Selling my Home but our new Neighbors have trashed their house.?

Question

We have been living in our beautiful home for about 33 years. We live in a quiet little community in Indiana and have decided to move to a smaller home. We have kept our home updated and have put a lot of time and money into our house. However, our next door neighbors moved into their house about 2 years ago and have let their property in a very distressed state. Their home is in very poor condition and only getting worse. They have a car on blocks in the back yard with high grass and trash everywhere. The house is such a eyesore and destryoing our property value. Is there anything we can do? Can the city make them clean this up? What rights do we have? I know our neighbors have very little money so legal action to abtain money won't result in anything. Need help.

Answer 1

WHY are YOU Afraid of Talking to your neighbor?

They have been there for 2 years and you probably
do not even know them. Wouldn't your HELP resolve the issue quicker? And allow you to sell your house for a higher price.

If all in life that is important to you is MONEY
Consider it as a good Investment

For shame so few consider the real benefits of GOOD NEIGHBORS or the Downside of pissing off your closest
possible friends. Government will not watch your back as well as a good neighbor.

Surely you can call code enforcement and
Waste a lot of time (government moves so SLO)
On the other hand you may be able to interest
other neighbors to Help the PO folks out.

You will certainly pay Thousands of dollars to
a real estate sales person where a small investment To clean up thier Property Maybe less than 200.00 Can offer you much Bigger rewards. You can also offer to mow their Lawn etc. the cost will be minimal.
Your HELP and their cooperation will get you faster results
to acheive what you desire.

The additional value you receive when you sell will
more than offset any price you pay

Do not count on the city to help you
Although some cities DO provide some help
paint etc.

I am always constantly amazed at the Lack of communication
with people that are nearest to us, It Seems we would rather Punish or persecute when a simple remedy is at hand.

Please take an interest in your neighbors it will pay off in more ways than you ever expect.

Or just hide in your Hovel and fear evrything
Your Choice!
:-)

Answer 2

Hi! I am a Realator and own my own busines. Yes the town officials can and often do make a "house" call and inform the owners they are in violation of the city ordiances of property care and maintenance. Although they can not site they for an "eye sore" they can if they feel the trash will attract rats or other vermin. You can file in the local municipality court that this also violates your rights as a neighbor and compromises the value of your home. If will be up to a judge to decide in small claims court. You will not get any monies, just try to get the judge to light a fire under their butts to clean up the mess. Once the court decides then the local police will try to enforce this. If they can not, then the will have to appear again and again in court. We had a house so bad in one neighbor, the neighbors got it condemned and athe family was forces to move out. A builder bought it, knocked it down, put up a beauty and the house values went way up. One can only hope. So try this first and see what happens. The town will get on them if the trash is obvious and the over grown grass will hide rats. If you have any other questions, please ask. Marie

Answer 3

You can go to your local county offices, to the housing regulator, or other state offices dealing with zoning laws.

It is also very helpful if you gather the signatures of all your neighbors and take them with you, requesting that the state step in and require these people to clean up their act.

HOWEVER, unless they are causing damage to the environment, or risking their own health to such a degree that there is the threat of disease, infestation, or fire, the state will only threaten them and not MAKE them do anything. This is usually done with penalties such as fines.

You can stick around a long time and fight this to get that extra 20k out of the house, or you can swallow that loss and get out and enjoy your life.

If you want to save the value you can in your house, put up a solid good quality privacy fence. Preferably made from cedar and not anything treated with CCA.

In some cases, you can actually take the neighbors to court. But its costly and the results are not always in your favor.

Answer 4

I have a daughter that lives in South Bend, Indiana. I like it there but it is just to hot for me. Know to you question. Yes there are things that you can do. Number one find out if there is any ordnance about people having trash in there yards? You can find out down at you City Hall. Number if there is an ordanance, then go to you city council meeting and approche the board. I am sure that they will give them a notice to clean up the yard at least. If there is no ordnance than I am not sure what you can do. But I would still go to the City Hall and inquire about the problem. They will lead you in the right direction. This is all free. So good luck, and let me know how everything turns out.

Answer 5

My husband and I are also having this issue. We came up with a couple of possibilities after a couple of realtors told us that the neighbors were going to bring down our property value.

1) Get the neighbors involved in selling your house. Maybe they have friends or family who would be interested in buying it. Offer them a $1,000 if they provide a referral that turns into a closed sale.

2) Offer to help them "clean up" their yard. Give them information on how they can make money by donating the car that is on blocks to charity.

3) Rules differ by city, and sometimes even by township - but it is worth checking with the officials to see if there are any violations for having an "untidy" yard. Most likely they will just be issued a citation, which doesn't typically work.

Good luck!

Answer 6

I had a similar problem. I called code enforcement until they were so sick of hearing from me they were at the neighbors home at least once a week. Being poor is no excuse for being dirty. The car on blocks needs to go...the bad manicured lawn needs to be fixed and this doesn't take much money at all.

There was a case recently (it made national news) where an older woman was physically and financially unable to do her lawn. The city was called and a nice police officer discovered this was the problem. The people on the block took donations to have a lawn company take care of it...just another option.

Answer 7

Well it may create a little battle with your neighbors but yes there are things you can do. I feel for you. I used to live next to these rednecks that had no respect for their neighbors. First, I would check with your town's/city's building inspector. It is his duty to enforce the zoning by-laws. The neighbors may be violating a by-law. If they are the building inspector will give them an order to fix the problems if they don't they are subject to expensive daily fines. Also, with the trash problem I would see if the board of health would get involved. Try to see if the officials will let you do this anonymously. If this does not work for some reason and you also have the option of taking them to court. You may not get money out of them if they are broke but you can sue them for a nuisance and get the judge to order them to clean things up, if they ignore the judge's order they can be found in contempt and put in jail, see if other neighbors will join with you in the lawsuit. Good Luck.

Answer 8

It depends on if you small town has any sort of local codes and ordinances against high grass and trash.

If so you can call code enforcement or the police on them.

The Neighborly thing to do would be to let them know you are selling your home. Offer them to help mow / clean up their yard.

I had a neighbor do this to me once. The grass was 2 feet high. I just set my mower on the highest setting and ran with it over their yard. It made a huge improvement.

Legal action is VERY costly. For WAY WAY cheaper on YOUR part, you can just knock on their door offer them "free lawn service" because you are selling your home and need theirs looking nice, and hire a lawn company for $40-50 a mow.

Answer 9

Go to the Home Owners Association. Even if your community is not affiliated with the HOA...they can still make these people clean it up or get out. Believe it or not,,...

I've had neighbors like yours a couple times in Vegas so I sympathize with you. And believe me, if you house is that nice, the house they moved into had to of costed them so somewhere, they have to have money of some kind, sometimes, people, no matter what their stature, is just poor, ignorant & trashy.

Answer 10

There are city ordinances in force. Call your Mayors office and ask them which deptartment to contact. Your neighbors must clean up their property. Move and leave the lazy and dirty neighbors behind. Best Wishes!