just found out my partner at work is one of those people

So I generally get along with the other guy at work that does the same job I do and shares my office. Today, however, he told me about the conversation he had with the city when he called and complained about how his neighbors yard looks. It seems the guy is some sort of handyman and has a lot of junk in his yard and my partner is tired of looking at it.

Now I know that this guy is well within his rights to make that call, and that his neighbor is clearly in violation of city ordinances with the yard. I get that he doesn't want to look at the stuff, and that he is probably in the "right" from a purely legal standpoint. I just can't help thinking he's a jerk for forcing his neighbor to spend time and money to please his personal aesthetic.

Clearly ordinances are there for various reasons, and when you live right next to someone you should try to get along, but the whole idea that someone else has the "right" to tell someone what he can and can't do with the property he owns just rubs me the wrong way. I'm so glad I live in the country; if my neighbor did that to me I'd have to deconstruct a junkyard and build a decorative fence out of drive shafts and bumpers and such.

Are most people actually like my partner? Has it always been that way and I am just out of line?

Perfectly fine if you live out in the country. In a subdivision the crap in the yard starts diminishing the property values in the neighborhood- now you're poking around in your neighbors' money. That's something I would take issue with.

You would have to show me pics of what he is complaining about before I passed judgment. I would also ask if your buddy had a chat with the guy before he pulled the trigger.

If what went down with my buddy after such a snitch is any indication of what went down in this case your buddy better hope that he remains anonymous; there would be mo way to fix the relations with the neighbor. The city inspector was ruthless and seems to have powers of entrance way above those of the police.

I make sure there is zero evidence of any kind of a car hobby on my property.

I have a scrap pile of old duct work and hvac stuff piled on and around a junk truck. Nobody here complains or cares.

Tell "glass house" that he'd better make sure his own E36 M3 is in order before complaining about his neighbours.

Sounds like partner's neighbor is "that guy" to me.

People that pile ugly crap up in their yard don't care what their neighbors think, so I doubt confronting him personally would accomplish anything. If he violates city ordinance then he is in the wrong, if not, then your partner is stuck looking at his crap.

In reply to NEALSMO:

I guess it's kinda nice that you can compartmentalize all that stuff so neatly into nice little boxes of "right" and "wrong".

My experience is that real life just isn't that simple.

I deal with local ordinances like this regularly, and have found that local authorities RARELY have the actual ordinances in place that they enforce. They say something, and people assume they are right, but they often are not.

I frequently fight back (and win) because the ordinance simply doesn't exist, or is grossly over-interpreted.

Without seeing the neighbor's yard there's no way to take sides on this. A little bit of stuff organized or piled neatly is one thing, a whole bunch of junk laying all over the place is another.

stuart in mn wrote: Without seeing the neighbor's yard there's no way to take sides on this. A little bit of stuff organized or piled neatly is one thing, a whole bunch of junk laying all over the place is another.

I agree. Which is kinda my point.

You can't write ordinances that say that.

Would like 20 of those not too expensive small sheds dotted around a back yard keep inspectors happy? Would look funny as hell.

I had a neighbor complain about a car on jack stands once. Their youngest boy throws loud temper tantrums, CPS is now at their house weekly.

Once met a guy who was into "Collecting" brit cars in a big way. And by "collecting", I mean letting them sit in a field returning to their base elements. Maybe an acre or so of cars before the next door neighbor lost it and the city guy came around.

Guy called lawyer, who dealt with city, who in their wisdom said: "They have to be under cover"

Ever seen a 4' tall, one acre field of plywood? After a few years of exposure and haphazard weed control?

For context, this was rural land where the subdivision came to him.

Genious. Then the said neighbor could continue collecting on the second layer... no one said anything about those staying under cover.

My neighbor called them on me once, Turns out i could legally have a rear axle on the concrete rear porch... so now it has an entire k member and front suspension too keep it company.

It's a question though. My front yard is perfect and has no "spare parts/piles of debris/etc". I expect my neighbors yards to look aesthetically pleasing as well.

My back yard has a pile of lumber, piles of firewood, piles of tires, and a small collection of cars. But it looks better than my next door neighbor who's E36 M3 is ratty and unkempt, but either was it's BACK yard so it doesn't matter and unless they start a hog farm I wouldn't ever call the authorities and would be righteously displeased if they ever did on me.

