Going Nuclear Option on Neighbors

(Really, don't do this. This is a bad idea)

Post on craigslist for free scrap in the yard, come haul it away. That could be fun!

bobzilla said:

Cotton said:

Sounds like you would be happier in a subdivision with an HOA.  If I were you I’d stop getting people to give up their pets and hassling them, indirectly,  about their property and just move.

+1

-1.

There's a reason these laws exist, and it's to keep antisocial hoarders from crapping up neighborhoods.

The guy on one side is anti-social, for sure. He never spends any time outside aside from digging out the bare minimum amount of snow neccesary to move his car. Otherwise, he comes home, climbs the steps past the trash on his deck and goes inside. 

The other guy, Mister Junkyard, is quite social. I call him the Mayor, because he knows everyone and his family has been in the neighborhood for decades. The trouble is, his friends all live like he does - collecting junky trucks for use in the fire-heat-wood-haul business, collecting junk for use in some far-off project, never paying for trash service because there is always a dumpster at a job site he works at, and never taking anything to the dump. 

dculberson said:

bobzilla said:

Cotton said:

Sounds like you would be happier in a subdivision with an HOA.  If I were you I’d stop getting people to give up their pets and hassling them, indirectly,  about their property and just move.

+1

-1.

There's a reason these laws exist, and it's to keep antisocial hoarders from crapping up neighborhoods.

Yes, this. This type of behavior and hoarding is fine, no problemo, no one complains if you live out in the country. If you live in town, it becomes a PITA. Go move into the country. I happily pay taxes (but not HOA fees) in a town that has zoning laws because of this. Sure, some of them can be annoying, like the "no boats for more than a week in the driveway" rule, but I'm happy we have it, and I can get around it by having a fenced in back yard. 

dculberson said:

bobzilla said:

Cotton said:

Sounds like you would be happier in a subdivision with an HOA.  If I were you I’d stop getting people to give up their pets and hassling them, indirectly,  about their property and just move.

+1

-1.

There's a reason these laws exist, and it's to keep antisocial hoarders from crapping up neighborhoods.

From the sound of the op, this was a rural "neighborhood" that just decided to be "nicer". So this is much like the people that move next to a racetrack then complain about the noise to me. You want a neighborhood with strict rules, move to one. Don't make EVERYWHERE one. I refuse to live that close to people, but we still almost got stuck with annexation. We bought rural for a reason 14 years ago. I don't want those rules and I would be furious to have the rules changed on me because some new neighbor decided they wanted an HOA like atmosphere. 

Bob, you're right. 

When this neighborhood was first built, it was intended a cabin community. People would only come up during the summer and winter. Not many full-time residents. Lots of trailers and cabins and modular homes. No sidewalks or street lights. It was dirt roads up until 15 years ago. 

Now, there is a local builder/developer who has built nearly 15 homes in the last two years and not one of them has sold for less than $360k. The average home sale price (in the last couple of years) in our community is probably still well north of $250k 

The subdivision was laid out in the late 70's for a few hundred lots all 50' x 75' or there abouts, but it was never intended to be lived in full time. 

I would never move to an area where I had acres of land and expected my neighbor with acres of land to keep his home up.

In a small community with small lots, I'd expect my neighbors to be considerate. 

pheller said:

For those interested, here is the property about a year before we moved in. It was managed/rented by his father who liked to keep the place clean. 

 

Now, there is so much junk that he can barely get two vehicles parked over that culvert, and you can barely see the front of the house. 

Interesting. I can tell just by the collection of homes, I'd have no interest in that neighborhood. 

My girlfriend used to have a home about 2 miles outside of very small town, think 1600 or so population. Everyone had big lots on the street (hers was 17 acres though mostly behind the house and wooded), but no one left their property like dirty hillbillies just because it's "out in the country."

To give you an idea of the guy who now lives across the street from me, here's his families old "holding ground" for junk.

Now imagine that, without a fence, across the street from you. 

z31maniac said:

I can tell just by the collection of homes, I'd have no interest in that neighborhood. 

