Homeowner's Association Question - Horrific Neighbor (sale, HOA, co-op)

[SweepTheLeg]

Hi.

I live in a community of duplexes where the resident is responsible for their own landscaping.

We have a possible hoarding / crazy cat lady situation in one half of the duplexes. Her backyard is wildly overgrown to the point where it's affecting quality of life for other neighbors.

We have complained to the township who can cite her, but we are not sure what the township can do past that.

Her front lawn is being mowed as a courtesy by a neighbor, but the backyard is fenced off and it generally affects the other neighbor who is attached to her.

Can the HOA go in and mow her lawn? How does privacy and trespassing view that because it's a fenced in area? We figure since the neighbor is mowing her front lawn, that someone can mow her back lawn too.

We've established that she's not right in the head, so threatening her financially does nothing. We're looking into legal recourse, but we need a cosmetic and health solution RIGHT NOW.

Thanks.

[NJGOAT]

If you have a HOA, then everything they can and can't do is spelled out in the by-laws and covenants. If there is a section on "property maintenance" then it will usually spell out the requirments and any fines/penalties for failing to do it. Most of these also define what is meant by "lawn" as being either front, rear, side or all of the above. If it doesn't then it can be assumed that it covers all outside space on the property.

In our HOA which has very limited authority, there would be nothing they could do about a backyard unless the person planted invasive plants like bamboo. If it was say the front yard, it would usually progress through a series of fines, followed by the HOA paying a company to fix it up and then billing that to the homeowner. If the homeowner fails to pay, the only recourse is a lien on the property.

Townships do generally have more power over this (since we're talking a backyard) as the laws are written a little broader. If the situation presents a hazard to others in that it can harbor animals that carry disease, like mosquitos then what will eventually happen is the township will cite them for it and order it remedied. If the homeowner doesn't comply, then the township will send someone out to clean it up and bill the cost to the homeowner, which ends up back in eventually a lien situation if they don't pay.

[nybbler]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

In our HOA which has very limited authority, there would be nothing they could do about a backyard unless the person planted invasive plants like bamboo. If it was say the front yard, it would usually progress through a series of fines, followed by the HOA paying a company to fix it up and then billing that to the homeowner. If the homeowner fails to pay, the only recourse is a lien on the property.

Actually in some cases they can force a sale of the home. HOAs are usually bad and can be terrible. Not usually as bad as co-op boards though... <shudder>