I had two motorcycles parked in line under the awning of my garage in the back yard. Some neighborhood nazi sic'ed the city on me. Fixed that by moving them into the garage. Then (presumably) the same guy complained about a pile of brush in the back corner next to the compost pile and the the paint on the house leaving some exposed wood which violated city codes. I was tempted to paint the house Kawasaki Green but cleaned up the brush and got the house painted. Revenge is a dish best served cold, however.

NOHOME wrote: Once met a guy who was into "Collecting" brit cars in a big way. And by "collecting", I mean letting them sit in a field returning to their base elements. Maybe an acre or so of cars before the next door neighbor lost it and the city guy came around. Guy called lawyer, who dealt with city, who in their wisdom said: "They have to be under cover" Ever seen a 4' tall, one acre field of plywood? After a few years of exposure and haphazard weed control? For context, this was rural land where the subdivision came to him.

As a card carrying, frothing at the mouth, organizational extremist, having to look at random crap isn’t just intensely annoying, it creates real, measurable, physical health consequences for me.

Having said that, maintaining a good relationship with my neighbors is very important to me so I’ll let things slide until the point of blatant disregard for the rules and/or a conspicuous display of disrespect for me.

Additionally, I’m super big on not changing rules…I actually have an elaborate theory about how rule changing drives entropy (second law of thermodynamics) which ultimately harms organized people like myself.

So, in an ironic twist, I’d actually come to the defense of the Brit car collector in this case as he was there first…Berk people that got a house cheap because the adjoining property looked like ass and then try to force change on the ass land owner to improve their property value.

I've had them called on me. I was storing a P71 at a buddies house. No tags because it wasn't running and I'm not registering a non-running car. Cops got called, and I got a fix it ticket. It was the new neighbor. If it wasn't at my buddy's place, that bitch would have been Plasti-Dipped hot pink.

I'm keeping my eye on stories like this so I know what to expect if I'm still here when the expected subdivision actually shows up and causes traffic of these kind of people through this neighborhood. I expect somebody is definitely going to have a problem with the little shop of horrors on top of the hill that they have to drive by to get to their new quaint little community in the country.

In reply to Appleseed:

The neighbor or the car?

Keep your E36 M3 clean. If you want to live in a E36 M3hole then move to the ghetto. Weeds trash and heaps of junk if your yard harbor rats mice ticks and other vermin. Just like you don't want to live around people doing drivebys I don't want to live around people with junkyards.

Last time I had code enforcement called on me (10 years ago now) was for my brother parking a trailer on the street (cul-de-sac mind you) after getting home at 3 am.

Mind you, yes, it was a rule of the sub division just on that street but a) we were the second house in on on the cul-de-sac after the final cross street and b) however people did it all the time from 8 pm to 8 am up and down the half mileish road.

We just happened to be the college kids in the area and one of the neighbors who had called on us before, although there was no merit in that one, called code enforcement. Unfortunately, we had a notice and fine and 8:30 am.

So being the mature individual that I am, I took a walk down the street that night and gave the make, model, color and plate of every single car parked on the street in a 20 minute long voice mail for code enforcement. Then demanded that I be called back regarding the reasoning why they were not also ticketed be laid out.

The woman called me the next morning with some excuse and I berated her for a) singling us out when the "problem" was obviously wide spread and b) demanded that she come out and write the rest of the tickets if it was such an issue until she cried... I did pay the fine as it was technically merited but I never dealt with her again and I refuse to live anywhere that is a subdivision or incorporated ever again.

stroker wrote: In reply to Appleseed: The neighbor or the car?

Yes.

I've told this story before, but I will tell it again as I am still irritated several years later. There is a six food worthless strip of land between my garage and the chainlink fence at the property line. I planted a "wildflower mix" back there one year and a neighbor apparently complained because I got a hate letter from the city citing me for "tall noxious weeds".

Ok, fine. I promptly marched back there with my weed whacker and a jug of roundup. I kept it brown, dead, and muddy for the next three years. I'm letting grass and short weeds grw in there now and keep it mowed because I was tired of dumping poison on it.