Originally Posted by Aredeeem
Sky, I know what you say is true. But I live in New Jersey. We are on top of one another. To finally have, after 45 years of private ownership, a sheriff in town to regulate behavior is surprisingly refreshing. Like I said, if the shoe doesn't fit, don't buy it!
Two of my coworkers lived in the town I worked in when I first moved to New England. They were both driven to desperation by slobby hoarding neighbors.
In both cases, their neighborhoods were fine when they moved in...in one case, some slobbo moved in next door, and in the other, a good neighbor lost their mental balance, went senile, or both.
In both cases, nearby roughly 1 acre lots grew to be covered by inoperative vehicles, piles of wood and metal, old toilets, etc etc. The town regulations were apparently pretty weak and officials told my coworkers they could only force a cleanup in the case of piles of actual trash (like food waste and old papers, apparently piles of 2X4s and old mufflers were OK) or if there were clear signs of vermin infestation (basically they had to see rats running around, mice were OK as there were plenty of natural deer mice in the woods). The slobs learned the rules and were careful to only leave junk strewn around their lots and not (much) trash.
My poor coworkers were left with no recourse and were more or less financially trapped in their houses as nobody in their right mind would choose to buy a house near these junk piles and the slobboes who owned them.
I live one town over from there and you just do not see places like that in my town....our government is very no nonsense and this kind of thing must be well covered by our local ordinances. Strangely enough, our property values are also much higher than in our neighboring town.
I am not a busybody and don't hector my neighbors about minor things...for example, a next door neighbor doesn't care to put much effort into his lawn and it is mostly weeds. He keeps the weeds mowed and I kind of like it as I think it makes my own mediocre lawn look better by comparison, although that effect is probably minor as our lawns our down a valley and through the woods from each other. I wouldn't even dream of saying a word about his lawn. But, I would take a restrictive HOA any day over living next to a junk pile and not being able to do anything about it. I will say that my inlaws lived next to a junk piler after they retired, but they had 20 acres so it wasn't really an issue....they actually liked the guy and would socialize with him, probably easier to tolerate when his piles are 1/4 mile or whatever away.
