Woman Gets Petty Revenge When SIL Loses Her House And She Can Offer Her The Same Rigid Terms She Got When Her Own House Burnt To The Ground
Double standards are a wonderful invention of the human mind, which allow people to justify their unsightly actions towards other people. Due to double standards, a person may believe that they are entitled and when others act exactly the same way towards them, this very person becomes upset and offended.
At the same time, karma is such a special thing that almost always, if you do something bad to others, it will definitely backfire. And sometimes it turns out that it backfires from the same people whom you once offended.
For example, as it happened with the sister-in-law of this Redditor, whose post in the AITA community has already gained about 27.4K upvotes and more than 1.7K comments in just two days. People talk so much about karma, the psychological “boomerang principle” and the cost of rent – and here’s how they came together.
More info: Reddit
The Original Poster’s house once burnt to the ground after being struck by lightning
Image source: JULIE (not the actual photo)
The Original Poster herself is sure that she is being petty; however, she could not afford to do otherwise towards her own SIL. The fact is that two years ago, the house where OP lived with her husband and three children burned down from a lightning strike.
Good thing the kids were at school and the couple was at work. Too bad it took almost 11 months for the insurance to pay out, and it covered 1 month worth of hotel stays, after which the family had to look for a new dwelling.
Image source: Local-Trust-560
The family had only one option – to move into her sister-in-law’s house
So the only option was to move into her SIL’s house. The owner provided her relatives with one of the rooms and an office space, demanding a fee of $100 per week for this. Three weeks later, however, the conditions changed – now OP and her family had to settle for only one room and pay $250 a week. Is it worth saying that the relatives had to buy food for themselves?
Image source: Local-Trust-560
Two adults and three children now had to huddle in just one small room
The room in which the five members of the OP’s family had to huddle was so small that even a twin bed could not fit in there – so they all slept on the floor, and clothes were simply taken out of their bags. In addition, even though the SIL claimed the OP’s children on her food stamps, she herself did not pay anything, except for land tax, electricity and heating (and that is not a fact, as the OP notes). In the author’s own words, these were the worst eight months of her life.
Image source: Local-Trust-560
Recently, the OP’s grandma transferred the deed of her 5-bedroom country house to her
But then, three months ago, OP’s grandmother decided to go into assisted living after an unfortunate fall and formalized ownership of her five-bedroom country house to her granddaughter. The OP’s sons decided to share a room, so after the move, two more bedrooms remained free.
Image source: Local-Trust-560
The SIL lost her house due to due to not paying her land tax for several years and asked the OP for help
However, the most interesting part unfolded later. The SIL and her stepdaughter lost their house due to not regularly paying land tax – and now they had to turn for help, and guess who? That’s right – to the OP!
No problem, the OP said – $800 a month and one of the spare bedrooms is yours! Oh yeah, and they’ll have to buy their own food, because her daughter is vegan. The SIL was indignant and said that she was not going to share a room with anybody when another bedroom stayed free, $800 a month is an unbearable amount for her, and in general, the OP is acting in a really inappropriate way.
Image source: Ivy Dawned (not the actual photo)
People online decided the OP was not to blame for anything, though she was being petty and childish
So the SIL decided to leave and most of the relatives accused the OP of being petty and childish. It turns out, most commenters on Reddit, on the contrary, believe that the OP did everything right, and her sister-in-law’s behavior was ugly. Someone admitted that at the beginning of the post, they were ready to blame the OP, but after reading the whole post, they were convinced she was not to blame for anything.
Some people agree that the OP is being petty and childish as hell, but her behavior is completely justified. Classic double standards from the SIL’s side, as people notice. And yes, the very best comment was as follows – I love the smell of karma in the morning!
As for us, we do love the smell of fresh comments, and if you have an exciting story on the same topic of karmic retribution, then we will read it with pleasure. As always, the more you respond, the better your karma will be!
Yes, it's petty. And yes, it's deserved. Like a couple of commenters pointed out the OP couldn't control why they needed housing. The SIL could, and choose not to.
