Call the city code enforcer. Many cities have laws about how many unrelated people can live in a house. The over grown lawn could be considered a health hazzard.

My neighborhood also has covenants, but no HOA. Within the CCR's it says that an individual owner may legally enforce these CCR's. You said the trashiness isn't in the covenants, but I would be surprised if the lawn care isn't in there. Take a look at them, and look for how they are to be enforced. You may have the right to legally enforce them if the owner doesn't clean the place up.

As suggested above, definitely call your city or county. In addition to the overgrown lawn, the seemingly large number of people living in the place, your area may also have a noise ordinance. The owner of the place may need to evict these people. I would imagine that even if he cleaned it up, they would trash it again.

We had a similar problem. My solution was to wait until the owner (who was a complete a-hole and didn't want to discuss anything with us) went to work and then I went over and mowed his yard and put all the trash into the back of my minivan and hauled it off to the dump.

the next week I waited until he was gone and painted the side of his detached garage that faces our house.

The next week I called the city about the junk car up on blocks in his front yard and got that taken care of.

The next week I mowed his lawn again when he was gone.

You do what ya gotta do to get out of there. To this day if I drive by my old house I give his house the finger.

It still looks terrible-the roof is now partially caved in. And every house around him is 500k plus.

Unbelievable!

And let me tell you, I'm now a nut about living near neighbors who don't have upkeep issue.

Well, I'm a nut in lots of ways, but that's the most applicable one.

I Checked the covenant and any property owner does have the right to enforce the covenant.

I will hire an attorney Tuesday.

Point out to the owner of the neigboring house that this not only directly affects your sale, but the value of their house as well. It will hurt the sale of your house, which will later hurt the value of his house when he eventually sells it. And, that by allowing the house to fall into disrepair, such as that rotten window, it will cause problems that will cost even more to fix later on if its not immediately taken care of. Plus, the current tenants are causing so much damage that it will be very costly to repair when they move out and make it harder to get good tenants next time as well.

For an out of state owner, its difficult to handle these matters as they're relying on a management company. Point out the disservice the current management company is doing to the value of that house. But, its going to be difficult for an owner to handle that since he'd probably need to come back and hire a new one. In the meantime, bypass the management company and make it as easy for the owner- offer to pay somebody to cut the lawn and paint the side of the house facing yours. The cost of doing that is going to be less than the lowered selling price of your home due to that eye sore.

Thanks guys. mavelousmarvin I had thought of doing that months ago. My hubby was against it then, I think he will be in favor of it now.

Disney is that legal? I love your approach but wonder if you can actually alter someone's property without thier permission. I laughed out loud when I read your post.

Actually I believe that Disneyrsh's idea is highly illegal and would not recommend doing that. I also don't see how they would not notice that these things were done to their property, but whatever. In any case, you can't legally go onto someone else's property and paint and mow. I would talk to an attorney and the owner.

Take photos of all the people hanging out in the driveway (without them seeing you). Take photos of the disrepair. Mail these photos to the property owner.

Don't send 25 photos- they will write you off as nitpicky. Just send a few photso of the most important items.

Offer to pay for grass cutting in front or for repair of the window that faces the street.

I've taken some photos of the property and sent via email to owner. I have not taken pictures of the people hanging out in the driveway because after I spoke with the owner and the management company they disapeared. A good thing for us if they stay away. Today I called and left a message offering to pay for painting the front of the house and lawn service. I also sent an email stating this also. Tuesday I will contact the county about occupancy standards. I should have pursued this more last year. It is really hard to be the squeaky wheel, the other neighbors just talk about it among themselves but will not take any steps to remedy the problem.

lavern,

Also, if the other neighbors are unhappy about it, it can't hurt to check to see if anybody is willing to chip in and help pay for it. It sucks you need to pay for it, but it'll be cheaper than not paying for it to get taken care of.

I'd also try to see what you can do about the management property group, who've really the place go. No property owner is going to be happy about what's happened to their place. As long as that prop. mangagement comp. continue to run the place, there will always be problems with that property. Offer the owner that you can find them a better one, or warn the management company that they'll lose this contract if they don't take care of this matter.

