<p>That doesn’t get the grass mowed The city would be better off sending a city mowing crew over and adding $50 or more to the tax bill. We have rental properties and if tenants don’t pay their electric bill it gets added to our tax bill so cities can do things like this legally. I’d love to challenge this one. If the problem is getting the grass mowed then why waste time with tickets, court appearances etc…If they create a grass ordinance then the city can just mow the grass and add it to the property owner tax bill.</p>
<p>Ema. Give much thought to moving into a neighborhood filled with people who want everyone to conform…it is just not the lawns that are expected to be all alike and perfectly coiffed…</p>
<p>I am just one nut job in a community full of nut jobs. In our neighborhood we have well tended 3 million dollar homes sitting next to shot gun shacks. Everyone regularly walks the block and talks to their neighbors. An overgrown yard usually elicits concern and compassion, is Mr. X sick or has Mrs. X fallen on hard times? Ratting them out to the grass police would be the last thing on our minds. Besides, I’m still trying to get the cops to stop laughing at me after I reported the dead squirrel in the street a few years back.</p>
<p>Even though I live in a state where zoning is essentially non-existent… I also happen to be in a very desirable neighborhood where 4,000+ sf homes sit on 3+ acre wooded lots with expansive manicured & irrigated lawns, inground pools, etc. </p>
<p>We are fortunate that most folks are conscientious about the upkeep of their property. My husband may take a neighbor’s name in vain occasionally because dandilions are allowed to fester and eventually creep… but we would n-e-v-e-r complain to that neighbor, or to any town authority about it… or for grass being too tall.</p>
<p>I would have to be concerned with a safety or moral hazard to file such a report.</p>
<p>I agree with momof2kids’ post #60, although I have heard that it’s no longer thought that long grass is a fire hazard. And while snakes, field mice, rodents and mosquitoes are not thought to specifically breed in tall grass, they are known to hang out there. Deer ticks are a big issue in my area.</p>
<p>We live in a community with a HOA…and that is whole other thread that could be started. The development is huge so the HOA is still controlled by the owners/builder and someone is employed by the HOA to monitor yards, etc.</p>
<p>I guess the best thing I can say about living in a community with an HOA is that I don’t have to worry about ratting out my neighbors!</p>
<p>That’s definitely one of the major differences with my area. The weeds/grass only grow like crazy if we get winter downpours. Nothing was growing until we suddenly got a lot of rain in March (it was beginning to look like yet another dry winter). All those weeds at my mother’s home (and at least half of the others on my street) were that big by mid-April. However, it doesn’t stay wet. It drys out fast.</p>
<p>Mosquitos do not grow in our weeds, they only breed in stagnant water which is pretty rare to have these days in my neighborhood. Snakes are a given as are mountain lions, coyotes, kit foxes, and a strange gang of turkeys that has mysteriously made a home here in the last couple years (the hill we border leads to a preserve/reserve area). I have a pet tarantula and a pet snake (Cali King) that were both caught wild when they decided to visit inside the house. The snakes don’t come out of the weeds, they go into our garages and houses. Much more comfortable ;)</p>
<p>I’m definitely not speaking for anyone in an area where they signed some sort of HOA agreement about lawn care or letting things go indefinitely (my mom did nothing relaxing to recoup over spring break from school just to make sure the eyesore did not stay there until summer we she could next work on things, but temps would be in the triple digits). I just would be insulted if someone in my neighborhood didn’t say anything as we are close enough to them that we share if there’s a problem. Not all neighborhoods are like that. We certainly tell our neighbor to control his dog as it was slamming itself into the fence and breaking it (it was angry we were in our own yard). They did put in a lower fence to keep the dog from the broken area, but it still barks all the time and they never seem to pay any attention to him. The poor dear is lonely and badly socialized. Not surprised, though, as they have a history of not raising their pets correctly.</p>
<p>It should say something that we are the only house lining the hill that has mowed their section of the hill. The city hasn’t even mowed their section. It’s a fire hazard due to how dry it gets here and that hill has caught fire in years past. We’re also supposed to be putting up plastic every winter to prevent mudslides, but we’re the only ones that do. So at least for my mom, it’s not lazy, it’s that the little time she has needs to be dedicated to the things that are hazards first and aesthetic later. One can’t know every detail of someone’s situation so I try not judge my neighbors for overgrown lawns, weeds or grass.</p>