Yeah, and Op and Family lost far more than a house in an unpreventable way, while SIL lost ONLY a house, totally preventable, because of greed. I think the scales of justice thunk down right quickly for OP.
Not petty. Consistent. Consistency is an underrated trait.
I totally agree. It's not petty at all. Consistency is a grossly underrated trait. She offered a similar arrangement but with better conditions, considering the circumstances and number of people. NTA indeed!
I also cannot believe people are so stupid that they decide or forget to pay property taxes long enough to lose their houses. I've only know of one person that has come close to that and they were going through a divorce and his ex was getting bills at her new address and throwing them away without saying anything. Just boggles my mind.
I know a family that lost their house that way. They whined and complained about how unfair it was before talking about how they could just move into one of my family's properties because we owned rentals. They just assumed we would let them stay there. They never actually asked. If they couldn't be bothered to pay house taxes, there's no way they were going to pay rent, and we needed the rent money to pay bills. We weren't kicking out a good paying tenant for some people we knew weren't going to pay. On top of that, they're hardcore conservatives that think the government needs to stop all the "handouts." The hypocrisy was physically painful.
I too am a "hardcore conservative" and agree the "government needs to stop all the 'handouts'. Oh, and my mortgage was paid off early, and have a very large savings account. Obviously being a conservative doesn't indicate how responsible or not a person is. LOLOLOL
And only $450 per YEAR for property taxes? I've never heard of this. We live in MA USA and pay almost $8000/yr in a not at all fancy blue collar town.
I don't know if any other states have what we do in California. Your property taxes here are based on the assessment when you bought your house and the rise in assessment is capped at 2%/year as long as you don't do something major like add square footage to the house. As I recall, you can also pass that assessment down to an heir that was a full time resident with you. That's about what my parents paid in property taxes on a house they bought in the 70s. Today, the taxes on that house would be more like $15K/yr. Though IIRC, when a house is seized and sold to pay taxes, the state has to give you back any proceeds over the owed amount. Given her tax bill was so small, either that property was practically worthless, she owed more than she's saying, or she has more money (or more money coming) than she's admitting.
Florida has Homestead Exemption. It's basically the same thing but you have to be living in the house, it can't be used for rental properties.
I have $750 in MS USA and I also live rural. Did you never file Homestead?
Property taxes in MA are high. I live in MA (not anywhere near Boston) and my property taxes are $4250/year for a small, 2-bedroom, 1000sf (97sq m) house. Filing homestead doesn't have any effect on property taxes; its purpose is to prevent anyone who sues you from taking your house.
I pay $12,000+ per year for a 1200 sq ft, 3-bed, 2-bath home in CA. My next door neighbor pays $900/year and my other neighbor pays $25,600/year. All for the same house plan. This is thanks to Prop 13, a 1970s law that allows one to keep their property tax rate (with only minimal increases) as long as they own their home. What ends up happening is long time property owners have a super low rate, and their lives are subsidized by young families who pay a much, much higher amount.
Though younger people also have increases capped & benefit the same. An increase in home value is not realized until you sell it. People's income doesn't rise simply because the housing market did. This was in response to people being taxed out of their homes when the market took off abruptly in the 1970's, especially elderly retired people. They had to sell their houses and move away from their families in their old age because the market rate for their house was more than they could ever pay for a house. Often they had to leave the state. We're talking folks in their 70s & 80s. While we do need local tax to cover local infrastructure and services, another form of progressive tax could do that. People seem unwilling to rethink property tax because it's been there so long, but it makes zero sense. I don't pay tax on the gain of my other investments until I sell them, and I'm not living in them. They should get rid of Prop 13 for commercial properties, but leave homes alone.
Nta but don’t let this woman move into your house for any price . She will never pay you and she will never leave. Tell anyone who gives you a hard time that sil can move in with them and they can treat her like a queen. You owe her nothing more than you owe any previous landlord.
