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OVER occupancy IS against the law I believe
Perhaps you can contact city zoning for rental property
If it is a 2bedroom house then there is likely an occupancy limit
Maybe the owner has a rule about that
But if there is an HOA the HOA (f that residence is part of it) likely has rules about more than two families occupying a home
We have house in our neighborhood--just opposite our cul de sac
The original owners were retired couple who had home built for them
They lived there more than 15 yrs--they both passed away about a year ago
Apparently one son was living w/his parents to help with the mom who had dementia and the dad who had cancer...
After they died, the son moved out but his sister apparently got the house in the estate process...she lives there with at least one adult child who has children--
Don't know them--there are at least 3 adults living in the house with two children and several cars--
Two of them are parked on the street at all times--although there is a driveway and a 2 car garage...
They know the law and move the cars at least once a day--but because the house is opposite our cul de sac going in and out for any of the cars in our street can be problamatic because their cars often block our line of sight
Legally there is very little we can do
They maintain the exterior--the yard--fine--and apparently to their neighbors they are pleasant (get this from postings on the NextDoor site people in neighborhood belong to)
But they obviously have 3 generations in same house
Technically this doesn't violate the 2 family rule since it is grandmother w/daughter and children...
But it makes for a cluttered street (we have no sidewalks) with cars blocking vision and requiring walkers or bikers to be more in the street than is optimal...
OVER occupancy IS against the law I believe
Perhaps you can contact city zoning for rental property
If it is a 2bedroom house then there is likely an occupancy limit
Maybe the owner has a rule about that
But if there is an HOA the HOA (f that residence is part of it) likely has rules about more than two families occupying a home
We have house in our neighborhood--just opposite our cul de sac
The original owners were retired couple who had home built for them
They lived there more than 15 yrs--they both passed away about a year ago
Apparently one son was living w/his parents to help with the mom who had dementia and the dad who had cancer...
After they died, the son moved out but his sister apparently got the house in the estate process...she lives there with at least one adult child who has children--
Don't know them--there are at least 3 adults living in the house with two children and several cars--
Two of them are parked on the street at all times--although there is a driveway and a 2 car garage...
They know the law and move the cars at least once a day--but because the house is opposite our cul de sac going in and out for any of the cars in our street can be problamatic because their cars often block our line of sight
Legally there is very little we can do
They maintain the exterior--the yard--fine--and apparently to their neighbors they are pleasant (get this from postings on the NextDoor site people in neighborhood belong to)
But they obviously have 3 generations in same house
Technically this doesn't violate the 2 family rule since it is grandmother w/daughter and children...
But it makes for a cluttered street (we have no sidewalks) with cars blocking vision and requiring walkers or bikers to be more in the street than is optimal...
Yes, it is a violation to have more than two persons per bedroom (at least that was the law the last time I knew). I *think* but am not positive, that an infant under the age of six months does not count as a "person" for purposes of the ordinance, but a child over six months of age does count.
Re the house you mentioned on your cul de sac, I can sympathise that family members some times need help, and I am willing to look the other way if family have to move in for a little while, but it should not be a very long term arrangement, and everyone should follow the laws and try their best not to cause problems for their neighbours. I think in the example you cited, given the geography, they should park as many extra vehicles as possible around the corner or somewhere where they are not causing a nuisance. I am not sure why people do not show courtesy and kindness to their neighbours anymore. Everyone seems to be "out for themselves and no one else" any more. It is really sad.
Since I wrote a second letter to the landlord of my neighbours, they have now escalated the harassment. The 4RUNNER that is parked in front of our house day and night does move, it seems, sometimes in the late afternoon. However, as soon as she moves, they move a Dodge car from the front of the queue in front of their house to the spot in front of our house that the 4RUNNER just vacated. I snapped photos this afternoon of it again today. You can plainly see that they have left wide open spaces in front of their own house to park in front of our house. There is no reasonable explanation for them to do this since they have their own parking in front of their house, their own reserved parking in back of their house, and available parking directly across the street in front of their house. Their intention is obviously to harass. I have filed a police report for harassment now. The person I spoke to told me to give the report number to Code. He said Code is now very likely going to ticket them.
This is the part I do not understand. I do not know these people from Adam. I know not their names or anything else about them except what they have done since they moved into the neighbourhood. They are obviously violating occupancy limits, so why make trouble with their vehicles and draw attention to their occupancy violations, not to mention causing trouble for their landlord? How do you explain people like that? Ill socialised? Sociopaths? What other explanation is there??
