At some time or another in our lives, we are going to think about the possibility of revenge. Some people push forward and achieve it and others hold back, usually out of the fear of getting called out.
If you happen to be somebody who desires revenge but fears the consequences, you can live vicariously through others. In fact, we have a few tales of revenge below that are sure to leave you satisfied.
As you read down through these stories of revenge, you will feel that satisfying feeling that only comes from getting even. In some cases, the tables are even turned further. Enjoy.
1. Fined Unfairly By HOA? Get Elected, Overthrow The Board, And Change The Rules
I got fined for ridiculous things by my HOA and got ticked off and decided to get on to the board. I then spent a year removing all members of the board I joined and replacing them with people that were pro-small HOA. I have since helped reduce policies and tried to make the community better for everyone.
A few years ago, I bought my first house in a medium-sized (500-1000 homes) neighborhood in a southern state. It had an HOA, but I actually picked the neighborhood because they had the lowest HOA dues in the city, the fewest rules, and the house was by far the nicest one I could afford in my budget.
After a few weeks, I get a violation notice from the HOA telling me that I had two violations needing correction:
1. My lawn was not green enough.
2. My trash cans were too close to my driveway.
I was thoroughly confused about #1 as it was February, in the middle of winter, so of course my lawn was dead (like pretty much everyone else’s), so I had assumed that either this was a mistake or an existing offense from the previous owner.
As for the trash cans, I kept them on the side of my house and I think when the HOA came by, my trash cans stuck out past the side wall ~1 foot, so HOW DARE I?! I shrugged them off and continued on.
Come March, I got another notice, this time fining me for both violations.
Each one cost me $100 and they wanted the funds in two weeks. I. was. mad. This has made no sense and I was not about to let them just try and get funds for violations. So, I called the management company that worked with the board to get them appealed. The lady told me that I needed to appeal directly to the board and that I could do so in the next annual meeting in a few days.
So, I of course showed up to the meeting. Prior to it starting, I met with a few homeowners and learned that they were all there for similar violations, and were angry off too. I then talked with one of the members of the board about the fine appeals process.
He was an older guy in his 70s with short grey hair and a very worn and angry face. He asked what I was getting fined for, and when I told him, he just looked at me and said: “And you should get fined for that.
Young people like you not taking care of their homes is the whole reason I got on this board. Learn to be a better property owner.” This dude was the VP of a volunteer board telling me that I did not know how to take care of my house.
What a sad life.
The meeting then started and the moderator mentioned that since this was an annual meeting, we would be voting on 3/5 board members. They had some applicants on the board, and we could also nominate someone today. That’s when I had the idea of how I could get my revenge.
When the election part of the meeting came, I nominated myself, and gave a speech about how HOAs are not here to make funds and that I wanted to serve my community. I won in a landslide, and you could see the board members getting annoyed because they had scowled during my speech.
After the meeting, I appealed my violations (in a very elegant way) and they agreed to waive my trash can violation. As for the grass one, apparently, since I had invasive plants growing in my yard (like tiny patch in the corner), they were still fining me because the invasive plants were turning yellow after I sprayed them.
I was dumbfounded at how they could get away with this, but they used a technicality in the bylaws that I had signed, so I ended up losing $100.
I will be honest, I had not expected this to work. After joining the board (of 5, including myself), I was appointed secretary and had to help maintain meeting notes and review records.
They specifically told me that I was not allowed to propose new policies, but I could vote on new ones proposed by the VP or President (which I later learned was a violation of their own rules). I voted every new rule down as long as I was in that position.
I decided that my best course of action was to listen to how the others operated and look for an opening to get each of them off the board.
The first opening came when the head of the HOA mentioned that she had wanted to fine flowers that were not “neutral” in color.
Basically, if a homeowner wanted to add something like turquoise flowers, we would fine them. She apparently had a neighbor who had flowers that she didn’t like, and she wanted to use the board to stop them. It was pretty insane. I then started my revenge on her.
I started a message thread (on Slack since that’s how we communicated) with the other board members and asked what they thought about her policy and reasoning. After far too much deliberation (two of them honestly thought that this was ok), we agreed that the policy went too far.
