rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance "Sue Me!" "Sure." "NO WAIT!"

Episode Date: October 27, 2021

r/Maliciouscompliance If this subreddit has taught me anything, it's that you should be extremely careful when you say, "So sue me." A real estate company learns that lesson the hard way when they refuse to remove OP from a no-renters list, which makes it extremely difficult for OP to find housing. They tell OP "so sue me," so that's exactly what OP does! The judge blasts the real estate company's lawyers for their incompetence and order them to comply with OP's request immediately. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to our slash a podcast where I read the best post from across Reddit today subreddit is our slash malicious compliance where someone says so Sue me and O.P. says okay our next reddit posted from new bromance back in 2015. I worked for a pretty dismal call center. It was an outsourced center that handled customer support for a lot of UK retailers staff turnover was really high the vast majority of workers were on temporary contracts, and the company held the promise of permanent contracts over their head to keep them working. After working there for about two years in February, I was offered a permanent contract because they wanted to put me on the team leader program. The pay was slightly better and the job security was better. The only major difference was how holidays were handled. People who were on temporary contracts were paid for any unused holidays at the end of the The job security was better. The only major difference was how holidays were handled.

People who were on temporary contracts were paid for any unused holidays at the end of the working year in April. People on permanent contracts had to either use their holidays or lose them. I had just over three weeks of holiday saved up, so the day I accepted, I booked three weeks of vacation in March so I wouldn't lose them all in April. March rolled around, and my manager told me that my holiday requests had been refused. I said that's fine as long as you pay me for them, and he replied, no, if you don't use your holidays, you lose them.

I said that I was trying to use my holidays, but you weren't letting me. He just shrugged and said, it's the duty of the employee to manage their time wisely and you should read your contract. I was understandably annoyed. So that evening I went home and I read my contract from beginning to end and I discovered my manager had overlooked one crucial part of the paperwork. The contract clearly stated that I had to give one week's notice and that any holiday not used would be paid to any leaving employee in full on their last paycheck. The next day I came into work and I announced that I would be quitting unless I was either

paid my holidays or I was allowed to take them off. And that if they accepted my notice to quit then they had better be certain that my holiday pay was included on my final paycheck. My boss asked, are you really going to quit over this? And I replied, are you really going to quit over this? And I replied, are you really going to lose one of your most reliable employees over this? He wouldn't budge. I assume he thought that I was bluffing. So, I handed in my notice, and during my exit interview, I made sure to explain exactly why I was leaving. And yes, my final paycheck

did include my unused holiday days. And that's what pisses me off so much about the modern corporate world is if OP went to the office and picked up a thousand dollar computer and took it home, then they would instantly fire OP for stealing a thousand dollars worth of company merchandise. However, when the company tricest deals several thousand dollars worth of vacation days from OP, then it's just business as usual. Our next reddit post is from I have no fish only water. So when I was living in the city, I had a contract with my internet provider, Rogers for my fellow Canadians.

After living in my apartment for a year, I decided to move in with my then boyfriend on a farm. It was a farm on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, so I had to cancel my internet. I called up and said, I need to cancel my internet, I'm moving. The guy on the phone interrupted me and said, your service moves with you. You signed a contract for ex-years, and it only ends early if we're unable to provide service. But you are unable to provide service. I'm moving to a rural area. Not possible. We provide service to many rural communities. What's your new postal code? Ah, that's for Townsville. We have service in Townsville. But I'm not living in Townsville.

That's just my postal address. I'm living on a farm outside of Townsville. The person on the phone then just repeats the contract speech with the additional offer of an absurd buyout fee if I want to cancel my contract fee early without cause. Q Malicious Compliance. Fine. You know what? I would love high-speed internet instead of awful satellite internet. When can you come? The guy they sent out to install my internet had to call me three times from his van.

Twice because he was lost and a third time because he was stuck in a snow drift. When he finally arrived, it took him like 30 seconds to determine that there was obviously no infrastructure for high-speed internet. I offered him hot coffee for his trouble coming out and he happily canceled my service free of charge and accepted my equipment return. That cost Rogers a 3-4-hour service call when you count the drive just to keep one impossible contract. OP, when the guy interrupted you to ask you where you're moving to, you should have just said, prison. Our next Reddit post is from Can I Please Be a Cat?

This chain of events started almost 20 years ago. It involves myself and an notoriously snooty National Real Estate Agency. This all occurred in Queensland, Australia. I once rented a property through an agency from 2004 to 2006. Due to my ex-partners' explosive and violent temper, we had been handed on a Viction Notice. There was damage to the property that was unfixed at the time that we were evicted. Damage that was in the form of fist and hammer-sized holes in the walls. We obviously didn't receive any of our deposit back because the repair costs more than absorb that amount. There was also an added sum of $1,700 extra to cover the repair costs.