Do you have a job or are you retired? You seem to have WAY too much time on your hands worrying about what your neighbors do. They are not doing anything "criminal" and honestly the cops are not going to care about this.
It seems to me you are actually harassing them. You've contacted their landlord several times, and the police for what are very MINOR annoyances. You are photographing their cars which is creepy. Neither the police, their landlord or the Courts are going to care OR do anything about this.
Watch a few episodes of Fear Thy Neighbor. The show is about extreme neighbor disputes how they begin, escalate, and end tragically. These situations escalate very quickly over minor problems. There is always one neighbor that continues to escalate the situation to a point that is beyond absurd. The other neighbor then does things to "spite" the person who is irritated. The Courts are used to harass each other. Ultimately the situations get so out of control the final outcome is violence and loss of life.
It's really none of your business how many people you "think" live in their house, how many cars they drive or where they park them. They dont even live next door to you. If you live in an older subdivision it's highly unlikely there is an HOA.
Not sure if you are from Texas originally. Texans are very independent and "live and let live." No Court in the world is going to give two hoots about this. Get a life.
You don't KNOW what their situation is and are making lots of assumptions. How do you know how many people are living in their home? Maybe they are friends or neighbors that drop by. Maybe there are two people living in the house and they each have three cars. If they are as low rent as you think, maybe they are violent too?
Get a hobby, read up on conflict resolution and learn not sweat the small stuff. You can't control your neighbor. You can control yourself and how you react to situations.
Exactly. You might try putting the time into building a civil relationship with your neighbors. I have a neighbor that has 6 kids living at home, 3 with their own vehicles. Yeah, that means 3 cars parked on the street in front of their house sometimes, but I don't have the time to let that consume my thinking or get in the way of me enjoying myself at home.
I bet the OP is retired and is not a native Texan or even was born/grew up in the USA. She spells it “Neighbour” and indicates making a telephone call as “belling” and uses other UK terminology as “whilst.” She must be a fairly recent UK expat because others who have lived in the USA for a long time adjust their spelling and language to local customs as is correct when a person moves to another country and wants to blend in with locals.
Most retirees take a very strong interest in their neighborhoods. They have the time to “smell the roses” and often spend much of their energy on keeping their homes and communities in great condition. It is true that, during working years, people often cannot contribute to beautifying and volunteering in their communities to the extent that retirees are able to. For this reason, I choose to live in communities — both in Dallas and Las Vegas — specifically geared to retirees.
I object to above posts that indicate the OP should “get over” this issue and focus on other things. Retirees, and others who expend energy to promote quality of life in their communities are the kinds of people I want to live near. I admire people who volunteer for their local crime watch groups and advocate for local schools and neighborhoods.
If your only complaint with your neighbors is them parking their car in front of your house, consider yourself lucky.
Let me ask you this: do you need to park your own cars there? If not, why do you care who parks on the public street? You do not own the street in front of your house.
Some of us have neighbors with super loud barking dogs that bark their heads off at 6am and 10pm every single day. I'd happily trade my problems for yours, any day.
I bet the OP is retired and is not a native Texan or even was born/grew up in the USA. She spells it “Neighbour” and indicates making a telephone call as “belling” and uses other UK terminology as “whilst.” She must be a fairly recent UK expat because others who have lived in the USA for a long time adjust their spelling and language to local customs as is correct when a person moves to another country and wants to blend in with locals.
Most retirees take a very strong interest in their neighborhoods. They have the time to “smell the roses” and often spend much of their energy on keeping their homes and communities in great condition. It is true that, during working years, people often cannot contribute to beautifying and volunteering in their communities to the extent that retirees are able to. For this reason, I choose to live in communities — both in Dallas and Las Vegas — specifically geared to retirees.
I object to above posts that indicate the OP should “get over” this issue and focus on other things. Retirees, and others who expend energy to promote quality of life in their communities are the kinds of people I want to live near. I admire people who volunteer for their local crime watch groups and advocate for local schools and neighborhoods.
Everyone should be involved in their community. Join Neighborhood Watch etc. However, harassing your neighbors who are parking LEGALLY on a PUBLIC street and not violating any HOA ordinance is another issue entirely. You don't own a PUBLIC street.
I bet the OP is retired and is not a native Texan or even was born/grew up in the USA. She spells it “Neighbour” and indicates making a telephone call as “belling” and uses other UK terminology as “whilst.” She must be a fairly recent UK expat because others who have lived in the USA for a long time adjust their spelling and language to local customs as is correct when a person moves to another country and wants to blend in with locals.
