Neighbours house is a mess..what can we do?

Sisyphus

chappers wrote: »

Where my Dad lives in Oregon they make you keep your front gardens tidy and mowed if you don't they take you to court and slap you in jail....

:eek: that's what we need here, zero tolerance.
What do they get if their dog fouls the pavement? Life?

Biggie

123oleary wrote: »

have a word with the council , i know in york the council have forced a couple of people to tidy their houses up . it doesnt apply for say a scruffy garden but if the building is an eyesore or rodent problems they can act.

Don't do this whatever you do as it may be classed as a disbute wuth your neighbours which will look even worse to presepective buyers.

withabix

Get somoene you know to complain to the council instead???

TJ27

123oleary wrote: »

have a word with the council , i know in york the council have forced a couple of people to tidy their houses up . it doesnt apply for say a scruffy garden but if the building is an eyesore or rodent problems they can act.

This post is pretty much the correct one. For rats you can serve a section 4 notice under the "prevention of damage by pests" act to get things sorted. It's a lot harder if there are no rats but there are planning laws which just might come into play. There is an unofficial council measure called the FM test. If a house is so bad that it just looks terrible compared to the other houses in the street, the council officer will walk past it and say, "F*** Me".

In theory it's possible to enforce these regs but in practice it's extremely difficult to do so. I don't know of it being successfully used but they may well have done it in York, so why not elsewhere. Good luck.

subjecttocontract

I guess it depends on how bad it is and how much spare money you have.

I'd be inclined to cross his palm with pound notes OR offer to sort out his garden, paint a few bits and generally tidy up. If it costs a couple of hundred quid it could be well worth the investment.

adr0ck

you don't have any covenants which may help at all?......................guessing yours would be the same as your neighbours

MrsE_2

High fence?

Nicki

adr0ck wrote: »

you don't have any covenants which may help at all?......................guessing yours would be the same as your neighbours

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious a covenant is only as good as the person's ability to comply with it. Yes you could go to court and get an order that he comply, but if he doesn't have the money to do so, then all that achieves is that he has legal costs to pay, as well as the costs of the work to be done. You can't get blood out of a stone, and OP has already said she has spoken to the neighbour who has said he doesn't have the money to do the work. It's like getting an order against someone who has no job and no assets for the repayment of a debt. There is no way to enforce it unless and until their financial position changes, and you just end up adding to their problems by increasing the amount they owe, and their general levels of stress (which may well be justifiable in the case of a debt, but its less clear cut here surely?) Whilst there is only the neighbour's word for the fact that he is stony broke, the manner in which he is living would tend to give some credence to his story.

squidge60

quick growing hedge or smallish trees maybe.?

adr0ck

Nicki wrote: »

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious a covenant is only as good as the person's ability to comply with it. Yes you could go to court and get an order that he comply, but if he doesn't have the money to do so, then all that achieves is that he has legal costs to pay, as well as the costs of the work to be done. You can't get blood out of a stone, and OP has already said she has spoken to the neighbour who has said he doesn't have the money to do the work. It's like getting an order against someone who has no job and no assets for the repayment of a debt. There is no way to enforce it unless and until their financial position changes, and you just end up adding to their problems by increasing the amount they owe, and their general levels of stress (which may well be justifiable in the case of a debt, but its less clear cut here surely?) Whilst there is only the neighbour's word for the fact that he is stony broke, the manner in which he is living would tend to give some credence to his story.

he works on the motorways....so hes not exactly poor