This is a very poor community, for the most part. There are a lot of houses that are old and not well maintained and the residents seem to have little pride. It’s a very old community and there are pockets of nicer, newer homes, or even older homes that are maintained but it’s definitely hit or miss around here. There are plenty of houses with junk and abandoned cars sitting around. The town has a code enforcement officer and I do feel bad for him. No one wants to see him coming. I’m sure some people are downright rude to him. It’s a job I would never want to have.
There are all kinds of codes he is responsible for enforcing – trash, unsightly structures (which I think could mean needing painting or falling down), but the one that always concerned me was the one dealing with weeds. If you have “A” weed that’s taller than 8″, you can get stuck with a code violation (red tag!). You can honestly have a weed in your flower bed, or a weed that grew up by your mail box post and the weed whacker missed it and you could get a red tag. It’s a red card on a post and it’s stuck out in front of your house. I never got one but I think you have so many days to fix it, let the city know, the inspector comes back and removes the tag. I’m not sure if there’s a fine if you fix it or if you get a fine only if you don’t fix it within the allotted time.
We would have times in the summer when it would rain for days and days and I would be saying “Vince, you HAVE to cut the grass!” and he would say “It’s too wet!” and I would say “We’re going to get a red tag” and he honestly didn’t care. I would have been horribly humiliated.
Vince moved to Texas in May and I stayed til August so that meant I was responsible for avoiding red tags. I was so careful to cut the grass and keep the weeds trimmed. One day . . the red tag man drove up. Someone had turned me in for a violation. He said “Do you mind if I walk around?” Even though no one lived behind us, he walked all around and found nothing.
Simply because of the red tag man, I would never live in the city limits here again . . and if I have my way, will not live in the city limits anywhere. I don’t want those kinds of rules and headaches. My preference is to live where I can’t see what anyone else is doing and have no nosy neighbors looking for a weed in my yard that has grown to a bit over 8″. Everyone is different but living that close to people is just not how I think I was meant to live.
I do understand that when you spend what you spend on your home, you don’t want a pile of trash or a yard with weeds 2 feet high next door . . I just hope I never live close enough to anyone else that my yard is a problem for them or their yard is a problem for me.
Sherrill Pecere says
That’s why I chose to move from the neighborhood that had bylaws and stuff. I’ve never seen any code enforcement guys here (except when the single guy across the street was deployed for a year and apparently never asked anyone to take care of his pool..can we say BIG mosquito problem?!!). These homes were built in the early 80’s so that’s older but most are very well maintained. Ticks me off when an elderly person can’t take care of their home and their kids or grandkids don’t help out (or a local church or someone else).
Cilla Tyler says
YIKES!!!! I’m a trimmed grass snob but even those mandates are too tough for me. You cannot mow a lawn when it is wet. Go 2 feet, clean mower shute and blades, repeat, repeat, repeat!!!! And a weed is only a misplaced flower. That is why I could never live in a condo. Too many rules.
Karen Goad says
I live in the country – I do have neighbors that I can see their house but not really close up if you know what I mean. I certainly couldn’t measure their grass lol – I do not want all the rules and regulations either – I mean really what if you have lawn mower problems and have to wait a week or two to cut your grass – my sister is in a condo in another state – she has so many rules and regulations that she can’t even plant all the plants that she would want next to the front entry way – but she is single, and not in the best physical health so she can not mow her own grass and can’t afford to pay someone so other than an apartment a condo with someone else cutting the grass was the option for her – but she hates all the restrictions that go with it.
Carolyn in Texas says
We have “that neighbor” with knee high grass and no help from the city code enforcement dept. I took it upon myself to get them to clean up their front yard weekly. The back was terrible so I used the possibility of meeting skunks on the way to the dumpster. It’s much better too.
Claudia W says
Everyone has different things that they can or cannot accept. I live in a middle class suburb with nice houses fairly close together. We have very high property taxes and get lots of good city services in return. Just as an example, before I retired a few years ago, I worked at a job that required I leave my home no later than about 6:15 a.m. In the winter (here in the Chicago area) we can get heavy snows often in the overnight hours. Even though I live on the shortest street in our town ( a 2 block cul de sac), it was ALWAYS plowed by 6 a.m. I appreciate that.
About 8 years ago, our next door neighbor’s house was foreclosed and then abandoned. Which meant that in the summer the grass was never cut and was weedy and overgrown. We’d call the village and they’d send a subcontracted landscape company to trim the grass. The village covers the cost of that by putting a lien on the house. The house became an eyesore, with falling off trim. At one point it was occupied by squatters. With no water, gas or electric service, I can only imagine what it was like in there. The police had to be called more than once because of squatters in that house.
A year or so ago, some one bought the house, re-novate it and flipped it, and sold it to a nice young couple with 2children who are excellent neighbors. We are SO much better off for having civil codes that protect us from at least the long grass and weeds issue. That house when it was neglected and abandoned was driving down housing prices on our street. We feel lucky that we didn’t need to move during that time. If we had, we’d have taken a serious financial hit.
So I know you hate the red tag man, but I personally like living where there are sensible municipal codes and enforcement of them. Different strokes for different folks.
Cheers, Claudia Wade
cassews says
I agree Judy hence why we will never live in a place that has HOA regulations. They are there for a reason, but sometimes the reasons are correct and bad things come of it ..
cassews says
Oops meant to say incorrect not correct
Pam Crane says
We live in an HOA and our neighbors are known as the HOA Gestapo. They walk around the neighborhood with a clip board looking for infractions. The wiring went bad in our electric light post in the dead of winter, so we couldn’t dig up the wires to find the problem. We got turned in. We put a solar light in the fixture until it could be fixed. The post is behind a tree and can’t really be seen by anyone, but that made no difference. They have turned us in for silly things and the company that runs the HOA has to come out and inspect then give their rulings. I will never live in another HOA if we ever move. I would prefer to live away from neighbors also. I was raised on a 200 acre farm and if I were younger, that is where I would try to live again.