Neighbors SORTED

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Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

Quote:

I was getting ready for a job interview

As a scarecrow Smile

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:11 pm

@The Man - did you leave a friendly message on their door, or did the ex-husband show up first?

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:54 pm

Friendly message left before the ex showed. Not sure WHY the ex showed as from what I hear the break up was pretty ugly.

But problem solved either way.

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:59 pm

Good deal. Maybe he'll keep their lawn mowed. Illness or disability appears to be a likely culprit why it hadn't been mowed in so long.

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:02 pm

@SB:

Probably. Of course now the neigborhood gets to speculate on why the ex is doing it. They don't have kids together so he has not been around in a couple years since moving out.

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:05 pm

^^ It might be that they reconciled as far as to be friends. Hard telling why, but maybe it's a good thing.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Sounds like the lady might be ill in some way, perhaps seriously. Just speculation mind you
Glad you took the nice approach though.

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:33 pm

gardens can be a bloody bugger to keep nice. i moved into my place 18 months ago and i had a nice fine lawn. Within weeks, children and dogs had completely destroyed it. it was a delicate species of grass and unsuited to family life. I'm halfway to building a terrace along it with a deck at the house end and a nice fish pool in the middle, but time and expense have banjaxed my efforts to make good progress - living expenses up 20% and no pay rise this year means loads of overtime ands still no money for materials. eech. Upside - I'm still talking to my neighbours, and I show willing by moving all the shit around occasionally.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:22 am

Hopefully not too much of a Necro....

Ran into the ex at the neighbor's house last night. Turns out he is buying the place back from his ex. He apologized profusely for the state of the yard. He advised that as far as he knows there is nothing wrong with his ex other than being lazy.

So wonder if the nice note would have worked or not, or did it work?

Thanks for all your advice!

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:26 pm

Between the rising cost of gas & the lack of rain lately, I've started setting the blade quite a bit higher on my mower. I still mow every week, but it hardly looks like it next to the nearly scalped lawns of the neighbors who haven't taken this common sense approach.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:14 pm

Bear:

I mow once a week. If I really wanted to make the lawn look as nice as could be 2 times a week is needed. I just don't have time to do it. The plus is I save on gas and put less CO2 into the environment due to less gas burned.

But at lest you mow Smile

Not quite a Newb Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 27

A guy who lives across the street from us uses a push-by-hand mower on his lawn. He doesn't have to gas it up, plus it's quiet.

It is more work, but it's good exercise. My dad had one of those mowers when I was a kid, and never bought a power mower.

The tenant who lives downstairs is supposed to mow the small front lawn and the grass in the backyard but she never does it; she's lazy.

The owner of the building was here about three weeks ago and mowed it. It's mainly burdock and weeds, anyway, not grass.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:01 pm

@ The Man - I'm glad that you found out the circumstances. Does that mean tha the lady will be moving, or is he just going to play landlord?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:33 pm

@She:

Dunno if she will mow or not. He just said she did not because she was "lazy".... of course if she is really in clinical depression that could be viewed as lazy by some if they don't know better. I hope he will keep it mowed a bit better.

He is trying to buy the house from her as he likes it and the area. When he was living there the place was kept up very well so that would be nice. I told him if angry letters from neighbors would help let me know, I had one written already so it would be no problem Smile

So we will see what the next several weeks brings. The grass was over 8 inches high! I am not sure my mower would have been able to handle it if they had asked me for help.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:49 pm

Could have hidden a tribe of masai warriors in that grass or a herd of maraudering elephants. Laughing

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:49 pm

@The Man:

Thanks for the update. I hope that the next few weeks brings you and the rest of the neighborhood some bliss.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:48 pm

She: It is odd what we gets us riled up isn't it. While patience and understanding are virtues they are not ones this Jedi has learned yet.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:55 pm

^^ Sometimes those traits are your best friends. The ex might be right that it is just laziness; however, coming from an ex-spouse, those could be bitter words also. I would leave my invitation of help open just in case. You might learn what is really going on if your offer is accepted.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:36 pm

Generally speaking tenants are usually very slack about garden maintenance, especially lawn mowing. They think it's the landlord's responsibility and to a certain extent I agree. As a landlord myself I prefer to use the tenant's rent money to pay a contractor in once every couple of weeks to do the job. It's not expensive and keeps everyone happy.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:57 am

We used to own rental property, a small house in California, and one in the city where we live. We sold both years ago, but for the most part, the tenants did slack on the lawn upkeep except for two separate tenants that were in their fifties.

IMHO owning a rental is a major PITA, and we would never go that route again.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:39 am

It all depends on your tenants. Perhaps I've been lucky but I've never had The Tenant From Hell. In my experience they only turn ornery if you treat them badly, ignore reasonable requests for maintenance or things to be fixed and generally do nothing apart from take their hard earned money. A happy tenant is a good tenant. Like I say, paying a contractor to come and mow the lawn once or twice a month isn't going to break the bank and the tenant is indirectly paying for it anyway.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:53 am

^^ That is true to a point. Some tenants are just lazy about upkeep no matter how well you treat them. We were on top of the maintenance for the hose that was local, and did all maintenance requests promptly. The house in CA was a different story since it was 800 miles away. We had to rely on neighbors there to help out and notify us of things going on. We compensated them for their time and efforts.

We never had any bad tenants in the local house, but the last tenants in CA took everything that wasn't permanently nailed down. Cupboard doors, counter tops, even the plumbing parts (like the elbow under the sink) from the bathroom. It is easier to list what they left than what they took. It was a tiny one bedroom house - they left the walls and the windows. They even took all of the light bulbs and a corner shelf that was built into the living room wall.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:04 am

Some people are just plain mean and evil. I have heard of other renters doing that too. The feel entitled...

I agree that rentals are often a PITA. We have done it a couple of times and gotten more grief than gain.

(I am agreeing with Sheboppe... Shocked

)

I have always been a sucker to the sob story (and most of them turn out to be SOBs). Baiting has helped me tighten up my standards and listen to that voice in my head.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:21 am

I had a rental property once. MAJOR PITA!!! They completely ruined the house & wouldn't pay rent on time, had other people living in the house who were not on the lease, etc. I'd probably never do it again. Though as a result, I've always tried to be a good tenant. I've rented 4 apartments, the first 2 when I left they said they'd never seen an apartment left so clean & in such good condition. In fact my first landlord asked me to find her a new tenant who was just like me, quiet, nice to her cats, pays on time, & leaves the place nicely lol. I even got her to agree to do some upgrades for the next person. I miss renting actually b/c when something needs to be done/fixed it's someone else's responsibility to figure out.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:24 am

Careful there Paranoid, I might start thinking that you like me. Shocked

These people were very evil. The house bad belonged to hubby's parents, and he was really attached to the place since both parents are gone. There was stuff that belonged to them in the shed, and we were going to make a trip to pick it up when time and funds permitted. They cleaned the shed out too, and took many family things that cannot be replaced.

The rent was very cheap, and we always promptly reimbursed them for anything they spent to fix anything in the house. Their actions escaped all reasoning for both of us. It was really heartbreaking to see the look on hubby's face when he saw what they did.

To this day we have no idea where they went. It isn't worth worrying about though. In the end, what goes around comes around.