I then made a long post on the main channel telling her that her actions were not only wrong but that she should be excused from the board. When she inevitably flipped out, I called a board meeting the following week, and the other 4 board members voted her off for targeting a community member for personal gain.
She gave a sob story about how the board was her life and that the neighborhood was like her child, but I didn’t care. That was one down. I convinced one of my good neighbor friends to join a little later on to take her spot.
The next members I targeted were the treasurer and director, as I wanted to save the VP for last. They were actually pretty easy to get off the board because they were very easily swayed by public opinion. So, I made a fake account on Nextdoor and waited until Spring (when most of the violations go out).
When the letters went out, I looked for angry posts on Nextdoor. I then would comment on each one giving them the first names of the two board members as the culprits and told them to come to the next HOA meeting to appeal. It worked far better than I had expected. During the next meeting, over 50 people showed up and called out those by name.
It was glorious. During the open session, community members grilled those two for their poor policies (even though they did not make most of them). The VP (now president after the other one resigned) tried to defend them, but ultimately failed. The two members were so distraught after the meeting, and I told them that maybe they should resign, and they both did.
That was two more down (both of which were replaced by a couple who came to the same meeting and wanted to get rid of these rules).
Finally, the board had been flipped to 4 out of 5 people wanting to get rid of all these dumb rules.
The head was still the same old angry hateful man. He tried to add more rules to increase violation revenue and we voted him down every time. He started to get annoyed but stayed steadfast to the board. I tried a lot of tactics to get him to leave, and not much swayed him.
A few months went by and we started with a new management company. They had a much better style of property management and a website for looking through our community’s records as well as automated reports. When we got our first fines report, I hit pay dirt.
The President’s house appeared, and he owed around $10,000! Apparently, he had open violations that he had never paid and the other management company hid it from the board for him (since he had been on the board for close to 7 years). So, I looked into remedies.
Since his fines were over $3,000, our bylaws stated that a majority vote of the board could start an HOA foreclosure on the home (which I still think is INSANE that HOAs can do that…). So, I got all the docs together and double-checked with the new management company that the fines were correct, which they confirmed. I called an emergency board session, presented the information, and 4/5 of us voted to start the foreclosure process.
The president got angry, cursed, and left the meeting early.
We were informed a few days later that the President had resigned, paid his fine, and put his house up for sale. While I am sad we couldn’t force a foreclosure, at least he was off the board.
I am currently president to this day, and I have reduced the fining policy to a maximum of $400 and homeowners can appeal any time that they wish digitally. In addition, I have banned any grass fines until May, and trash can violations have been super relaxed.
Morale of the story: never fine me $200, call me a stupid young kid, and expect to not lose your house.
2. Interrupt My Partner’s Sleep? I’ll Make Sure Everything Is Above Board
We live in a new and small apartment complex, only 40 units within 2 buildings. It’s very low-key and within walking distance to our downtown.
It’s very affordable for how convenient a location it is.
Back in September, we noticed the vacant unit beside us was getting moved into by a new tenant with furniture, decor, etc. One weekend not long after moving in we heard what sounded like a little party with music and loud voices well past midnight.
We heard a lot of people coming in and out of the front door, but letting the door slam each time to where it shook the walls. Maybe they were having a housewarming party or a friend’s get-together at the new place. So we brushed it under the rug as a one-off incident.
For the next few weeks, we noticed a variety of people coming in and out of this apartment and none of them seemed to be the same individuals. Parking also started to become much more busy than usual as well as the cars kept changing.
So, something seemed off.
My partner started working the night shift for her job not long after the neighboring apartment became occupied. She is a light sleeper and noticed that all throughout the morning and before going to work the neighbor’s door was always slamming and shaking the walls.
She understands that people are active in the day and she can’t ask people to cater to her night shift needs, but she felt the constant slamming of doors was not only disruptive but unusual behavior.
One particular morning was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
She had finally had enough because of the effect it was having on her sleep. She wanted to see who was slamming the door. She heard the door slamming around 10:30 am and got up and witnessed people walking to their cars with suitcases and leaving.
