A very messy shared garden situation left a renter wondering if they were in the wrong for taking their garden with them during a contentious move.
She shared her story with the r/AmItheA****** subreddit and revealed how the whole dispute began. She is a 30-year-old female and an enthusiastic gardener. After moving in above a 50-year-old male, she sought to transform the neglected and overgrown shared garden.
That was all well and good, as her neighbor didn't have the time or interest, and the landlord was on board. The OP poured in time and around £1,000 ($1,333) on plants, veggies, and trees.
Her neighbor gladly accepted extra produce and would pay her back in his own way with beer. They had a good relationship and would hang out as well. All was going hunky-dory until the OP got a girlfriend.
The dynamic with their neighbor completely changed, including an incident where he angrily accosted the girlfriend for picking vegetables from the OP's garden ahead of a dinner. The girlfriend reported that a homophobic slur was keyed into her car.
The neighbor denied involvement, but understandably, it was the last straw for the OP. She moved out and took her whole garden with her. She notified the landlord before about buying the garden, but didn't hear back an affirmative answer.
The OP admitted the resulting garden was now a "bit scrappy," but still improved from how she found it. She'd put in grass seed to ensure it'd look better in the future.
Her neighbor and landlord took all of this horribly. The neighbor accused her of ruining the property while calling her names. The landlord threatened to withhold the security deposit and sue her — quite the departure from anti-garden landlords.
The OP fortunately kept all receipts and before-and-after photos, and now sought the internet's take on whether she was in the wrong. Reddit's response was near-unanimously in support.
"Contact a lawyer, get all communication from [the] landlord in writing, including your offer to sell him the garden," one wrote. "If he withholds the deposit he's screwed."
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 "Make sure the landlord knows that you moved because someone keyed your GF's car with a homophobic message," one wrote.
The OP responded she'd done that and "he didn't care."
"So you should 'not care' in the same way that they're mad about the way you left the garden area," a user replied.
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