I wouldn't offer to pay for it as a first step--I would, however, offer to find someone reasonably priced, and supervise them for him, and have HIM pay them.

Only if he balked at that would I offer to do everything for him.

talley sue you are probably correct but I've already offered to do so. I haven't heard from them so I think they are blowing me off. The house was looking unkept when the owner lived there so I shouldn't be surprised they aren't keeping the place up now. When they first put it on the market it had several short term tenants until this group of people rented the place. Look at the picture below and let me know what you think. I don't have a camera with a zoom.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

lavern said: "I've taken some photos of the property and sent via email to owner."

At least you know who the owner is. Can you find out about the management company? Why aren't they taking care of the property? Perhaps you could call anonymously and see what kind of services they offer. See what they say when you ask about maintenance.

That concrete crack where the road meets the curb/driveway. Possibly the county/city would repair that crack since it is technically part of the road. It might be as easy as a phone call.

sweet tea I will check on the crack tomorrow. I think the SID is responsible for that if so I'll contact the board. If the house doesn't sell by August we will take it off the market for 30 days and relist again. I will still work on getting the owner to do the right thing.

Illegal, shcmelegal!

I needed my house sold, he was a slob who didn't care what his property looked like.

I'm not a panty waisted whiner. I need something done, I get it done.

And now this scenario comes to mind:

Judge: Young lady, is it true that you picked up old tires and scrap metal with your own two hands for hours, loaded into the family minivan, and took it to the dump on your own dime?

Me: Yes, your Honor.

Judge: And is it also true that you repained a ratty old shack and mowed a grieviously overgrown lawn?

Me: I confess, your Honor.

Judge: That's it. Thow the book at her! We can't have this sort of woman gunking up society for the rest of us!

Remember that if disneyrsh's neighbor was that lame, and that inept, he was going to be too lame or inept to press charges.

And I just can't see the cops wanting to bother to arrest her for trespass. They don't like bogus calls. iI annoys them to have their efforts wasted for petty stuff, even when the person complaining has a point; imagine how much energy they'd put into it if his complaint was that she took his trash to the dump and mowed his lawn and painted his hous the same color. "Excuse me, sir, I need to go fight crime."

And to make an arrest that would stick, a cop would need witnesses to say it was her, and if it came down to it in court, I bet any neighbor who saw her would lie, lie, lie. No prosecutor would bother.

Technically, it may have been trespassing. The risk was nominal, and obviously, disneyrsh's gamble paid off.

I don't know how nominal the risk would have seemed if he had come home and caught her and gotten physical.

Oh, please, y'all are killin' me!

"beaten to death with her own paintbrush..."

I hope the OP gets some relief from her ugly neighbors, and finds a way less evidently hair raising and dangerous (I'm still laughing) than mine.

sweet tea thanks for the suggestion, the crack is the responsiblity of the owner. The comic relief is much needed and appreciated.

[QUOTE]I wouldn't offer to pay for it as a first step--I would, however, offer to find someone reasonably priced, and supervise them for him, and have HIM pay them.

Only if he balked at that would I offer to do everything for him.[/QUOTE]

But, didn't the OP contact the owner last year already, and nothing happened? The fact that nothing happened seems to be a pretty good indication that it would be a drawn out affair to convince the owner to fix it.

I finally got an email from the owners. They will let me know tomorrow if they will take me up on my offer to help fix up the outside. The management firm did tell me they were short on cash, maybe thy're trying to arrange a loan. I hope we can get corrections soon.

Things are starting to look up. I spoke with the property manager yesterday and the owner is going to get a roof wrap and also get the house painted and repaired on the outside. I have agreed to chip in $400 toward the house paint and I will get my lawn guy to keep up the lawn. All the cars and men hanging in front are gone as of when I first complained. With any luck maybe I'll get my house sold in the next couple of months.

Good to read that they are cooperating with you, especially because you are being exceedingly generous.
This should bring you good karma!