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Living in an apartment building offers a lot of benefits over residing in a house.

There鈥檚 no lawn to cut, for one thing, and it鈥檚 generally more affordable.

A Burnaby resident has had to spy on her neighbours to catch them in the act of smoking. Submitted photo

The only problem is you have to live so close to other human beings. That鈥檚 not always an easy thing to do.

It doesn鈥檛 matter if you are in a rental building or a strata, it鈥檚 hard for residents to get along.

Why? It鈥檚 simple 鈥� rules. Some people don鈥檛 follow the rules and other people are excessive when it comes to enacting and imposing those rules.

Rules are important, but some are overbearing and impractical. Other rules are smart, but some people refuse to abide by them.

That leads to some insane conflicts, include those that end up in court.

There is a building in Burnaby that could be heading in that direction. I鈥檓 not going to name the building because I鈥檓 not trying to publicly embarrass anyone. I鈥檓 also not going to name the person who emailed me a long list of grievances and examples of 鈥渆vidence鈥� confirming rules infractions.

What kind of evidence? How about a Dropbox full of audio files 鈥減roving鈥� the excessive noise of this person鈥檚 next-door neighbour. Yes, this person is being forced to stay up late recording the noise.

No, I don鈥檛 want to embarrass anyone. I鈥檓 simply sharing some details to show how crazy these rules fights get (and the type of emails I receive from stressed-out readers looking for me to solve their petty fights, which I can't always do).

Aside from the excessive 鈥減artying鈥� of this person鈥檚 neighbour, there is the issue of smoking.

Now that is a rule I can get behind. Nobody likes smoking. Smokers are smelly and sometimes dangerous with how they handle their butts. They put an entire building in danger every time they light up. I often wonder if a smoker in my building is going to fall asleep with a lit cigarette and torch the whole place.

The person who wrote me signed a lease that said the building was a no-smoking residence. That, of course, was baloney and this resident has been fighting with neighbours and management ever since.

This person isn鈥檛 the only one. An actual petition was started to get management to take this matter more seriously.

There was one section of this email that particularly resonated with me. This tenant caught the neighbours blatantly violating the rules, but got this reaction:

鈥淎s recently as today, the tenants in the unit directly below me were on their balcony smoking. I spoke with them and stated, 鈥業sn鈥檛 this a non-smoking building?鈥� to which one of the residents, a woman, replied stating, (Building management) said it鈥檚 part of my lease that I am allowed to smoke since I鈥檝e lived here a long time, so you need to fucking relax.鈥�

How often have you caught somebody doing something and they don鈥檛 even show a hint of guilt?

That鈥檚 some sociopathic behaviour.

As you can see from the attached photos, this tenant has been creeping on the neighbours in order gather evidence. Things have really gone off the rails when you have to spend your leisure time doing this.

The tenant also has a conspiracy theory.

鈥淚 am actually beginning to wonder if this tenant isn鈥檛 friends with the property manager, as she has gotten away with so much that most people probably wouldn鈥檛,鈥� the tenant wrote. 鈥淭hey seem to have no problem evicting other tenants, as I鈥檝e seen eviction notices posted on people鈥檚 doors.鈥�

How often have you wondered about the potentially crooked motives of your property manager? It's maddening.

Up next is a possible complaint to the Residential Tenancy Branch.

Good luck with that.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.