Should neighbors be held responsible for keeping property at community standards?

[gage]

Dude...is this your neighbor?

 

[Jack Ryan]

I knew there was a reason I liked you.

We all have our moments.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Rats/vermin would never fly for me, as a reason to go after the neighbors, because the woods behind me has already produced skunks, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, porcupines, armadillos, snakes, field mice, scorpions, and deer. What are a few rats compared to the Noah's Ark invasion happening on my 6 o'clock?

If that's all out there, there's a few rats too.

 

[beararms1776]

I think they should be responsible care takers. To let their property turn into a heap of trash shows no respect for themselves and they will likely have none for you. Then more of the same will follow the examples.

 

[hornadylnl]

I personally see nothing wrong with that. Evidently some people never get out of the concrete jungle to know that there is vegetation over 3" tall. I'm purposely leaving all the undergrowth in front of my house as tall as it will get. More camoflague from the road.

It's always been a pet peeve of mine when the state or farmers mow the side ditches. Seriously, what's the point? They only do it once or twice a year and I don't think they hacked up weeds looks any better than they did standing. Plus, from the State standpoint, how much tax dollars are we wasting to pay these guys to mow ditches?

 

[MinuteMan47]

If that's all out there, there's a few rats too.

I bet there's tree rats too!


And on another note...
Anyone who has ever put large amounts of hay up in a barn has probably seen a rat or two...

Should they fear the vermin police?

 

[dross]

Or shot in the head? What if all you want to do is pet them cuz they're soft?

Tell me about the rabbits, Fletch.

But if prospective buyers have to drive past suburban rat farms and weed pastures...that likely won't happen.

.

Don't forget about the pirates. Those guys'll send property values straight down to Davy Jones's locker.

 

[rambone]

This poll should ask whether or not you believe long grass harms your health.

 

[Lex Concord]

I bet there's tree rats too!


And on another note...
Anyone who has ever put large amounts of hay up in a barn has probably seen a rat or two...

Should they fear the vermin police?

I just chased two mice out of my shed a few hours ago...they were cute, but I didn't want to pet them ...they had set up shop on a top shelf where they found a nice bag of grass seed from the spring.

Even though I'm far from the sticks, the only critters I haven't seen here are deer and rats. I don't expect deer, and I don't want to see rats.

Should you keep your yard to generally accepted community standards? Yes.

Should the city/county/state be allowed to enforce that at the barrel of a gun? Of course not.

 

[public servant]

Should you keep your yard to generally accepted community standards? Yes.

Should the city/county/state be allowed to enforce that at the barrel of a gun? Of course not.

I agree. But what should happen when the neighbor refuses to meet those standards? What is his neighbor's recourse.

Again...I'm not talking a finely manicured lawn. And I'm not talking in the middle of the country where people like on several acres of land.

I'm talking in an average suburban neighborhood with 1/4 acre lots or less. It's hard to hide 6 foot tall weeds and cars jacked up on blocks.

Or like the people that were living next to me. They vacated the house. The garage door was off the tracks and half of it was missing. Someone had busted in the entry door inside the garage and entered the house and trashed it. Someone stole half the windows.

There was no heat or water last winter. Whoever had broken in was coming back to sleep on sofa cushions they drug into a closet. But I'll be damned if I could catch them there.

The house sat all spring and into the summer before whoever was responsible would do anything. The house was being rented out and was owned by someone in North Carolina.

I have no problem with a guy that doesn't cut his grass for a couple or three weeks....or longer in the hot weather. And if he needs a hand...lend it to him.

But this house had 4 foot tall grass and weeds because of the wet spring we had. Mosquitoes were bad all late spring and early summer...until it got really hot and finally dried the yard up.

This is the kind of stuff I'm referring to.

 

[04DarkShadowGT]

There are laws in most cities that the yard cannot get above a certain height and if it does you are sent notices to cut it. If you dont, they city will do it and send you a bill. At least that is how it worked in Muncie when my Aunt had a scum bag neighbor who let his property go.

Yes it is your property and you pay for it, but imo you have a responsibility to keep up your house and property. If you dont you are a crappy neighbor and just an overall s*** head. Of course that is for in town/edition type stuff.

If you have a large plot of land do whatever you want with it.

 

[Archbishop]

Would you consider roof high weeds and grass a health hazard (rats, other vermin, mosquitoes, fire hazard in this dry weather)?

YES. Contrary to what others here think. Having tall weeds next to you does bring more mosquitoes and in some cases mice.