Most retirees take a very strong interest in their neighborhoods. They have the time to “smell the roses” and often spend much of their energy on keeping their homes and communities in great condition. It is true that, during working years, people often cannot contribute to beautifying and volunteering in their communities to the extent that retirees are able to. For this reason, I choose to live in communities — both in Dallas and Las Vegas — specifically geared to retirees.
I object to above posts that indicate the OP should “get over” this issue and focus on other things. Retirees, and others who expend energy to promote quality of life in their communities are the kinds of people I want to live near. I admire people who volunteer for their local crime watch groups and advocate for local schools and neighborhoods.
Thank you, WorldKlas. I could not have said it better myself except to add that it is not only retirees who feel this way.
Re comments that I am harassing them because I cannot park in front of my own home, and neither can my guests or tradesmen is the most specious argument one could make, and it makes me think that anyone saying this is probably doing the same sorts of things in their own neighbourhoods that these people up the block from me are doing in this one. No, I do not know what are their individual life situations, and I do not want to know. It is none of my business. What IS my business is their interference with the peaceful enjoyment of my own property and the degradation of the neighbourhood. It is only either the young or those unable to reason correctly or those who are sociopaths that would argue that just because someone "can" behave in a certain way that they "should" behave in a certain way.
Indeed, this is not an issue of my bothering them. It is the exact opposite. They started out irresponsibly and negligently interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of my own home by parking their vehicles in front of my home 24/7, throwing trash onto the lawn and onto the street, and allowing their poor cat to wander into my fenced, gated, and locked yard where it defecated on the lawn and then scratched up the grass to cover its feces, defecated behind the shurbs, sprayed the door, and laid on my patio furniture (mind you I do not blame the poor cat at all).
I have an absolute legal right to the enjoyment of my property, and anyone who interferes with that right with no sound reason for doing so is the one who is harassing. Whence asked nicely to respect my rights, they then went out of their way to be a nuisance. They have now moved on to intentional harassment. If the positions were changed and they asked me to please not park in front of their home day and night, I would oblige because I am a reasonable, responsible adult. I will not do anything just be cause I "can" do it. That is not the single criteria for living a responsible life. I will not intentionally go where I am not wanted, especially whence I have no compelling reason whatsoever to do so, and whence I have MORE and BETTER options staring me in the face.
The tenants of one 2.1 property who expect to take up half or more of the block's parking is inconsiderate at the very least, and it has nothing to do with this being "Texas" or any other venue. That is one of the most ridiculous things I have heard anyone say, but if you want to make that argument, then let us take it a step further and say that not only are they in Texas, they are in Fort Worth, and they are in a particular community in Fort Worth where the community's laws and customs do not sanction taking more than your fair share of anything much less harassing your neighbour because your neighbour called you on your anti-social behaviour. In other words, if you want to make that argument, then take it from the macrocosm to the microcosm. Living in Texas or any other state does not compel anyone to live and act like "hoods." The fact is that once they start to park here intentionally even though they have other places to park that are in fact more convenient to their own house, such as in front of their own house, then they are harassing me.
Responsible people raise responsible children who grow up to be responsible adults. Responsible people who get an education and work hard to afford a decent home and then to keep it up do not do it so they can suffer at the hands of neighbours like these irresponsible, anti-social ADULTS who instead of leasing a residence of their own, squeeze into small homes/apartments like so many rats so they can funnel all of their money into consumer goods like cars which they then line the streets, mobile phones which they sit with inside their cars seemingly endlessly mesmerised by, etc. These people are the result of parents who were just the same.
This is the same sort of socially irresponsible people who put other peoples lives in danger whilst they text and drive at the same time. These are the same ones who walk past a property or step out of their vehicles at a property and throw their trash onto the street and into other people's yards. Not everyone lives that way. The rest of us pay for a home of our own which we keep up, and we pay to keep up one or two vehicles to a residence, and we do not toss our trash onto the street and onto our neighbours's lawns, and we do not allow un-spayed/un-neutered pets to roam the streets, either. We educate our children and teach them how to live responsible lives and to respect other people. People like these neighbours bring a whole host of social ills to decent neighbourhoods, and then apologists who probably live in the same way argue "you are harassing them." Really? No, that is the case at all. I do not go near their residence. I do not park my vehicle in front of their residence. I do not have animals that wander onto their property defecating on and tearing up their lawn and spraying their house. I and people like me pay our own way, and we do not expect our neighbours and the neighbourhood to suffer because we want a new car, a new laptop, a new mobile, and whatever else, and cannot afford these things so we pile into one residence to pay for these things whilst we expect our neighbours to keep silent as we destroy the tone of the neighbourhood and ruin their quality of life. Personally, I do not care if anyone wants to waste his/her life watching telly and spending every penny on cars, phones, laptops, or whatever else, and not care to build up much of a life, but do not expect me or other people to suffer for the way you want to spend your life, and do not tell me what *I* should be doing at my house in my own time with my own resources. Whether one is currently in the workforce, retired, or independently wealthy has nothing to do with how they feel about peacefully enjoying his/her home, but if you think it does, than that remark alone belies what lay at the bottom of this sort of anti-social, belligerent attitude.
