Cut my first abandoned house yard.

[sjwaste]

Nope. We don't have this in my neighborhood. Houses list and sell in under a week, if one lists at all.

When we were looking to buy, we saw some neighborhoods with low prices commensurate with high vacancy/foreclosure rates. Avoided that like the plague, or an HOA, whichever's worse.

 

[grohl]

Last neighborhoor had an HOA, my first. Things they got done: gated the whole communitry, fined people for not cutting their grass (see OP), prevented trailers on driveways or streets, made a park on some common land. I was really pleased and had no complaints at all. Why all the HOA hating? Is it from some bad pub about some loser who had a lien placed on his house?

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: grohl
Last neighborhoor had an HOA, my first. Things they got done: gated the whole communitry, fined people for not cutting their grass (see OP), prevented trailers on driveways or streets, made a park on some common land. I was really pleased and had no complaints at all. Why all the HOA hating? Is it from some bad pub about some loser who had a lien placed on his house?

the HOA hate comes from horror stories about things like parking your Ford F150 in your driveway and getting fined for bringing down the value of other properties in the neighborhood *gasp*

There are much worse examples, i'm just too lazy to find them. HOAs are nothing other than a bunch of stay at home trophy wives that have nothing better to do than be neighborhood busybodies who want to keep their house as an investment property rather than an actual home and look for BS reasons to cite their neighbors for not acting the exact same way they do

 

[shubh09]

If you know the owner of that house, inform them about the rotting condition of the house. Tell them that poor condition of the house will reduce its face value, if they are in mood of selling it.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: Gothgar

Originally posted by: Nik
My neighborhood doesn't have to deal with overgrown lawns or abandoned houses, but we do have to deal with 3+ families in this one newly-sold house. They have 7 cars that spill out over the sidewalk, into the street, line both sides of the street, etc. They also have tons and tons of kids toys (there's something like 6 or 8 children there, all under the ages of 10) all over the lawn, all over the sidewalk, and even bikes and balls left right in the middle of the street in the middle of the night. They have garbage all over the lawn, their shit strung over the neighbor's fence on one side, and more of it hanging over the city's fence that "guards" entrance to a service area for the local wetlands area right behind our houses. They're horribly noisy. Their kids will lbe riding all over the street when I come home at 9pm and they don't get out of the street when I flash my high beams, honk, and straight up yell out the window to get the fuck out of the road. :frown:

Got an HOA?

Or City Code Enforcement?

Call them

No idea if we have a city code enforcement, so I wouldn't know who to contact. I can start digging, though.

No, we don't have an HOA, thank god.

:laugh: I had a feeling HOAs would come into this discussion. Thank god you don't have an HOA, which exists to prevent the situation you're bitching about. :laugh: I think you've mentioned these people here before, yet you haven't complained to anyone who can do anything to help you?

 

[Zedtom]

The property two houses down was vacant for several months but someone at least came out and mowed the yard. When it finally sold we were overjoyed that they took down a huge ham radio tower. <---Which is a story itself:

The owner climbed up the fifty foot tower and used a sawsall to hack it down in sections. When the sections fell and hit the ground they crashed with a loud thud. He could easily have been slashed or thrown off. The sections could have fell onto his roof, but he lucked out. It was the craziest and most dangerous thing I've ever seen a homeowner do.

What's strange is that he has not done any yard maintenance since he moved in. The back yard is full of weeds and the abandoned tower pieces.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: mugs
:laugh: I had a feeling HOAs would come into this discussion. Thank god you don't have an HOA, which exists to prevent the situation you're bitching about. :laugh: I think you've mentioned these people here before, yet you haven't complained to anyone who can do anything to help you?

An HOA isn't the only method to cleaning up a neighborhood. I'm glad they aren't here because they carry with them FAR too many drawbacks.

There are other methods, such as talking to the kids myself to make sure they clean up after themselves, which hasn't worked. I have yet to call authorities.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: grohl
Last neighborhoor had an HOA, my first. Things they got done: gated the whole communitry, fined people for not cutting their grass (see OP), prevented trailers on driveways or streets, made a park on some common land. I was really pleased and had no complaints at all. Why all the HOA hating? Is it from some bad pub about some loser who had a lien placed on his house?

Must be some strange HOAs these people live in. Many communities in SoCal are subject to an HOA and I've lived in one for the past 12 years with no issues whatsoever. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a home in an HOA community.

 

[lupi]

HOA: Like living somewhere that has ATP&N dictate the rules to you and you pay for the privilege.

 

[SonnyDaze]

Yuppers. Neighbors recently split up. He moved out leaving her there with kids. Social services took the kids and she hit the streets (literally - she was a crack whore). Now the house is left abandoned and the neighbor across the street and I take turns cutting the front yard. Back yard is not visible but it is getting pretty high. I can see it from my kitchen window.

I think the house is in foreclosure now. She trashed the place before she left. I mean she busted holes in the walls everywhere though out the place. She ripped dry wall from the ceiling to where you could see insulation and rafters. She sold all the appliances for crack. She even took the air handler from the attic and sold it for crack.

And here I was thinking of putting my house on the market later this year.

 

[OutHouse]

i did last year. finally got sick of it. the damn weeds were higher than the gutters. i want down to town hall and had a face to face meeting with the town administrator armed with pictures. i told him the town needs to take care of this asap. his excuse was that the owners moved out and my response was then call the damn number on the realtors sign out front of the house and make them take care of the property. if they dont do it the town does it and puts a lein on the property until the bill is paid.

damn that pissed me off.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I mowed the neighbor's front yard for a year before someone moved in. It really does help the neighborhood out.