 

Agreed! 

This could easily be somewhere in my neighborhood too. Originally summer cabins, and evolved into full-time residency by the 1970's.  But its not the 1970's anymore. It's a neighborhood, not a 40-acre farm. Some folks in the area aren't convinced, and have personal junkyards & the whole bit.  The newer homeowners tend not to, because CA real estate prices..  Renters also tend to give fewer Berks, naturally.

The only thing that keeps me sane is the fact that I'm on a private road & my two visible neighbors aren't slobs.  That was -absolutely- a consideration when I was house hunting.  However, we don't have any recourse if someone decides to go Full Hillbilly.  Fortunately you have an option for semi-anonymity via your neighbor selling their house.  Even without that option to have them report, I'd go for it because it'd drive me up the wall.  Believe me, if there was a way to get the guy down the road with the moldy boat, rusty scirocco shell, axle-less Jeep & two defunct RVs  on full display (none of which are ever being worked on) to clean up, I would.  As it is, I have to wait for them to die & be happy I don't have to constantly stare at it..

bobzilla said:

From the sound of the op, this was a rural "neighborhood" that just decided to be "nicer". So this is much like the people that move next to a racetrack then complain about the noise to me. You want a neighborhood with strict rules, move to one. Don't make EVERYWHERE one. I refuse to live that close to people, but we still almost got stuck with annexation. We bought rural for a reason 14 years ago. I don't want those rules and I would be furious to have the rules changed on me because some new neighbor decided they wanted an HOA like atmosphere. 

The change after the purchase (or apparently inheritence) is a complicating factor, but he IS now in a neighborhood with maintenance codes. That doesn't make it "HOA like," but it does mean the property owner needs to clean up their act or move. Or get on the township trustees and change it.

The rules don't get changed because of one new neighbor. I'm willing to bet a majority support the rules, hence them being enacted. They may even have been enacted because of this guy. That's the thing about living in a society - you have to meet some minimum standards of decency to be a part of one.

pheller said:

To give you an idea of the guy who now lives across the street from me, here's his families old "holding ground" for junk.

Now imagine that, without a fence, across the street from you. 

Yeah, it would be horrible. That's why I have no interest in living in neighborhoods like that. Even in Oklahoma, there are plenty of neighborhoods where all the homes sit on 1-5 acre lots, and that type of stuff is absolutely not tolerated. 

This HOA situation is frequently brought up on here that "don't want to be told what to do." Which is fine. Until you are dealing with people like in your neighborhood.

In reply to dculberson :

No thank you. If "being part of society" is having the rules changed after you make decisions and being told what to do, I don't want any part of that. This, right here, is why I have come to hate people. 

bobzilla said:

In reply to dculberson :

No thank you. If "being part of society" is having the rules changed after you make decisions and being told what to do, I don't want any part of that. This, right here, is why I have come to hate people. 

Um, laws and rules change all the time.  It is exactly what happens when you are part of a planet.  Unless you plan on living on your own space station or moon base, society rules and laws will always apply to you and change based on changes in society.

Also, just because no one complains about you running a junk yard out of your home, doesn't mean it isn't illegal or at least frowned upon by the rest of society.  If you want to run a salvage operation out of your house, there are rules that apply and one of those requires the land to be zoned for such an operation.

There will always be a worst house in the neighborhood. Once an enforcement agency gets involved it can get oppressive.

In reply to Stefan :

As I said, no thank you. I will continue to live in peace, rurally. You want people telling you what to do on your property, go live in an HOA. Leave the rest of us alone. Why does everyone want to force their life onto someone else anymore? What happened to the live and let live attitude? 

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning, while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hang the wash outside.


That laundry is not very clean, she said, she doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.

Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.


About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: "Look! She has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this." 


The husband said: "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows!"

I've got quite a few neighbors who are treating their properties like junkyards. Multiple vehicles sitting around, lots of junk in the front yards. 

