What are the codes for the area? Some areas/cities have laws/codes to prevent this type of stuff. I find that in too many small towns (and here too) there are old abandoned houses, cars left on lots, lawns left unmowed and usually it is at houses owned by people out of area, or by someone who has lived there forever and related to everyone. Without those codes and laws nothing much can be done, but the city council passed a law that the lawns will be mowed and the bill either sent to the owner or put on the tax bills.

Try calling the health department, the building inspector and maybe the fire marshall. What you are describing should fall under one or more of their departments authority.
Use your town ordiences to get the place cleaned up.
Trash in the yard like that is a health and fire hazzard.

I'd ask them if I could get rid of the washing machine and boxes. I think expecting anything more would be really overstepping. At least the situation was already there when you bought, so presumably it was factored into the price.

We're not actually a town, we're very rural. There's an Architectural Commission, which I'm on and which does oversee situations, but we're still working on the reeeeeaaaalllllllly bad ones. I'm looking more for a person-to-person idea. I think they will be mightily offended if I ask to dispose of their washer and boxes; it's a thought. Maybe the Arch.Com. can start a spring clean-up drive. I also write a column in the local paper; hmmm, seems like I ought to be able to at least parlay those two things into a decent hand. (I think I'm mixing my metaphors here; not sure, I'm not a gambler.) Your answers have gotten me thinking along new lines, though. Thanks very much.

Rent a small dumpster to get rid of your stuff before your move and invite the neighbor to throw in some junk if he would like. This is great especially if your town doesnt have a bulk pick up or a place to get rid of stuff like a washing machine.

The spring "Clean Up Drive" is an idea worth looking into - especially if something can be worked out with local trash haulers or recycling sites. How do residents in your rural area properly dispose of unanted items (the few just leaving them out in the yard notwithstanding)? Regular trash service, trips to a landfill?

Of course, there might be funding for such a venture to consider. But perhaps there are additional civic minded folks with farm wagon type rigs willing to pitch in.

My experience with Spring clean ups is from having lived in a large planned community of single family homes, townhouses, apartments, etc. Once a year, anything that could be transported and tossed into a dumpster (only forbidden items were rocks and concrete) would be dealt with and hauled away by the local trash companies and recyclers.

what if you went to them in a friendly way, and told them that you'd be selling soon. Then say, "we're afraid that the things around your house are going to make a bad impression buyers, because they'll be afraid they'll have to look at them forever. Potential buyers won't realize that it's just a temporary thing. I know it's hard to get organized to deal with these things; would you like to borrow space in our dumpster, or could we take some of these things to the dump for you, or could you move them out of sight at least, until you're able to handle it yourself?"

I especially like the idea of trying to piggy-back THEIR cleanup with yours in some way--even if yours is made up.

You could get a friend to stop buy in his pickup truck and offer to buy the washer for $50; then you can pay the friend back.

While he's there, he can say, "hey, can I take those boxes too? They'd make great mulch for my garden (if they're getting soggy)/bedding under my horses/dogs for the winter/containers for all the stuff in my garage (if they're in decent shape)"

Give him a dollar limit, and let him go.

You can't do anything about all the bad shingles, and the cars. But you might be able to get them to somehow let go of the other things.

you guys are geniuses. I'm laughing out loud about this for the first time!

Thanks so much.

Susanka

I have no advice but we had the same problem.

When we moved in to our house, the house across the street was owned by a neat and tidy little old lady. Three months later she died and her son moved in and quickly trashed the place. For years we tried to get him to clean up to no avail (talked to him, called every city department we could think of - DH even talked to the mayor!). We were very concerned because we knew we would eventually sell the house and that eyesore was going to be a problem.

Well, last year he received his tenth DUI and fled to Mexico. After he was gone for three months, DH went over and cleaned up his front yard. The guy managed to sell his house while on the lam, some flippers bought it, fixed it up and sold it and the new owners are moving in today.

Before all this happened we had decided to offer the guy some money to clean up before we put the house on the market. We were going to give him 500 bucks - half upfront and half after we sold. Fortunately, for us it didn't come to that and we received a contract on our house two hours after listing. The buyers love the neighborhood.

Boy, did we get lucky.

In our area the County does "Free Dump Days" a few weekends in the Spring & Fall. The best part about it - well besides that it's free - is that there are people working off time (court violations, community service, etc) there to unload it all for you!! If there's not something like that where you live maybe, with all of your connections, it's time to get it started. At ours, you can't dispose of anything toxic - just trash, etc. OH - another good thing is that they always have a local "junk man" there that takes all of the metal for re-cycling.

kellyeng, indeed you did! This is a family, I've seen them go in and out their front door and walk by all this stuff all the time. I guess they just blank it out somehow. So they're here for the duration. If worst comes to worst I guess we could offer them money, yikes.

guvnah, another good idea. We have a commission meeting Tuesday, I'll take these ideas with me.

Pay someone $50 to throw a very large cigarette out the window on a dry day as they pass by?