 

[MinuteMan47]

YES. Contrary to what others here think. Having tall weeds next to you does bring more mosquitoes and in some cases mice.

I had a neighbor who thought he was taking great care of his yard and would put out those "grub traps"...I guess he didn't ever realize he was actually ATTRACTING grubs not only to his yard...BUT MINE TOO. So, his STUPIDITY cost me money paying more for proper grub control.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

I had a neighbor who thought he was taking great care of his yard and would put out those "grub traps"...I guess he didn't ever realize he was actually ATTRACTING grubs not only to his yard...BUT MINE TOO. So, his STUPIDITY cost me money paying more for proper grub control.

Yeah I had a neighbor that bought mole poles or whatever they're called and pushed his moles into my yard. When I found out what he did I put like five times as many out and sent them all back, along with all the friends they made in my yard.

 

[rambone]

I had a neighbor who thought he was taking great care of his yard and would put out those "grub traps"...I guess he didn't ever realize he was actually ATTRACTING grubs not only to his yard...BUT MINE TOO. So, his STUPIDITY cost me money paying more for proper grub control.

I think 60 days in jail ought to do the trick. I jump at any chance I get to criminalize behavior and bleed tax-payers dry. I think a ban of grub traps would be reasonable too, or at least government licensing.


(Not directed at anyone. Just dreaming of utopia.)

 

[IndyMonkey]

It's always been a pet peeve of mine when the state or farmers mow the side ditches. Seriously, what's the point? They only do it once or twice a year and I don't think they hacked up weeds looks any better than they did standing. Plus, from the State standpoint, how much tax dollars are we wasting to pay these guys to mow ditches?

If you dont mow the ditches the trees start growing into the power lines and the roads.

 

[SubicWarrior1988]

I want my neighbors to mow their yards. Pretty simple concept from where I'm sitting as we live in a subdivision.

If you are in the country and your nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away, do what you want to.

 

[MinuteMan47]

I think 60 days in jail ought to do the trick. I jump at any chance I get to criminalize behavior and bleed tax-payers dry. I think a ban of grub traps would be reasonable too, or at least government licensing.


(Not directed at anyone. Just dreaming of utopia.)

I was thinking a public stoning would be better.

 

[eatsnopaste]

My question is who sets the standards? Is it the retired guy who mows his lawn every other day and on the off days waters and trims because that is all he has to do? Or is it the people who work nights 6 days a week trying to keep ahead of the bank foreclosure dept.? The "no exception" line is a problem for me too. No you shouldn't be able to have bugs and vermin emanating from your yard, but storing something in your back yard that only your neighbors can see while in THEIR back yard is only YOUR business. Isn't that what back yards and fences are for?

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

I want my neighbors to mow their yards. Pretty simple concept from where I'm sitting as we live in a subdivision.

If you are in the country and your nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away, do what you want to.

Subic, this isn't directed at you. I'm just using your comment to reply to as this has been posted a couple times in this thread already.

People living in the country can (and do) experience the same type of thoughts by neighbors. Where I grew up, there was a family that had family farms all together within four square miles of land. Just for example, I'll call them the Smiths. They had ~ 9 houses spread around the acreage to live in and farmed ~ 6,000 acres. The 4 acre farm that I grew up on we bought in 1970 and I had family there until 1998 or so. We were dirt, dirt poor during those times.

Over the years the Smiths tried to tell us exactly how short to cut our grass, when they thought we needed to paint our barns, where they would like to see us plant our garden on our land, how much of their side ditch (on their land adjoining our land) they would like to see us mow so they didn't have as much to take care of, and many other "good ideas" of theirs. The unsaid threat was always there that we needed to comply because one of the patriarchs of the Smith family was a County Commissioner for many years and could initiate legal action against us for not complying with his wishes. The patriarch lived right at 1/2 mile to the west of us, in a woods. They only way he saw our property was by him driving past our house and going to his son's farmhouse 1/2 mile south of our house.

The ironic thing about this whole situation is that, when I got out of the military and heard that the aging patriarch was developing Alzheimers disease, I went to visit him one last time. He had quite a few "fuzzy" moments, but also a couple clear moments. Once he recognized me he apologized to me, and asked me to pass it on to my family, for being a jackass for so many years while we lived there. He died within a short time of that visit and I've never forgotten what he said.

My point is, it really doesn't matter whether a neighbor is 20 ft. away or a 1/2 mile away, they will still complain if my property is not composed to their standards or whims.

We always took care of our property. No dumping of trash, the lawn was never out of hand unless we had been on vacation during a rainy time, etc.