Any tips for living next to a vacant house?

[Deleted User 670]

call the cops and tell them about the trespasses. The house may be vacant but it is still illegal to break into a vacant house.

[Smarties]

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.

That fence absolutely had to happen and I'm so glad its done! If I could have made it 8 feet instead of 6 I would have.

[Anonymous 3]

We have a similar issue with a house down the street. It's boarded up and a real eyesore. Unfortunately the city can only get on the owner about the high grass which they only cut once the city tells them to. It belonged to a very nice old woman and idk if she died but her kids took over responsibility for it and now it's gone to shit.

[Anonymous 1]

I can understand that.

I read your response to another poster after mine...the one where you mentioned that you know a lawyer that you could speak with. THAT is probably a very excellent idea!

I feel for you on this issue. A couple years ago, there was a house in my neighborhood that was vacant for so long that by the time they condemned it, there were DEER and other wildlife living inside of it! But I'll tell you what we did. We called the cops every time there was a "noise" at that property and every time there was a strange car hanging at the property. ALL OF US NEIGHBORS KEPT CALLING THE COPS. The COPS got so tired of it that they started calling the homeowner and threatening to cite them with all sorts of violations. I think that's what caused that owner to finally list his property!

Talk to your neighbors. Ban together. You have more power than you realize!

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.

[Valentina327]

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?

There isn't. You can't force people to care. The most you'll get is to call about the exterior and get the city to come out and mow the jungle when it gets too bad. They'll bill her then put liens against the property but that's about it.

[Msprekteacher]

Contact code enforcement for your neighborhood. They can fine her for the grass. If it becomes a nuisance property they can even have it condemned.

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?

[Deleted User 1039]

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?

There isn't. You can't force people to care. The most you'll get is to call about the exterior and get the city to come out and mow the jungle when it gets too bad. They'll bill her then put liens against the property but that's about it.

That may be true in your area, but not all. We have county-wide housing and property maintenance ordinances here. They aren’t nearly as strict as most HOAs, but they provide groundwork for preventing situations like this by requiring property owners to maintain their property to a reasonable extent. It covers things like holes in exterior walls, missing or broken siding or peeling paint, broken windows, deteriorating porches, trash or non working cars in the yard, graffiti, lack of smoke detectors, electrical and plumbing violations, completely neglected lawns, etc.

Deteriorating houses not only reduce the value of a neighbors property, they also provide potential serious hazards to them. So while you can’t force someone to actually care, there is sometimes recourse to make them comply. In some places, if it could be demonstrated that the OP’s property value was significantly reduced because of it, there could be recourse through a civil suit for nuisance as well.

Obviously it’s not the ideal way to go, but if she’s exhausted other options it could be worth exploring.

[bluebunnybabe]

I had a similar problem years ago when I lived in a city. I kept trying to get the city to mow it since they can mow it and bill the owners. Finally, after my ex killed a huge snake, I offered to bring it up there to show them, and they said no, that’s ok, they’ll have someone out to mow. It worked. You have to make sure the city knows it’s a health hazard.

[bluebunnybabe]

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.

Be careful. If it’s dry, they could start a fire.

[Valentina327]

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?

There isn't. You can't force people to care. The most you'll get is to call about the exterior and get the city to come out and mow the jungle when it gets too bad. They'll bill her then put liens against the property but that's about it.

That may be true in your area, but not all. We have county-wide housing and property maintenance ordinances here. They aren’t nearly as strict as most HOAs, but they provide groundwork for preventing situations like this by requiring property owners to maintain their property to a reasonable extent. It covers things like holes in exterior walls, missing or broken siding or peeling paint, broken windows, deteriorating porches, trash or non working cars in the yard, graffiti, lack of smoke detectors, electrical and plumbing violations, completely neglected lawns, etc.

Deteriorating houses not only reduce the value of a neighbors property, they also provide potential serious hazards to them. So while you can’t force someone to actually care, there is sometimes recourse to make them comply. In some places, if it could be demonstrated that the OP’s property value was significantly reduced because of it, there could be recourse through a civil suit for nuisance as well.

Obviously it’s not the ideal way to go, but if she’s exhausted other options it could be worth exploring.

Yep. You can sue. That's true everywhere. What's it going to win you? It's not going to get the house repaired if it's abandoned and they don't care about it.

They won't make repairs if they don't feel like it is the bottom line. They'll get fined. So fines will accumulate against the property. As I said, you can't force someone to repair things if they don't want to.