This amount was forwarded to a debt collections agency. The collection amount was in both of our names, and we had jointly been on the lease agreements. I wasn't upset at this agency. They were just doing their job by being a good advocate for the owner of the property at this stage. Taking our deposit and charging us for the repair was standard. It wasn't nasty, vindictive, or overkill in the slightest. My anger came later. A few years later, after some phone calls and some paperwork, the debt collection agency finally agreed to split the 1700 bill between my ex and myself. Now I could finally pay off my half of the 1700 and not be accountable to his portion any longer. All of this had to be done without his consent because he refused to cooperate. I'm not sure as to why, possibly because he wanted

me to pay the whole thing so I could fix my credit rating, or more likely just to be annoying. Once I'd paid off my portion, I thought that I was done with the whole thing. Not so, unfortunately. It turns out the state that I lived in had a black list that real estate agencies could add tenants' names to. It's called the Tika list. All they needed to list someone was proof that someone had behaved badly. Due to our eviction, the damage to the property, and also the uncollected debt, unfortunately, I qualified to be on that list.

Being on this list made it almost impossible to rent, especially via a real estate agency. After speaking extensively with the government agency about this problem, I found that I was definitely eligible to have my name removed from this list, so I started taking action for this to happen. I was able to demonstrate good faith because I had paid for my half of the damages. It also went in my favor that my partner was abusive, and there was legal evidence of this fact. However, I was told that the only way to have my name removed was by the real estate agency, so I approached them and asked them to do so.

They were very helpful initially. If I could show them proof that my debt was settled, then they were happy to remove my name. At least seven years had elapsed by this point, so it was considered punishment enough. So I provided the relevant documents, and the agency assured me that my name would be removed from the list as soon as they found my file. I was told this would take like one week max, so I called a week later, and they told me to wait another week, still in a kind, helpful, cordial tone.

A week later, I called again, and that time I was told to wait, you guessed it, another week, but this time I detected some harshness in their tone. So I called back more than a week later, and this time I was spoken to in a very haughty manner. They told me my request was bothersome because it wasn't important and finding my file was a waste of their staff time. They would call me when they got around to it.

I told them how important this was to me personally to get it resolved, and then I heard those magic words. If you want us to do this so badly, then we'll only be forced to do so if we're ordered to. Perhaps you could take us to court if you can't be patient. Goodbye. Okay. Game on. So I filed a lawsuit against him in Small Claims Court. It cost me 35 bucks, which the agency would have to reimburse if I won. I didn't have anything to lose, and I wanted them to know that not everyone will wait, or continue to be unjustly punished for longer than fair.

As soon as they received the court summons, I was suddenly bombarded with phone calls. How dare you take us to court when we are working our hardest to find your file and help you! Doing my best to sound apologetic for taking their advice, I thank them for their suggestion, because at least now there seem to be a time frame for dealing with my issue. On the day of the court date, I had just three sheets of paper as my only evidence. One document was a statement showing my repair bill had been paid, and there was no outstanding debt. The second document was from a government agency stating that I was eligible to have my name taken off the list. And my third document was a document stating that the real estate

agency had to remove my name, and they had no good reason not to. Not one, but two separate lawyers from their real estate company showed up to court. When the judge asked for our evidence, I handed in my three pages. Seeing them pass the judge a thick folder of paperwork was rather amusing, considering they supposedly couldn't find my file when I last requested them to. The judge asked them for a statement.

They went on for a few minutes about why it didn't deserve to be removed, and they justified their stance with the photos in my prior rental history. I just replied that I paid my half of the debt, and the damage was caused by my abusive ex. I added that all my debts were paid off. Then the judge asked me why I brought this to court. I explained that the company was dragging their feet when it came to removing my name.

It was a simple matter, and it wasn't really fair for them to delay things. I said that I'd called them repeatedly, and I had to wait around until they found my paperwork, which somehow miraculously appeared when it was convenient to them. I said that being on that list was harmful to my future chances to rent, and also that my name had been resubmitted after dropping off the list. The judge asked them why they hadn't removed my name, and they said that it was company policy. The judge agreed with me. He said I'd been punished enough, I'd paid off my debts, and now that they found my file, then I shouldn't be blacklisted anymore.

The case was decided in my favor. The real estate agency was given 48 hours to submit proof to the court and myself that I was now off the list. Oh, and also, they had to pay me the 35 bucks that I had to spend taking them to court. The two lawyers walked out in a huff and they were on the phone in the hallway immediately after vacating the courtroom. I just floated past them because I was on a justice high. When I got to the elevators, I thanked them for coming, and there's sound advice and recommending taking them to courts. I also said that I was grateful for the bottle of wine they were going to buy me with the 35 bucks they were paying me. The look on their faces was priceless. So obviously OP, everyone loves a story where a scummy landlord gets a heaping dose of

justice. But what really blows my mind here is why would they dig in their heels when the two options available to them are, one, find the document and just make the change, which costs them what, maybe like 10 minutes of time, or two two higher a pair of lawyers to work for. I don't even know how many hours and go to court just to have to find the file and make the changes anyways. I have to guess that between two lawyers working I don't know maybe 5 to 10 hours on this they would have had to spend thousands and thousands of dollars in lawyer fees just to lose right like losing was already free

It cost them nothing, but instead they're like no let's extra lose and lose even more money while we're at it Because guess why just because they were really insisting on being jerks That was our slash malicious compliance and if you like this content be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new reddit podcast episodes every single day this content be sure to follow my podcast because I put on new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.