Oh ho ho ho I know I know.
I said something naughty.

You have to just call code enforcement and either they will do something or they won't. The latter tends to be the case in rural areas that haven't been taken over by country clubs at least the area in which I live.

They won't, unless it's much worse than this. Appreciate your input, though.

Here's a link to information on the Free Dump Days. They do it at a few sites around the county. They hire big dumpsters & there are trucks scheduled throughout the morning to take away full ones. It's a great idea & I think it really helps with illegal dumping out here in the sticks. The police department & code enforcers try to "motivate" people to use them too. Good all around.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ellis County Free Dump Days

The place before the last place before the place before that I lived, I was renting an apartment temporarily in a hot bed of high end development. There was this one redn.. oh I'm not supposed to use that word anymore, sorry. There was this one native North Georgia native dude who had owned some land in this area and from what I understand he sold a good portion of it and made millions. However he saved one itty bitty parcel right smack dab in the center of it all prime for commercial, office or townhouses. This guy piled junk cars, any kind of garbage and old trailers on this parcel of land in what appeared to be an attempt to get someone to buy the land so that it wouldn't be such an eyesore for all the high end development. He wanted so much for it that nobody bought it and the lot got progressively worse and more cluttered with junk as time went on. Then one day shortly before I moved out the whole place was set ablaze.

The moral of the story is that even in hot areas the code enforcement may not be able to do anything. You just have to be patient and hold out and wait for them to sell it or die or whatever and just not let yourself get upset over it.

Depending on where you're located, once established a cottonwood tree can shoot up 10 feet in it's first year of growth. Black willow is another extremely fast grower that can screen out unwanted views temporarily. White pines are fast growing for an evergreen, easy to plant and generally not that expensive. I was just reading that their new growth candles can be as much as 4 additional feet per year.

quirkyquercus, wish we had thought of cottonwoods earlier. We're planning to put our house on the market in a couple of weeks, so that won't work at this point. Just have to hope the realtors do a good job of pointing out the evergreens we did plant and strategically placed in the yard to block the view; in a few years they'll do the job.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I just saw the head of the architectural control commission at the grocery store, and told him I'd be bringing up the idea of a "Spring Fling" at the meeting Tuesday. He said nothing of the kind had ever been done here. (We're not a city, just a metro district.) I'll be researching how to actually carry this off, cost, etc., but if anyone has any ideas about how to bring this about I'd appreciate hearing them. If we decide to do it I'll put it in my column in the local paper, of course. I have an idea it will be expensive in one way or another. I've taken note of the great ideas on this thread, but am wondering about the nuts and bolts of carrying it off.

Thank you very much.

Good luck. And remember, YOU didn't even notice the trashed house when YOU bought!

Now THIS is a cottonwood problem. Would you cut it down?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/newjerseybt/Cottonwood.jpg

The trash house is half a mile away and you are disturbed by the view? Do you use goggles or a telescope?

If it bothers you so much, why don't you talk to the people?

I am in a similar situation but reversed. I bought a run-down house with overgrown yard last fall and I didn't have time yet to clean up the yard because all my time was spent fixing the inside, which is more important to me than the view of my neighbors. Also, during this time, I accumulated an old air conditioner, coil, stove, countless cardboard boxes, old kitchen counters etc. in my side yard (behind a gate, so not visible from the street, but visible from my neighbors second floor).
It'll be disposed off sometimes this year but I am not going to rent a dumpster more than once. Disposing of bulk trash can be expensive.

I'd not be insulted by a neighbor asking me politely to clean up. Why don't you try asking?

jrldh, you misread my post. The house we're living in and hope to sell is across the street from the trashy house. The new house we are building is a half a mile away. We asked these folks if they would turn off their very large outside spotlight which shines in our bedroom window and were met with a stream of invective. (and no, we do not have a light-pollution ordinance in this area) They are not going to respond to direct requests.

If you're going to respond sarcastically to posts, I wish you'd make sure you've read them accurately first.

susanka,

Apologies. I didn't realize that you are moving only 1/2 a mile.

jrldh: Accepted, and thank you. Good luck on your renovation; sounds like a much bigger job than DH and I could undertake!

This is nothing compared to what happened in one of my area's most expensive and presitgious pocket of exclucivity. It was so bad that it made national headlines. The electricity and water had been turned off, and so the person would go to the bathroom in a bucket and then throw that out into the front yard. At one point, there were like 500 healthcode violations.

NJBT: What a gorgeous tree! No, I wouldn't cut it down.

When we sold our last house we had almost the same problem, trash and appliances in the yard across the street. I asked them to pick some stuff up because we were selling and it only worked so well. I was raised in a house just like that and I can tell you that some people just don't see it or see it and don't have the financial or organizational means to deal with it. My mother is one of those people. I love her but there is no changing her. When my husband did offer to the neighbors to make a dump run with "some stuff we already had going", it made a difference on the bigger items. It was still touch and go at the end, hoping that they would not trash it again before we got a contract but we made it. Just like you will. :)