The poblem as I see it is that after looking at the street view links you posted, bringing in code enforcement is probably going to be a nuclear holocost in that neighborhood.  Just clicking through, a few blocks I see numerous homes that probably have at least one very obvious violation if the rules are anything like they are here.  If code enforcement rolls through and tickets almost everyone, you are going to have a lot of pissed off neighbors.  In my own (admittedly limitted) experience, calling in code enforcement seems to always result in blow back and colateral damage.  I'd still be tempted to call, but be aware.

There is only one neighborhood for you,

Stepford.

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

Brilliant. 

In reply to pheller :

We are in very similar situations. We made a pretty huge financial commitment when we bought our property. Predictably, as I’m apparently berkeleying cursed, the old man across the street died, and his kids wasted no time turning it into a junkyard/hound-dog puppy-mill.

The guy who bought the 20 acres next door basically set up a berkeleying trailer park for his kids, and is in the process of effectively clear-cutting the property so he can have “a view.”

I’m very much a “to each his own” kinda guy, but this is quickly turning from our “dream property” to “what the berkeley have we gotten ourselves into?”

Perhaps we should’ve held out for 100+ acres. 20 ain’t enough for me :/

bobzilla said:

In reply to Stefan :

As I said, no thank you. I will continue to live in peace, rurally. You want people telling you what to do on your property, go live in an HOA. Leave the rest of us alone. Why does everyone want to force their life onto someone else anymore? What happened to the live and let live attitude? 

How about I don't want the run off from your illegal salvage yard draining into my drinking water? 

Honestly this sort of thinking is toxic and unhelpful because throwing a tantrum and closing yourself off, instead of being involved and helping to guide the rules and laws to avoid causing consternation is a much better solution.

bentwrench said:

There is only one neighborhood for you,

 

Stepford.

Whole lotta black and white thinking in here. Maybe realize there’s a middle ground between suburban HOA fascist meddling and a nuclear blasted free for all hellscape. 

I wonder how much of the “people can do whatever they want on their property” attitudes would change if a neighbor started putting up offensive signs and hosting 24/7 raves and selling heroin at discount prices. 

Stefan said:

bobzilla said:

In reply to Stefan :

As I said, no thank you. I will continue to live in peace, rurally. You want people telling you what to do on your property, go live in an HOA. Leave the rest of us alone. Why does everyone want to force their life onto someone else anymore? What happened to the live and let live attitude? 

How about I don't want the run off from your illegal salvage yard draining into my drinking water? 

Honestly this sort of thinking is toxic and unhelpful because throwing a tantrum and closing yourself off, instead of being involved and helping to guide the rules and laws to avoid causing consternation is a much better solution.

Or, check out the neighborhood before you buy and don't try to change everybody else's life because you don't like it after you moved there.

I have the same but opposite problem.  I moved into a neighborhood with an HOA.  I asked a lot of questions and was pointed to the bylaws.  The bylaws didn't say anything about you can't have a shed if you see it from the street, behind my house, surrounded by trees....   apparently that's how the HOA interprets it.  I'm living with it because I chose to move there.

In reply to Stefan :

To start with I don’t live like that. So we can stop with the lightly veiled slaps. There are already environmental laws in place to stop toxic runoff and environmental hazards so you can put that straw man to bed. 

Try living in a state that still allows forced annexation of rural property. That’s right. You buy your property in the country so you can do things like having a bonfire to burn your branches or have a trailer to haul your race cars. Then some greedy power hungry town decides they are going to forcibly annex property 15 miles away because they want the revenue. 10 years after you moved there. There is no option for the rural people. Now they have forced laws and regulations that make no sense whatsoever. 

So yeah. Screw that. I keep my property nice because I want it nice. I also want people to leave me the hell alone, not force me to be part of some crap that I never agreed to and never wanted. We purchased our property where we did for reason. I’ll be damned if some pencil pushing busybody is going to come in and tell me that I can’t live my life on my property that I paid for and pay taxes for every year