It is precisely this sort of behaviour and the attitude that underlay it that start to ruin a neighbourhood. You can see it in FULL BLOOM in the area over off of Cleburne Avenue and Berry Street. That area has turned into a slum with all of the attendant problems of a slum. Overcrowding of property, animals not spayed/neutered and left to wander the streets, trash everywhere, overcrowding of vehicles and vehicles parked on lawns, etc., etc., is the norm now over there. It was not always that way, either. The area declined over time specifically due to people who moved into the area and "took it over." Make no mistake that that is what I am battling here at least insofar as my own home and my own block are concerned. Good homeowners and good tenants often flee the area, then the troublemakers who are left behind are heard to complain "we are segregated; we live in a ghetto." etc., etc. Well, you made your bed so you can lie it as they say. Now that you have ruined your area, do not expect to come to my area and ruin it as well. I do NOT want to see that happen to my neighbourhood. You had your cake. You ate your cake. Do not expect to eat mine, too.
In any case, I just came indoors from speaking with the code officer. He contradicted what I and others here believe about occupancy limits. He said there can be up to five "unrelated" families living in a unit, and it has nothing to do with the number of bedrooms with closets, etc. He said, for example, that if there were five unrelated couples living there, the only thing that would cause any laws to come into play is the square footage of the unit. He offered to go to their door to speak to them, but he said they can refuse to answer his questions or deny that there are more than X number of unrelated people living there, and he can do nothing about it. This is the problem Code Compliance faces because they are constrained by inadequate laws and burdened with bad landlords just like the rest of us. This is why, if this problem continues, I will file a lawsuit against the landlord, and once I have the legal tenants names, I will add them to the lawsuit, and sooner or later it will come out who exactly lives there, and if they are not in compliance with city ordinances, you may be sure I will share that information with Code and police.
Last edited by the_little_truth_writer; 08-22-2018 at 03:08 PM..
When I was in high school, I lived at 3912 James, so I am familiar with the neighborhood. It has gone down-hill since I've been away. Now living here in Fort Worth. The Wedgewood area is another area I lived as a young single mother and you couldn't pay me to live there now.
When we were looking for a house to buy three years ago, we looked at several homes in Wedgewood and even French Lake. Horribly sloppy renovations, unkempt yards, etc. We bought in North Fort Worth but now where we live in rapidly going down-hill the same way....
We could afford a better neighborhood in Fort Worth, but it would just be a matter of time before it also failed. I figure we will put us with where we live for a year or so more, then when and if we can get our price, we will leave again.
Fort Worth is not the same place I once lived. People my age are invisible and unwanted.
When I was in high school, I lived at 3912 James, so I am familiar with the neighborhood. It has gone down-hill since I've been away. Now living here in Fort Worth. The Wedgewood area is another area I lived as a young single mother and you couldn't pay me to live there now.
When we were looking for a house to buy three years ago, we looked at several homes in Wedgewood and even French Lake. Horribly sloppy renovations, unkempt yards, etc. We bought in North Fort Worth but now where we live in rapidly going down-hill the same way....
We could afford a better neighborhood in Fort Worth, but it would just be a matter of time before it also failed. I figure we will put us with where we live for a year or so more, then when and if we can get our price, we will leave again.
Fort Worth is not the same place I once lived. People my age are invisible and unwanted.
My heart breaks for you! I know I will never own another home, and I probably have less than 20 years left to live now, but preserving my home and a quality of life mean as much to me as they ever did. It kills me to think how you saved and invested in a home, and took care of it, and then are forced out by this sort of element. I do not know what is to be done. People like us are told to "move." Move where? These sorts of people ruin every neighbourhood they move into. They force out good neighbours, and then they want to follow the good neighbours to other neighbourhoods and ruin those neighbourhoods, too. I no longer feel that continually moving is the answer. I do not know what is going to happen, but I am both disgusted and ashamed that law makers are not stopping all of this. For one thing, it ruins the tax base. Why not fight for good tenants/good owners??
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