We can only wish that were still the case. :( Unfortunately every year that goes by, people become less and less reasonable. A reasonable person would respond to a polite face to face request with this:

"I am terribly sorry the grass got away from me and the oil - well, I just plain forgot. I'll cut the grass today because I know it looks awful and as far as the oil, well, it's already been disposed of and I won't do that again. Cheers!"

The trouble is that nowadays you may be just as likely to get this:

"Who the F are you to tell me when to cut my grass? And that oil, well, keep your kids off of my property and it won't be a problem. I'll get rid of it when I get around to it, probably the same time I get to the grass."

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

It's stuff like this that causes people to say "who needs that?" and just call the city without going to the property in question and handling what ought to be a minor dispute like adults.

So you would be ok if you tried to sell your house and it took longer than it should and you got less than you would have liked because my house was a couple steps better than the sewer while you have spent big bucks making your house look nice?

At least its an easy fix. I HATE mowing with a passion. Perhaps find a neighbor boy and pay him $20 a week?

Our HOA is outsourced to this place:

http://ht3.hometastic.com/MgmtCompanySite/default.aspx?path=epam

I see their vans driving around looking at people's houses a few times a week. I got a nastygram from them 1 week after I moved into my new house to clean up my yard and plant grass. Yeah, sure, I'll get right on that in the middle of February. :rolleyes:

I have 1 too many cars right now, making my driveway look a bit cluttered for my taste. With 4, there are no cars sitting in view during the day time, the other 3 are in the garage or tucked behind the fence on the third drive. I really need a few acres with a metal building for a workshop. Maybe in a few years.

maybe, maybe not. at least try and be an adult and if the other party responds with an attitude THEN complain to the city. the problem with anonymous complainers is they get to throw rocks at YOU and then hide behind their anonymity. and we can all rest easy knowing that the complainers' house is always up to code (dishes washed, perfectly manicured lawn, trash cans that are sanitized, cars that never need repaired, kids who are perfect angels at all times, etc etc) because they are PERFECT people who live PERFECT lives. it's their neighbors that need to clean up their act......

Ah well, you see, if people didn't abuse that anonymity then we won't have problems with it. Sorry, people are people and they will not behave. Like I think, this is not so much of an issue of "I am just trying to clean up the neighborhood.". The more I think of it, the more I think it is an "I want to get Bodhi" thing. Who knows why. Maybe she turned down a date request with him and he is pissed. Maybe he thought the laundry she hung up was offensive. Maybe he didn't like her hair.

BINGO, that is exactly what I think. chances are the neighbor IS ticked off over some little nit picky something and this is his/her chance to inflict some pain. if it were me, I'd be looking for a new place to live WAY WAY WAY OUT IN THE COUNTRY and put up an 8 foot privacy fence complete with "No Trespass" signs and never talk to my neighbors about anything...people, who needs 'em?

There's usually two sides to every story.

I was that kid...you'd be amazed how shortly you can turn that $20 a week into a Mercedes-Benz ;)

winner!

It did, and I suspect I will pass the inspection just fine. The individual who filed this didn't do anything illegal or horribly wrong, just petty and most likely out of spite. My post was really just a chance to whine on that aspect of it. There are a lot of things that irritate me in the neighborhood that I could file a complaint about ... but I'm not going to, because quite frankly, it doesn't irritate me enough to inflict stress and embarrassment on that individual. If there is a safety concern ... i.e., as one poster mentioned, a pool that a child could fall in ... or a bowl of antifreeze that a dog can drink ... then that's something that needs to be addressed. I guess some people thought my oil was a safety concern, and I understand people have a fear of retaliation if they say something. But I'm very approachable, apologetic to a fault and hardly intimidating. Anyhow, I'm not claiming this was unfair, just that it was a low-road way to handle something that could have been amended with one quick conversation.

Anyway, as said, I'll move on and learn from it. Unfortunately one of the things I've learned is how no matter how nice you think you are, or how much you try to do right, someone will always be there waiting to *$&^ on you for the things you don't do right.
But I'm trying to put a positive spin on the whole thing and take some pride in my house and make it look really nice for the sake of the neighbors who are respectful and friendly to me regardless of my eccentricity.:)

Hmmm ... I'll keep that in mind with the layoffs at my company coming up!:cool:

I sure hope not. Your way to nice and hard working to lose that job :(



(Not that you would entirely miss it of course ;))

Absolutely.

Additionally, call the police and report noisy TVs etc. Cars arriving all times if the night, etc.

My neighbors have no sympathy for anything except their own selfish perspectives. The day my father died, they were worried my lawn was too long. I waited until after the funeral to cut it, five days later. And I told them why.