<p>Now trash on the other hand is a totally different color horse. That’s a sanitation issue no ifs, ands, or buts. That is certainly not an issue here. Just really busy people with no time to do the yard work themselves and no money to hire someone realiable. It would be an overaction here to call the city on someone.</p>
<p>I’m not worried. Both sets of my grandparents have lived there for decades, my dad was raised there, and I spent every summer there. They are wonderful people and a lot less judgmental than the people in the neighborhood I grew up in. It’s just a priority there that the neighborhood look nice, and I don’t think that’s a problem or something they should be judged for. That, along with the great schools, is why people pay to live there… anyone would be miffed if they were paying a premium for a nice neighborhood only for a slob to move in next door who lets weeds grow in until they start cracking the pavement. </p>
<p>It’s not like people are getting tickets for not putting in flower beds, we’re talking mowing the lawn and keeping trash out of the yard. Big deal.</p>
<p>I LOVE the first few posts in this thread. Too funny!!</p>
<p>Maybe the neighbor is having health or family or financial problems? Maybe the neighborly thing to do would be to offer to help them if they are having some challenges getting the lawn mowed rather than turning them in to the subdivision police.</p>
<p>Our neighborhood has a website and there was some discussion lately about visible trashcans and cars with flat tires or parked in the street and lawnchairs in the driveway. Seriously people need to get a life.Surely they have better things to do than complain about their neighbors lawn furniture.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call about a lawn but I did call my town about an old Volvo wagon in a neighbor’s driveway (they weren’t living there) which was unregistered and had four flat tires. Found out you are allowed one unregistered vehicle but no more than that. After 3+ years I was sick of looking at it. They eventually rented out the house and had the unregistered car towed to their new home where it sat for at least another year. </p>
<p>My neighbor is in her 80’s and has been widowed for over 40 years. We help her with a lot of things around her house, snow blow her driveway in winter and in summer the people across the street who have a riding mower sip over and do her lawn too. I have helped her rake leaves, DH has cut dead branches from her trees, and we watch her house/take in her mail etc., when she goes to visit her children.</p>
<p>No. I have too many other important things in my life going on to worry about this. Unless there are wolves living next door, I don’t care. Maybe people are dealing with stuff that is more important than their lawn, such as illness or loss of a job.</p>
<p>Years ago we were living in a place that was going in this direction. Someone actually stole a dog from a neighbor’s garage and held it hostage because it was barking too much. Last I heard, they towed cars away one Thanksgiving because some of the vistors parked in driveways had fenders a few inches onto the road. Mind you, this was not a main road is was more like an internal drive in the complex. I am so glad we moved out and our neighbors are a good distance away.</p>
<p>I think a lot of you have been very lucky to never have a neighbor who failed to keep up his property. You might feel differently about this issue if you lived next door to somebody like that, and you were trying to sell your house. Of course, junk cars up on blocks are worse than untidy landscaping, but anything like that near your house can hurt you when you’re trying to sell.</p>
<p>^The last time the rental house on our block had a tenant, they kept a couch on the front lawn all year long. An actual, upholstered couch. In Michigan. Seriously. Right in the middle of the lawn.</p>
<p>I’d hate to be trying to sell any house on that street!</p>
<p>We have had people on our block put furniture on the planting strip with the garbage cans, perhaps thinking that waste management will haul it away for them?
They don’t do that here, if no one will pick it up with a " free" sign on it ( & it is amazing what you can recycle that way), you are stuck hauling it to the transfer station yourself.</p>
<p>^^It’s probably not a violation to be a ratty couch in the middle of your lawn, but heaven forbid that you let the grass grow too long LOL. This is a great Friday thread.</p>
The city would be better off sending a city mowing crew over and adding $50 or more to the tax bill. We have rental properties and if tenants don’t pay their electric bill it gets added to our tax bill so cities can do things like this legally. I’d love to challenge this one. If the problem is getting the grass mowed then why waste time with tickets, court appearances etc…If they create a grass ordinance then the city can just mow the grass and add it to the property owner tax bill.</p>