Five Points Yard - Overgrown or Owner's Right? (Huntsville, Auburn: landscaping, neighborhood)

[LCTMadison]

Originally Posted by AJBarney

I don't have an obligation to maintain my neighbor's property values.

So when the shoe is on the other foot, and you have a neighbor whose affecting YOUR property value, will you sing the same tune? Doubtful.

[AuburnAL]

Originally Posted by MisterEd51

I just looked at the article where they showed the front yard. We used to have a house on our block that was worse than that. Nobody complained until a neighbor got a close look at the inside of the house. The house apparently had had no utilities for a long time. The smell was pretty bad. There were even rats running around inside the house. The neighbor that saw this reported it to the city. The front yard was cleaned up like was done with the house on Pratt Avenue. After that the inside of the house had to be cleaned out for health reasons. The owner of the house was forced to move out and sell the property.

Great job! This guy was living how he wanted not hurting anyone, but snoopy neighbors forced him to sell his home and got him kicked out on the street. I'm sure he's glad his nosy neighbors saved him from living how he chose to live.

[Nlambert]

I finally got to see a pic of it, and now I remember the house. Granted, he has free will but I saw a sidewalk there. If someone is taking a walk and stumbles upon a snake there and gets bitten, who is at fault? He should at least try to maintain it somewhat. I'm not saying he should have to cut everything down completely, but at least make it appear safe to the neighbors.

I do believe it will affect property values however, so before anyone says that the neighbors should move if they don't like it think of this. It could very well keep them from selling their house so they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don't typically get into my neighbor's business unless it directly affects me. I have a neighbor now who refuses to cut his grass but maybe 3-4 times per year. And when they do they blow it all over my vehicles, driveway, etc.... and we work really hard to keep a manicured lawn.

Solution? I noticed him weedeating with one of the kind that allows attachments and I just happened to have a blower attachment. I gave it to him and asked kindly that if he planned to blow it all over my driveway he blow it back off when he is done. I didn't call the county and ask them to handle it. I wonder if the neighbors tried working with him.

[RatSnake]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

I finally got to see a pic of it, and now I remember the house. Granted, he has free will but I saw a sidewalk there. If someone is taking a walk and stumbles upon a snake there and gets bitten, who is at fault? He should at least try to maintain it somewhat. I'm not saying he should have to cut everything down completely, but at least make it appear safe to the neighbors.

It is a snake. Unless it was a pet snake ... it is no one's fault.
I had snakes over in Mountain Brook (Madison). We were not allowed to cut down trees - trim vegetation.
I called animal control just to check what the policy is - generally, if it is not a poisonous snake, they say leave it alone. It is wildlife. This is the part of nature that everyone wants to see and live close to.

So long as the sidewalk is free from any obstructions, it shouldn't be an issue.
However - if it becomes a nuisance - which should be explicitly called out and defined in the law and ordinances - then the city has the right to take action.

[Reactionary]

Nlambert = "I wonder if the neighbors tried working with him."

Everyone involved tried working with him. The City even got the Botanical Garden to offer a free landscape design plan which would require minimal upkeep - the problem was that the homeowner didn't want to do ANY upkeep. There was no room for compromise.

The City does seem to have made its own compromises by leaving the yard behind the privacy fence alone (even though it arguably violates the City ordinance). I'll need to look it up, but it appears that the City only cleaned up the area within about 10 feet from the street - I wonder if there's an easement or similar rule upon which the City based that action.

[MisterEd51]

Originally Posted by AuburnAL

Great job! This guy was living how he wanted not hurting anyone, but snoopy neighbors forced him to sell his home and got him kicked out on the street. I'm sure he's glad his nosy neighbors saved him from living how he chose to live.

The neighbors were tolerating the situation for over a year. After it became apparent that there had been no utilities in the home for a long time it became a health and safety issue. The lack of sanitation and the infestation of rats would shock anyone. It was so bad in the house that the workers contracted by the city to clean up the house had to use hazmat suits. Another issue was that woman was old and apparently could not take care of herself let alone take care of her property. It was to everyone's best interest for her to find some place else to live. I doubt the city was reimbursed for the cleanup. All I know was the property was sold a number of months after that. The new owner fixed up the house and sold it.