I would have thrown some car parts onto it, waited a month and then mowed it before telling them.

My first question would be "how do they know the drain pan was full?" Were they walking on your property to check on it? Pretty ballsy.

Never had a problem like this with any of my neighbors. They have stuff in their yards, I have stuff in mine. Life goes on.

You can be damned sure if I did have this happen, and I could figure out who it was, it would cost them thousands. And I would be out of town when it happened.

RT

they are worried about your lawn, trash cans or whatever because their lives are EMPTY and VOID OF MEANING. therefore they take an interest in YOU to try and bring meaning to their empty meaningless lives by complaining to whomever. PLUS, it makes them feel like they are in control of SOMETHING.......

I had an A-hole neighbor back in Jersey do a similar thing to our family on more than one ocassion out of nothing but being petty A-holes. First time they called the city inspector's office stating my mom was remodeling the house, having foundation walls altered or removed, without a permit, and I (at 12 years old) was running a car wash business in the driveway/garage. How we found out was a police officer came to the house with a warrant for my mom's arrest for "failure to respond to a summons." My brother went to the inspector's office. The summons in question was never sent out, it being found on someone who claimed to "remember that summons" desk.

On the day of the supposed inspectors visit to our home, he claims no one was at home and walked around the house & looked in the windows. My mom told the judge that had she seen him looking in the windows, she'd have gone after him with a knife. He laughed and merely told my mother to pay the $25 permit fee for the newly paved driveway & retaining walls in FRONT of the house.

The second time they did it was when we sere selling the house. They had a city inspector come up & cite up for "failure to obtain a work permit" over a retaining wall between our yards. Quoting out lawyer: "Did you do any work to that wall ?" NO. "Are you in the process of doing any work to that wall ?" NO. "Then forget about these jerk-***'s. They're trying to hold up the certificate of occupancy. You don't need one. All you need is the fire chief's sign off on smoke detectors..."

I've told people stories over the years about these *******s that were our neighbors for 30 years and most are dumbfounded. "You're making this $hit up" is generally the response. I wish I did make all of it up. I can take up 1/2 this forums bandwidth with the crap that they perpetrated in those 30 years.. Long/Short - there are people that are petty enough to say anything. When this "inspector" shows up, you want to see his complaint before he looks at a blade of grass....

There is no hell like having an enemy as a neighbor, and smart people who have lived in many places make it their business not to be one and not to attract any.

I've seen bad things happen to bad neighbors. Very bad.

You probably "educated" this person.

I have a very simple policy. You don't have to be friends with me if you don't want. If you leave me alone, I leave you alone. I tend to be very lavish with my friends. I have plowed snow for them when I can, edge for them, etc, etc, all for nothing except simple friendship. Cause me problems and I will be equally lavish when it comes to hurting you. I have given up a night of great sex to watch someone I didn't like suffer a migraine attack so there is little I won't do to watch someone I don't like suffer. Legally, of course.

I did whatever was within the law. Whatever happened to him that was illegal, I take no responsibility for nor do I have any knowledge of who did it.

Oh I beleive you, listen to this one:
My uncle has been in business for over 30 years and has dozens of properties in this city and others around it. He has only been sued and brought to court once in all this time; a few weeks ago.:rolleyes:

Get this:
An old lady who has nothing else to do as she waits to die, put up a very nice vinyl fence. The back of her yard buts against one of my uncles spec houses that is closing. She claims his bush's "damaged" her fence by growing into them. There is about 80ft between the properties thats just overgrown, ie its woods. This creates a nice buffer, and their are some nice big trees in their, its woods after all. My uncle being a nce guy went back into his woods and cut his weeds so they wouldn't touch her fence. But explained to her that its woods your going to have to cut the growth back from time to time. This happend over a period of 2-3 months. She sued him in small claims court for $500 damages to the fence and $600 in lawyer fee's.:rolleyes: The judge threw it out, but it wasted his time.

Years ago in NJ someone complained that our grass was getting too high.
No HOA, just suburbia. I was in high school.
Someone from the town came by to inspect the lawn while I was home, and in my best stoner voice I told him we were organically seeding the lawn.
Never heard from the town again.

Bodhi -- wait until you have moved out and then call the inspectors in on EVERYTHING going on in that neighborhood. Just a parting shot for good people:D

I have neighbor stories that can curdle milk. Things involving trip wires in the woods, fences, etc but I don't want to get into them on a public forum :cool:

In the same vien....
Peop;le who buy houses near an existing airport, and then complain about the noise.

or, my favorite...
People who buy a house next to a 12 lane Interstate and complain about the noise, and then get the politicians to erect sound barriers at taxpayer expense. For a new highway in an older, established neighborhood, I can understand, but for a highway that was built 20 yeasr before the house, I say YOU pay for the sound barrier.

