Any tips for living next to a vacant house?

Smarties
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The elderly lady that lived next to me died about 5 years ago. The house has been vacant ever since, and is the responsibility of her dd who is in her 70s. Its an overgrown jungle and you can hardly see the house even though its only about 50 feet from the street. The only codes are about her grass height, which the city has been on her about more this past summer so that has been kept up a little better. But the rest of it they say they can't do anything about.

The dd is angry with me partly because I just had a 6 foot privacy fence installed that adjoins the chain link fence her daddy put up decades ago. The last contact I had with her was over the summer. She got my phone number because I sent her information about a grant she could get to pay for some exterior repairs.

About a month ago she sent me a very long and nasty message threatening legal action because I had my extra car parked on the street in front of the house. It had been there about a week since I had to move it when some workers came to my house and I hadn't moved it back. The message said it had been there 3 weeks. She also complained about the fence and all of the other things I've done "just to be hateful to her." And how I used her trash can but I've never touched that so I don't know what that's about. I debated responding but I never did.

Through the summer late at night various cars were parked in front of the house. The people sit there for awhile, throw their trash out of their car windows, and eventually leave. I don't know if they are drug deals or what. Now that its gotten colder, I've started to hear noises from her property that I realized this morning are people trying to get into the house. Her gate was open and some other things were disturbed. Next time I hear people over there I can call the police but I honestly don't think that's going to help much.


I'm really trying to get my house sellable to get out of this awful neighborhood and being next to that is bringing my property value down.

Any advice?
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jas
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Not much you can do unless you want to offer to clean it up for her...for a fee. I take it you don't have an HOA and it's just county? Yeah...nothing, sorry.
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jas wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:10 pm Not much you can do unless you want to offer to clean it up for her...for a fee. I take it you don't have an HOA and it's just county? Yeah...nothing, sorry.

Its a city neighborhood. Definitely no HOA. She's very resistant to anyone touching her mother's "garden" that isn't a garden anymore. It will take chainsaws and some heavy equipment to clean it up.

I'm not sure how to handle the people trying to squat. I guess calling police is about the only thing I can do. I'm not sure if I should tell her but I think probably not.
Anonymous 1

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Can you afford to make an offer on the property? And then fix it up and sell it?
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Are you sure there aren’t laws against letting the house fall apart? I would think there’d be some basic maintenance requirements in most places, or at least some rules about owning a property in such neglect that it would impact property values in the area. Maybe see about speaking with an attorney to see what rights you have?
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Anonymous 1 wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:22 pm Can you afford to make an offer on the property? And then fix it up and sell it?

She doesn't want to sell it. But I couldn't afford that anyway. She has a serious attachment to everything. Her mother was a hoarder - I can't even imagine what the inside looks like - and I think her dd got some of that in her.
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SolidlyAverage wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:24 pm Are you sure there aren’t laws against letting the house fall apart? I would think there’d be some basic maintenance requirements in most places, or at least some rules about owning a property in such neglect that it would impact property values in the area. Maybe see about speaking with an attorney to see what rights you have?

You know, I have an attorney I could talk to. As far as I know the city has done everything they can codes-wise. But maybe the attorney knows something I don't to put some more pressure on her to do something.
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Smarties wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:06 pm The elderly lady that lived next to me died about 5 years ago. The house has been vacant ever since, and is the responsibility of her dd who is in her 70s. Its an overgrown jungle and you can hardly see the house even though its only about 50 feet from the street. The only codes are about her grass height, which the city has been on her about more this past summer so that has been kept up a little better. But the rest of it they say they can't do anything about.

The dd is angry with me partly because I just had a 6 foot privacy fence installed that adjoins the chain link fence her daddy put up decades ago. The last contact I had with her was over the summer. She got my phone number because I sent her information about a grant she could get to pay for some exterior repairs.

