at a point when they actually just want to kill them. So you end up with a completely irrational conversation."

While Jones can understand why some would choose to address the situation in writing, he feels there are some notable drawbacks to this approach.

"If you put it in writing, you've got an opportunity to explain the situation. The downside to it is they can read what you've written and decide to interpret it how they like," he said. "My advice would be to go to them and explain why it's a problem for you and be clear on what you want to happen."

He also advised against exacting any kind of revenge on a neighbor over a perceived slight.

"As soon as you start issuing threats and following them through, everybody stops behaving rationally, and it's just about trying to get your own back," Jones said. "The question you have to ask yourself is do you want to win or do you want the issue to be sorted out?"