A tenant in an apartment building has told how their failed attempt to make small talk with an older neighbour ended with them being evicted.
The unnamed tenant said they tried to make friends with a person called Greg who lived in the apartment but he reportedly declined invites and any attempts at building a relationship.
Due to this, the tenant said they were forced to go straight to the landlord when a problem arose in the building to avoid wasting time, the Mirror reports.
Writing in to Slate.com's Dear Prudence agony aunt column, the unnamed tenant reveals that as a result of their complaint, Greg has since been evicted from the home that he's lived in for almost 30 years.
They said: "When our entire floor developed a mysterious foul smell that began coming into my apartment, I didn't make more than a cursory effort to reach out to him before calling the landlord. He's the only other third-floor tenant.
"Our landlord did a maintenance visit to all the units in our building and found Greg's was the source of the smell, whether from hoarding or bad cleaning I don't know. She told me he wasn't going to clean it to her standards and has started the eviction process.
"I feel terrible because my actions are putting someone out of his home, but I also don't know how to help."
Responding as Prudence, columnist Jenée Desmond-Harris encouraged the tenant to forgive themselves for what had happened, as it wasn't really their fault.
"Unfortunately, Greg has much bigger problems than you, his polite and thoughtful neighbour," they said. "Your actions did not put him out of his home, and there's nothing you could have done, save for forcing yourself in and doing a deep clean that could have prevented this."
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