About a month ago she sent me a very long and nasty message threatening legal action because I had my extra car parked on the street in front of the house. It had been there about a week since I had to move it when some workers came to my house and I hadn't moved it back. The message said it had been there 3 weeks. She also complained about the fence and all of the other things I've done "just to be hateful to her." And how I used her trash can but I've never touched that so I don't know what that's about. I debated responding but I never did.

Through the summer late at night various cars were parked in front of the house. The people sit there for awhile, throw their trash out of their car windows, and eventually leave. I don't know if they are drug deals or what. Now that its gotten colder, I've started to hear noises from her property that I realized this morning are people trying to get into the house. Her gate was open and some other things were disturbed. Next time I hear people over there I can call the police but I honestly don't think that's going to help much.


I'm really trying to get my house sellable to get out of this awful neighborhood and being next to that is bringing my property value down.

Any advice?
Have you contacted your local district politician about the situation. City agency's are notorious for not wanting to do anything that would take money out of their budgets.
She's old and cranky but I would reach out to her and suggest having coffee to discuss the situation. Calmly tell her that you didn't use her trash can and your car was only there for a week. Let her know that you have heard people trying to get into her parents house and you know that would upset her so you want to help her put a stop to this, if possible. Ask if she is interested in selling the house and give her the name of a local real estate agent.
About the people sitting outside or possibly trying to break in, they need to be discourage from coming around there fast, soooooo

My son had a vacant house on his street a few years ago and people were trying to break into it also. The owner lives out of state but has a landscaping company take care of yard. He is friends with the guy that lives next to the vacant house....they had called the cops but they didn't really do anything because by the time the cops came out the people were gone. So they had a brilliant idea to buy smoke bombs or stink bombs where you light the fuse and throw them because they start smoking in different colors crazy fast. When they see people walking up or driving and parking in front of the house they would sneak out of his friends back yard and light some stink bombs and throw them over the fence and run back into the house and watch from the windows. Usually the people or vagrants would hop in their car and take off and the people walking would just run away.
A few times the braver vagrants would keep walking to the backyard to enter from the backdoor so my sons friend would call 911 and report suspicious smoke coming from the empty house. When they would hear the sirens coming they would run out and throw a few smoke bombs over the fence into the back yard.
The fire department and police caught a few people a few times and each time arrested them. Its been awhile since anyone has gone onto the property, the last incident was back in the spring
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MrsDavidB
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Wow what a nightmare. You made the first step with the privacy fence. Just do the best you can to sell your place. All you can do.
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Have you contacted your local district politician about the situation. City agency's are notorious for not wanting to do anything that would take money out of their budgets.
She's old and cranky but I would reach out to her and suggest having coffee to discuss the situation. Calmly tell her that you didn't use her trash can and your car was only there for a week. Let her know that you have heard people trying to get into her parents house and you know that would upset her so you want to help her put a stop to this, if possible. Ask if she is interested in selling the house and give her the name of a local real estate agent.
About the people sitting outside or possibly trying to break in, they need to be discourage from coming around there fast, soooooo

My son had a vacant house on his street a few years ago and people were trying to break into it also. The owner lives out of state but has a landscaping company take care of yard. He is friends with the guy that lives next to the vacant house....they had called the cops but they didn't really do anything because by the time the cops came out the people were gone. So they had a brilliant idea to buy smoke bombs or stink bombs where you light the fuse and throw them because they start smoking in different colors crazy fast. When they see people walking up or driving and parking in front of the house they would sneak out of his friends back yard and light some stink bombs and throw them over the fence and run back into the house and watch from the windows. Usually the people or vagrants would hop in their car and take off and the people walking would just run away.
A few times the braver vagrants would keep walking to the backyard to enter from the backdoor so my sons friend would call 911 and report suspicious smoke coming from the empty house. When they would hear the sirens coming they would run out and throw a few smoke bombs over the fence into the back yard.
The fire department and police caught a few people a few times and each time arrested them. Its been awhile since anyone has gone onto the property, the last incident was back in the spring

Wow about the smoke bombs! I have a friend who would probably love to help me with something like that, lol. With the people around here, something like that would probably work pretty well.
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