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How would you recommend handling this situation with a neighbor? The house next door to me on the driveway side of my house is a rental. The neighbors cut their front lawn a few times per summer, but do absolutely nothing to maintain the lawn on the side of the house that borders my driveway.
These neighbors have lived in the house for about four years. The previous renters were fantastic neighbors and kept everything up. The previous three autumns, the newer neighbors never cleaned up the leaves on the side of the house. They became quite deep. In addition to this, every summer weeds grow all along the side of their house and on the edge of my driveway, and these things get to be 4-5 feet tall! They took a screen out of a window a couple of years ago and just left it on the ground next to the house.
I will be charitable and simply state that these people are not approachable. It is a woman and her late teens/early 20's son in the house. This spring I had had enough and tracked down the owner of the home who lives in another state. He referred me to a property management company. I contacted the company in a very polite manner and expressed my concerns and included photos.
The property manager was very professional and it seems they addressed the issue. The neighbor spent probably 4 or 5 hours one Saturday cleaning up the mess. What used to be grass next to my driveway is now a bare patch of dirt due to being covered with leaves for years. The dirt doesn't really bother me though.
Fast forward a couple of months. This maintenance appears to have been a one time deal. I now get to look at the usual four foot tall weeds, and some stray pieces of trash that have blown next to their house.
What step would you recommend taking? I don't have a personal problem with these people and don't want to keep bothering them, but it appears that as part of their lease they are responsible for exterior maintenance. Frankly I don't really care who cleans it up, I'm just sick of looking at dead leaves, weeds, and trash all year.
Would you contact the property manager again, or go to the city for code violations? We do not live in an HOA community.
Killing the grass is easy and tempting, but gives them and the owner a legitimate beef against you. You need to stay on the right side of the law to deal with this. Either first ask if you can kill the grass, or call the property manager.
Last edited by CapnTrips; 07-14-2016 at 02:01 PM..
The property manager was effective last time, stick to the same method of communication.
As a former landlord I definately know there are some tenants that just have no sense of what "maintain the property to community standards" really means and if the management firm has to give them "refreshers" that is part of the responsibility.
If the property management firm fails to get the tenants to comply the firm will likely hire a third-party landscaper and bill the tenant for the work, which is effectively increasing their cost of renting the place, but that is not something you as neighbor needs to worry about...
If the property management firm does not get the tenant to maintain the side yard nor hire a third party landscaper you should escalate to the landlord. If there is no response you should escalate to the municipal code enforcement authorities...
The majority of landlords want the same thing from the neighborhood / outside appearance as all the other property owners -- a nice tidy yard will help the place rent for more than some shabby excuse for a yard!
Many people hate HOAs. But here is a prime example of what happens when there isn't one. Without rules and procedures to enforce them, they don't have to cut their damn grass.
I would call the property management company as often as the yards tending to. If that's once a month then you call once a month. A drumbeat of phones calls will change things. One call may get it cleaned up one time, if you're lucky, as you've experienced.
Many people hate HOAs. But here is a prime example of what happens when there isn't one. Without rules and procedures to enforce them, they don't have to cut their damn grass.
You don't need an HOA if your municipality has an active code enforcement department. Around here, grass more than 6 inches tall yields a citation and fine, and if not taken care of, the city will cut the grass and add it to your tax bill.
Page down about 1/5 to the graphic of a tornado and look to the left side of the page at the Code:
Section 86-71: Grass Height Limit
■ Property owners must keep their lawn under eight inches
tall. If the city has to intervene, the owner will be charged
for the time and labor of hiring a contractor.
More on bushes etc.
This said, the owner would probably appreciate your calling the mgt company again than getting billed by the city.
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