“You Can’t Force Us”: New Buyers Respond to Outraged Neighbors With Masterclass in Petty Lawn Compliance
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Keeping your home looking nice takes a lot of time and effort, but it is worth it in the end.
What would you do if you moved into a very nice neighborhood where everyone took immaculate care of their property, but that just wasn’t something you liked to do, so the neighbors emailed you about the lack of upkeep?
That is what happened to the couple in this story, so they looked up what they were legally obligated to do, and only did that. This, of course, upset the neighbors even more, but there is nothing that can be done about it.
This couple should be embarrassed about their actions, but for some reason, they seem proud of it. Read through the full story below and see what you think.
Neighbor disputes over snow and crabgrass. I did exactly as much as I had to for city ordinance and no more.
My wife and I moved into a home in a “nicer” part of town and we are apparently not high society enough for our neighbors.
Some people really like a good-looking lawn.
We have had constant disputes about our grass being long (by HOA standards, which we are not a part of any HOA where we live).
They have also explicitly told us to treat our yard for crabgrass as it is “infecting” their yard with crabgrass.
It is their lawn; they don’t have to keep it looking good.
I am well aware that is indeed the case, but why would I pay to kill something in my yard that happens naturally. I don’t subscribe to yard worship I guess.
Recently there has been quite a bit of snow where we live. Both my wife and I work fairly long hours and couldn’t be bothered about shoveling snow after work so long as we can get into our driveway.
There is nothing wrong with a neighbor offering advice or requests.
So, recently my neighbor has been sending us messages about how we are impacting our property values etc. and then we received an email saying that everyone in the neighborhood is impacted when one house doens’t treat crab grass, rake leaves, and shovel snow (among other things, though it was all nice and polite).
So, I read the specific ordinances in our city and found that the only part of our property that is required to be shoveled per that ordinance is the front sidewalk directly in front of our house.
Why would you be proud about doing the bare minimum?
You can see where this is going I’m sure, but I decided to shovel just the sidewalk and nothing else.
Keeping in mind we have a fairly long driveway that is untouched by shovels. I can’t wait for the ensuing messages…
I really don’t understand why this person is proud of the fact that they are doing the absolute legal minimum to keep their home looking good. Sure, this is their right, and there is nothing the neighbors can do about it, but that doesn’t make it a good thing.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.
This is true, but there is also nothing wrong with asking neighbors to keep the area looking nice.
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Here is one way to handle the situation.
This commenter thinks the neighbors were very polite. I agree.
Why would you want to antagonize neighbors?
If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a student who did the math and figured out he was better off skipping school than serving detention if he forgot his ID.
This commenter has a good question.
They are proud of the way they are acting, but in reality, they are the bad neighbors. There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep your neighborhood nice, and that is all that the neighbors were asking for.
What prompts some people to take pride in doing the absolute minimum is beyond me.
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