Yes, it's petty. And yes, it's deserved. Like a couple of commenters pointed out the OP couldn't control why they needed housing. The SIL could, and choose not to.
Yeah, and Op and Family lost far more than a house in an unpreventable way, while SIL lost ONLY a house, totally preventable, because of greed. I think the scales of justice thunk down right quickly for OP.
Not petty. Consistent. Consistency is an underrated trait.
I totally agree. It's not petty at all. Consistency is a grossly underrated trait. She offered a similar arrangement but with better conditions, considering the circumstances and number of people. NTA indeed!
I also cannot believe people are so stupid that they decide or forget to pay property taxes long enough to lose their houses. I've only know of one person that has come close to that and they were going through a divorce and his ex was getting bills at her new address and throwing them away without saying anything. Just boggles my mind.
I know a family that lost their house that way. They whined and complained about how unfair it was before talking about how they could just move into one of my family's properties because we owned rentals. They just assumed we would let them stay there. They never actually asked. If they couldn't be bothered to pay house taxes, there's no way they were going to pay rent, and we needed the rent money to pay bills. We weren't kicking out a good paying tenant for some people we knew weren't going to pay. On top of that, they're hardcore conservatives that think the government needs to stop all the "handouts." The hypocrisy was physically painful.
I too am a "hardcore conservative" and agree the "government needs to stop all the 'handouts'. Oh, and my mortgage was paid off early, and have a very large savings account. Obviously being a conservative doesn't indicate how responsible or not a person is. LOLOLOL
And only $450 per YEAR for property taxes? I've never heard of this. We live in MA USA and pay almost $8000/yr in a not at all fancy blue collar town.
I don't know if any other states have what we do in California. Your property taxes here are based on the assessment when you bought your house and the rise in assessment is capped at 2%/year as long as you don't do something major like add square footage to the house. As I recall, you can also pass that assessment down to an heir that was a full time resident with you. That's about what my parents paid in property taxes on a house they bought in the 70s. Today, the taxes on that house would be more like $15K/yr. Though IIRC, when a house is seized and sold to pay taxes, the state has to give you back any proceeds over the owed amount. Given her tax bill was so small, either that property was practically worthless, she owed more than she's saying, or she has more money (or more money coming) than she's admitting.
Florida has Homestead Exemption. It's basically the same thing but you have to be living in the house, it can't be used for rental properties.
I have $750 in MS USA and I also live rural. Did you never file Homestead?
Property taxes in MA are high. I live in MA (not anywhere near Boston) and my property taxes are $4250/year for a small, 2-bedroom, 1000sf (97sq m) house. Filing homestead doesn't have any effect on property taxes; its purpose is to prevent anyone who sues you from taking your house.
I pay $12,000+ per year for a 1200 sq ft, 3-bed, 2-bath home in CA. My next door neighbor pays $900/year and my other neighbor pays $25,600/year. All for the same house plan. This is thanks to Prop 13, a 1970s law that allows one to keep their property tax rate (with only minimal increases) as long as they own their home. What ends up happening is long time property owners have a super low rate, and their lives are subsidized by young families who pay a much, much higher amount.
Though younger people also have increases capped & benefit the same. An increase in home value is not realized until you sell it. People's income doesn't rise simply because the housing market did. This was in response to people being taxed out of their homes when the market took off abruptly in the 1970's, especially elderly retired people. They had to sell their houses and move away from their families in their old age because the market rate for their house was more than they could ever pay for a house. Often they had to leave the state. We're talking folks in their 70s & 80s. While we do need local tax to cover local infrastructure and services, another form of progressive tax could do that. People seem unwilling to rethink property tax because it's been there so long, but it makes zero sense. I don't pay tax on the gain of my other investments until I sell them, and I'm not living in them. They should get rid of Prop 13 for commercial properties, but leave homes alone.
Nta but don’t let this woman move into your house for any price . She will never pay you and she will never leave. Tell anyone who gives you a hard time that sil can move in with them and they can treat her like a queen. You owe her nothing more than you owe any previous landlord.