[Nlambert]

Originally Posted by RatSnake

It is a snake. Unless it was a pet snake ... it is no one's fault.
I had snakes over in Mountain Brook (Madison). We were not allowed to cut down trees - trim vegetation.
I called animal control just to check what the policy is - generally, if it is not a poisonous snake, they say leave it alone. It is wildlife. This is the part of nature that everyone wants to see and live close to.

So long as the sidewalk is free from any obstructions, it shouldn't be an issue.
However - if it becomes a nuisance - which should be explicitly called out and defined in the law and ordinances - then the city has the right to take action.

I think anyone who buys a house in a neighborhood does so with the hopes that their neighbors will maintain their property. I can't think of anyone who would choose to buy a house next door to someone who never maintains their property knowing they're going to have to look at it daily. When we bought ours, the neighbors on both sides and across the street had beautiful landscaping and that was part of what drew us to the house. We liked to keep ours the same way and figured we would fit in nicely.

Those neighbors sold and the house that had the best landscaping now looks abandoned. Their privacy fence is falling down (over into our yard), their cedar trees had started to push on our fence (even though I installed it 4 ft off the property line so I could mow around it, and their dog literally gets lost when it runs around. I asked them to cut the trees back and the guy never did, so I trimmed them back to the edge of my property line and had to repair my fence.

We were trying to sell our house at the time and more than a few times the Realtor comments were "The people loved the house but had some concerns over the lack of yard maintenance from the neighbors. It makes the house look bad." We eventually pulled it from the market and kept it.

It can absolutely affect property values and the neighbors that have to see it every day. We don't care that they don't fix up their flowerbeds or trim their bushes around the house, but cutting the grass every 2 weeks or so and keeping their bushes on their property would surely be nice. He has every right to let it grow up into a complete jungle but if he wants to live in the woods, it seems that he would be better off moving out of a neighborhood.

[AuburnAL]

Originally Posted by MisterEd51

The neighbors were tolerating the situation for over a year. After it became apparent that there had been no utilities in the home for a long time it became a health and safety issue. The lack of sanitation and the infestation of rats would shock anyone. It was so bad in the house that the workers contracted by the city to clean up the house had to use hazmat suits. Another issue was that woman was old and apparently could not take care of herself let alone take care of her property. It was to everyone's best interest for her to find some place else to live. I doubt the city was reimbursed for the cleanup. All I know was the property was sold a number of months after that. The new owner fixed up the house and sold it.

Wow it just gets better and better. Absolutely no remorse about getting an old woman thrown out of her home. But it's okay she had long grass and by golly that offended your sensibilities enough that she should be deprived of a place to live.

You run around saying it is a health and safety issue, but the only person living there was obviously okay with it so who are you to judge how she wants to live? Who cares if it has utilities or not?

[FayettevilletoHuntsville]

Originally Posted by AuburnAL

Wow it just gets better and better. Absolutely no remorse about getting an old woman thrown out of her home. But it's okay she had long grass and by golly that offended your sensibilities enough that she should be deprived of a place to live.

You run around saying it is a health and safety issue, but the only person living there was obviously okay with it so who are you to judge how she wants to live? Who cares if it has utilities or not?

It could be a health and safety issue for the neighbors though, not just the resident of the overgrown property. What if the rats went in the neighbors yard?

[MisterEd51]

Originally Posted by AuburnAL

Wow it just gets better and better. Absolutely no remorse about getting an old woman thrown out of her home. But it's okay she had long grass and by golly that offended your sensibilities enough that she should be deprived of a place to live.

You run around saying it is a health and safety issue, but the only person living there was obviously okay with it so who are you to judge how she wants to live? Who cares if it has utilities or not?

You act like she was made homeless. I am sure HR was called in and somebody made sure she had a place to live. She apparently was not capable of taking care of herself.

I was not involved in what happened but I am sure I would have called someone if I had found out how she was living. Supposed I knew about her living conditions and she died of her living conditions or froze to death. I would have had a lot of guilt because of that. Could you have lived with doing nothing if you knew?

BTW, nobody called anyone until after her deplorable conditions were known. The caller apparently showed a lot of compassion to do something about it.