Yep.

In my neck of the woods there are quite a few poultry farms, as most people know these kind of operations can be a bit fragrant at times.

I know several farmers in the area that have had poultry operations going on since the mid 1960's and whenever a developer builds a new project all the new homeowners (most often former residents of big cities) start calling our natural resources police everytime the winds blow in a certain direction.

The DNR officers have to come out and inspect the farm and of course everything there is operating correctly - its just that chicken farms smell bad.

But of course the next time the winds blow in a certain direction the same people are back on the phone complaining about the smell. This pattern goes on 10-12 times a year, year-after-year.

I met a guy who owns a couple hundred acres of mostly woodland in an area that saw tons of development before the economy slowed down. A lady who built a McMansion on neighboring property was horrified to learn that the guy was "allowing" fox, deer, and other wildlife to come from his property onto hers. She wanted him to fence them in (or out).

Ah, but if the politician pays, IOW, taxpayers pay, they get to pander to the people and buy a vote with our money

:bowrofl: What was her charge? Misuse of fertilizer :D





I say we fence her into a nice padded cell.....

I guess in all her decades on earth she never figured out that brush grows and you need to cut it back once in awhile.:rolleyes:

Figured that out a long time ago which is why I always maintain it in a very low cut. Down to the skin. Oh, you mean the plant kind of brush.

I have been reading through this whole thread, and my emotions have gone up and down with the different responses and BS people cause on each other. some seem rather funny, and others create rage and anger inside of me.

It always seem to me, other people have their rights, and I don`t have any. someone sticks their nose in my yard and turns me in, and the city, county, state, swat team or some other public servant shows up to stick it to me, we will be mortal enemy`s. just my nature. screw with me, I screw back.

Lucky for me, I live on 15 acres, so if some noisy neighbor turns me in, he/she has got to really be hard pressed to find a problem.

Now I still have about 2 acres of grass to mow that is 3-4 ft high I better get to it I guess, oh and the pan of oil the Racoons got into and tracked the oil across the concrete. a few replaced car parts piled up and the containers of used oil, anti freeze, 4 wheel barrows with flat tires, and the blue trim is faiding on the house. there is one car out front that hasn`t moved in 4 yrs, and a truck that hasn`t been started since 1979.
I should do something about the deer and wild turkeys while Iam at it.

When you are at the mercy of a land lord that is one thing, you have to walk on eggs. but when you own our home and property that is another thing. don`t think you really do, the county will always own it, we just pay rent to them (property tax). don`t pay, see just how long you will be able to stay.

I don`t trust the Government at any level, too much corruption and dishonesty.

Iam from the Government, Iam here to help. yeah right.

when someone is pointing finges at you, there are three pointing back at them.

ok, rant over

charlie

Even if you get fined you should be able to appeal. A few years ago I got cited for "overgrowth entire yard". I have a lot of yews and they presented a nice windbreak for the house. I had vines growing up a tree which had colorful red berries that some birds had claimed that I didn't want to cut with winter approaching.
I received a notice that there would be a re-inspection on a certain date so I cut cut cut. The city reinspected and stuck a notice in my mail slot. Good I'm thinking. They came, they saw, they approved. Not quite. What! It's a fine. A fine for $100. And a new re-inspection date. So what do they want me to do? "Overgrowth whole yard" is the only thing I was informed of. I knew someone had gone in the back yard because I have a green sewing thread strung between two bushes that someone taller than a large dog would have to pass through. And it was broken. The row of yews in my back yard are only visible from my neighbors second floor window. Anyway cut cut cut cut cut cut. Another inspection. I'm not home. Another notice from the city in my main slot. Good I'm thinking. I did what I think they wanted me to do. What!! A $500 fine. Do I owe $100 + $500 now? And a warning that there will accumulate daily fines if not corrected. I send in a letter as the city says I can do and ask for a hearing. But first I call and ask the inspector to meet me on my property and tell me what is failing. She comes dressed in her official uniform. She's polite and pleasant and tells me that the front yews need to be cut more evenly. And a rusted storm door replaced. (It just needed sanding and paint). That's it? lol. Yeah I can laugh now because the city attorney dismissed the fines at the hearing, but warned me not to let it happen again.
So if you get fined, appeal it.

It won't solve your problem but it might make you feel better: http://www.****senders.com/