Vacant property maintenance (North Port: houses, landscaping, neighborhood)

[debvic]

We recently moved into NP and our home has vacant lots on either side and behind us. I am wondering just what kind of maintenance lot owners are responsible for on their vacant property? For instance the lot next door has many shrubs and a few large trees. One oak tree was knocked over during those storms a few years ago and leans against another large oak boardering our property and house. We are concerned it is putting pressure on the healthy tree. There also is trash in the undergrowth. So just want to know what are they legally obligated to do as far as keeping it clean and removing a potential problem? We do not know who owns any of these lots.

[Ladywithafan]

Originally Posted by debvic

We recently moved into NP and our home has vacant lots on either side and behind us. I am wondering just what kind of maintenance lot owners are responsible for on their vacant property? For instance the lot next door has many shrubs and a few large trees. One oak tree was knocked over during those storms a few years ago and leans against another large oak boardering our property and house. We are concerned it is putting pressure on the healthy tree. There also is trash in the undergrowth. So just want to know what are they legally obligated to do as far as keeping it clean and removing a potential problem? We do not know who owns any of these lots.

Good luck. Unless it's deed restricted you could be SOL.

[Carbondated]

Sorry to say but North Port has a bit of a reputation for being a dumping ground. My brother-in-law joked once, that instead of waiting for his old fridge to be picked up by Waste Management, he would just drive it down to North Port and dump it there.

You may have no alternative but to clean up the neighboring lots yourselves.

[rusty78]

Originally Posted by Carbondated

Sorry to say but North Port has a bit of a reputation for being a dumping ground. My brother-in-law joked once, that instead of waiting for his old fridge to be picked up by Waste Management, he would just drive it down to North Port and dump it there.

You may have no alternative but to clean up the neighboring lots yourselves.

Don't clean'em up until you first look into buying them...perhaps with the market the way it is...the owners might be interested in selling...I am sure you can look up the owners at the town clerks office...after all someone has to be paying the taxes...

[SoFLGal]

I agree mostly with what with what has been said. You could try calling the city of North Port in regards to the tree issue and see what they say. Like Lady said, most of NP is not deed restricted. Unless the cops see someone throwing garbage on the ground I doubt much will be done about it.

I also think that you will end up picking the lots up if you want them cleaned.

[SoFLGal]

You can go here and type in your street address: " + theTitle + "

Once you come up with an aerial image of where your home is, take the parcel ID numbers of the lots around your home and type them in here: Property Record Search (http://www.sarasotaproperty.net/scpa_record_search.asp - broken link) please include all dashes.

Once you have that type their info in here:
White Pages, Yellow Pages, Maps and Directions on AnyWho or here Find a Person or Business with our free online White Pages and Yellow Pages and try to find contact info. If they don't have a phone I would write them a letter. I would hope that if you are pleasant about the situation the lot owners would be willing to be understanding. We have found that many of the lot owners have owned them for 20-30 years and sometimes they have been passed from one person to another. A good number of them have little to no knowledge of the area at all and most reside out of state.

Good luck with your quest!

[debvic]

Thanks for the info, my husband got his chainsaw out and started working on that fallen tree just for safetys sake. If money were no object I would love to buy the surounding lots but now is not the time for us. I'm sure we will just remove the debris ourselves so things look cleaner. Overall it's not too bad I just thought there might be some laws on the books for the city of NP about maintaining property.

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by debvic

Thanks for the info, my husband got his chainsaw out and started working on that fallen tree just for safetys sake. If money were no object I would love to buy the surounding lots but now is not the time for us. I'm sure we will just remove the debris ourselves so things look cleaner. Overall it's not too bad I just thought there might be some laws on the books for the city of NP about maintaining property.

Thanks for helping clean up the neighborhood. I think you have a great attitude toward the situation

[bbygrl99]

I live in North Port and I know that if it has a home on it that code enforcement is responsible for keeping the lawn/tress cut. I know it is a 12" minium on it. And I have to say that the 2 houses on my street that were forclosures they have keep nice and neat due to the code inforcment coming and checking on them. I know if you go to the cities website and go to code enforcment you can check the progress.
Just FYI, and we are not deed restricted.

Here is the code off the City of North Port's website

Sec. 42-21. Excessive growths; dead trees.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any owner of an occupied or an unoccupied lot to permit the excessive growth of cultivated or uncultivated grass, weeds or underbrush in excess of 12 inches in height upon said lot. Shrubs, trees, bushes or any other natural or cultivated species of foliage found and/or planted upon said lot and used for landscaping purposes shall be permitted to grow to its natural height; provided, however, that such growth shall not become a fire or safety hazard to the neighboring premises, nor shall such growth be permitted to grow beyond the legal confines of said lot so as to impinge upon the neighboring property and premises or upon a public right-of-way such as sidewalks and/or streets.

(b) Within the meaning and intent of included lots, as defined in section 42-20 of this article, it shall be unlawful for any owner of an undeveloped lot to permit excessive growth of weeds, grass or underbrush in excess of 12 inches in height and/or to permit the growth of trees, shrubs or any other indigenous plant(s) to grow beyond the legal confines of said lot so as to impinge upon the neighboring property or premises or upon a public right-of-way, such as sidewalks and/or roads.

(c) It shall be the responsibility of the owner of occupied, unoccupied and undeveloped lots, as defined herein, to remove or cause to be removed any and all dead trees on said lots.

(Code 1990, § 110-4)

[debvic]

Thanks for posting the city codes. Does anyone know how to go about having it enforced? As I posted previously my husband started taking down a large tree that fell against another large tree boardering our property/house for safetys sake. But there is another large tree knocked over and much overgrowth of weeds and shrubs. Beleive it or not those trees are not dead, they have green leaves on them . We of course are not going to go in there and completly clean up some one elses property/investment. Can I contact the city and get them to have the owners clean it up?