Soon after a man arrived and pulled up the front doormat retrieved a key and let two women with cleaning supplies into the apartment. Each time they entered or left the door would *SLAM* and shake the wall.
Seeing this she searched Airbnb and almost immediately found the rental unit next door.
Same floor plans, wall paint, flooring, etc. To our surprise and anger, we found a total of *FOUR* listings in our apartment complex alone on the host’s profile. That is 10% of the apartments in our buildings.
Through the listings, we found the individual’s LinkedIn and business website.
On his website, he claims that he does something called “rental arbitrage”. Essentially this is renting out a long-term rental on a short-term basis (lease an apartment and rent it on Airbnb for profit). This can be done legally with the landlord’s permission. The lease agreement does not allow for sub-letting or short-term rentals.
They were renting out 3 of the 4 ground end units offered (units with unique floorplans). The 4th unit was handicap-accessible. That’s right. This man and his business partner leased an apartment meant for accommodating people with disabilities to use for his little short-term business empire he was trying to build.
Our city and region (like in other places) have been feeling the squeeze on apartment availability and these jerks are contributing to the problem.
It was at this point we took this personally as we had our problems dealing with apartment availability, wait lists, disappointment, and frustration.
My partner called the leasing office and notified them that the neighboring unit is being rented out on Airbnb and asked if that was allowed to which the office gave an emphatic “absolutely not” and asked for the listings to be sent to them in an email.
Later that day the office called her back and said they notified the “tenant” that they would be inspecting the apartments the following afternoon.
After the inspection was completed the office notified that they had sent paperwork of any rental activities outside the lease agreement or face eviction.
They also informed us that “you should not have any more problems concerning the matter and if you do, don’t hesitate to give us a call”.
Now, this jerk has four leases he is stuck paying $1500/month for and can’t make any more funds through Airbnb.
He is bleeding funds to the tune of about $6000/month. His only legal options are to continue paying for them or to break the leases and vacate. Last week we watched as movers emptied the apartments. I’m sure they lost deposits and/or were penalized for breaking the leases.
This a very expensive lesson for being a greedy “entrepreneur”.
Don’t be jerks, folks. Also, don’t annoy a night shifter trying to sleep
3. Get Angry At Workers? I’ll Take Your Groceries!
I’m (M 50s) at Walmart and hear a girl (worker, 20s) nicely say “Excuse me, ladies“. I see two entitled women (40s) talking in front of the doors that the workers use to restock the store.
The entitled woman looks at the worker with the disdain of royalty being interrupted by a filthy peasant. The worker with her empty supply cart again tells the entitled woman that she needs to get through.
Again the entitled woman blows her off with pursed lips and a dirty look.
Now I have a particular sensitivity to people mistreating workers and these women have disrupted my delicate sensibilities. I walk past the entitled woman snagging one of the carts full of groceries and I take off. It takes them a moment for them to notice before they pursue me.
I quickly traverse The back aisle and turn the corner towards the front of the store. One of the entitled women tried to pull the cart away from me but I made it to the front of the store before letting go. I make a clean getaway and go back to get my cart.
Next to the restock doors is the other woman’s cart. Now before you call me a jerk, these people needed to be taught a lesson and I’m just the one compelled to step up. I grab the cart and head off to the camping section.
I take the cold stuff from the cart. I needed milk and eggs anyway so bonus. Later I felt bad that some Walmart worker would have to restock the cart from the camping section. When I went back the cart was gone.
This happened like a year ago and didn’t think much about it.
The other day I was at a restaurant with my extended family. One of the waitresses kept looking at me. It took me a while to put it together. When she walked past I said, “Didn’t you use to work at Walmart?”. She got excited and exclaimed that she thought it was me.
I had a haircut and lost some weight since then. She filled me in on the aftermath. The ladies complained to the manager that a guy tried to steal their stuff for no reason. The manager figured there was more to the story. The entitled woman wanted the manager to find me and have me arrested. The worker girl told her what really happened and has since become store folklore.
