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I’m Struggling with Personal Freedom Today
The Libertarian in me is struggling to stay consistent in my desire for personal freedoms, especially where personal property is concerned. Mustangman and I put our house on the market a couple days ago — we’re moving to Dayton, OH in a few weeks. The Portland market can only be described one way: hot! Most houses listed below $400,000 are under contract within a week, and we have been hoping for a fast sale.
This weekend, we packed up the kitties and took a trip up to Yakima to see Ryan M and his family while our realtor did open houses and a ton of showings. Everyone loved our house with one glaring exception. Here’s where we take a step back.
When you stand in the street looking at our house, to the right is a well-kept house and yard. To the left, you might as well be looking at a junkyard/auto repair shop. We never talk to this neighbor, who I not-so-affectionately refer to as “the grease monkey,” but he’s always out in his driveway “fixing” one of the three rusted-out 1960s Chevy trucks parked in his driveway and the street. In the back of the truck parked on the street is a load of roofing shingles waiting to be taken to the dump from where he replaced his roof … almost a year ago. There’s an old exercise bike in the front yard, along with several tires and an axle.
The backyard is so much worse. If you are ever in need of bags of concrete, water heaters, car parts, kitchen sinks, or marijuana, his backyard is the place to go. As you might imagine, the idea of living next to a trash heap is less than appealing to potential buyers. More than one person has said the next door neighbor was a barrier to them putting in an offer, and I am left desperately yearning for something I normally abhor — HOAs.
My general regard for HOAs is low; they many times end up being run by community busybodies seeking to create their little fiefdom by means of CC&Rs. I’ve seen ridiculous outcomes from battles fought in the month HOA meetings, resulting in huge fines being paid and lawsuits over the pruning of trees. But right now I would gladly proclaim, “My kingdom for an HOA!” While we live in a heavily populated area, we are part of an unincorporated town, so we are under the county’s jurisdiction. As such, there is little we can do to make the neighbor pick up his yard, which is affecting our home value.
I have always thought that people should be able to do with their property as they see fit. But what if the things you see fit are in bad taste? What if your lifestyle brings down the property value of those around you? At this point, are not his personal freedoms to live like a slob harming me? Should I have the right to require he conform to community standards of upkeep?
I’m conflicted about this, y’all. But more than that, I just really want to go over there and tell him, “Act like an adult, put your damn toys away, and go get a job!”
Published in General
If you are moving, it’s probably too late to plant trees unless you have good irrigation system. If so, you’ll have to put up a nice tall fence and some trees – you”ll get the money back in the sale – otherwise you’ll be stuck because people will either low ball because of the eye sore or turn around and leave. We’ve lived with HOA’s since moving to FL and would not consider otherwise – my husband and I have served and currently serve – it’s worth it.
When we lived in Massachusetts, we didn’t have any issues and didn’t live in a restricted community – but there are cities and towns where your current neighbor is seen as normal – ugh. Shame on him. Best wishes on your move!
Good for you Kay!!
A fence builder can put a decorative lattice across the top so it doesn’t look like a fortress. And I would ask him anyway to clean it up and haul off the shingles – even offer to help and round up some big guys – he may be agreeable.
Wonder if they have pigs in Dayton. Or drug dealers or… Never been there, though.
Can’t HOA’s be considered a mutually agreed to contract between neighbors? Does that violate libertarian principles? Educate me.
Personally, I think HOAs are a good thing: Just have to investigate before moving in (I tend to say “oops”). Have known a couple that were moribund at best and it showed in the neighborhood. Then I had one in Florida (Boca Raton) that was right over the top. Solution? Move from the beautiful neighborhood to another beautiful neighborhood with a more reasonable HOA.
The grease monkey is bumping his music super loud right now. Of course, it’s not quiet hours so there’s nothing I can do. Anyone want to come be careless with a cigarette butt?
You want to be careful that when the city comes to demolish a house on your street, they don’t demolish yours in error.
Neighbor Contessa,
If you’d like to take my roofing shingles to the dump, you go right ahead. And where should I use my exercise bike? In the basement? Is it too much for me to enjoy the solitude of my spin class for one in the fresh, morning air, whilst surveying the scenery of my neighbors’ well-kept lawns?
How dare you, madam? How dare you?
j/k
No, as you and similar people like you may have benefited from buying your house at a cheaper price.
You also state that you “never talk to this neighbor”. Never? If you had talked him, he may have acted differently, especially if you had been willing to help him in some way.
It’s the good neighbor tax. Being a good neighbor takes time and perhaps even a small amount of money.
I guess the next owner of the house will get the privilege of getting to be the good neighbor. Some good home buyers might actually even look forward to such challenges.
Did you call the DEA? I don’t think they hand out “only” citations.
That sucks, VC. I have a similar situation in that my direct neighbor has a rather dilapidated house that he continually rents out to college students. I echo others here in recommending you talk to him and invest in a nice tall fence.
That’s odd, because my definition of good neighbor includes them never talking to me except in case of emergency.
Take the one that involves the least amount of waiting: cash buyers, buyers who’ve got their loan all lined up, etc. I’m suggesting haste before they do too much scouting of Mr. Nasty next door. :)
To all the suggestion thank you but we have a nice fence and trees and all the good stuff. There are a couple of problems with these:
1 – We can’t fence off the view of his front yard which at last count had 3 axles, a transmission, the back half of an old Chevy pickup, and a truck that is constantly in process of renovation.
2- There is another truck that is sitting on the street, is only moved often enough to prove that it moves, and is still mounded with roofing from his roofing project last year.
3 – We can see into his backyard from the small bedroom upstairs. It is strewn with junk and they built this beautiful blue shed out there an then at some point painted an orange demon head on it.
Fortunately, we have offers and should soon be out.
You could at least entertain us by putting up some pictures.
Well, you could always try your hand at suing him under some sort of nuisance or waste law (e.g. the use of his property has diminished the value of yours). Might be like milking a turnip if you win, though.
Yeah. I second this. As the kids say: Pics or it didn’t happen!
We are conflicted on moving to an area covered by HOA (which we will need to consider as we move to Texas later this year). Not having a mess like VC has described is the attraction. But, Mrs. Tabby likes a brightly colored front door (preferably red) and window trim, which doesn’t fit within the range of tan to beige that most HOA’s permit. Our last house in California was a small cottage style house that we painted a fairly bright blue with burgundy doors and window trim.
I’m going to use this post to further my point to be a full time RVer when we retire. Don’t like our neighbors, pull out and move to another site, campground, state, you get my point. 😉
And I third this!
As long as they aren’t backed by the state! ;)
The thing is that it’s possible for restrictive rules to be as much of a taking as creating an eyesore. So it’s not as simple as one person is doing something other people don’t appreciate, and so they are the ones in the wrong. We all appreciate beauty and order, but there’s a healthy balance between beauty and order and freedom of action. And I don’t propose to know the answer for the balance, that’s for the free market and common law (but I repeat myself) to determine.
Oh come now. A new government worker is sorely needed to do the walking between offices…
Been there, done that. Only comment is that most private campgrounds are more interested in the dollar now than keeping you happy. Popular public campgrounds are a particular challenge, especially on weekends. Good news is, if you wait a few days you get new neighbors.
When I lived in Atlanta, the house three doors down was owned by the crazy cat lady complete with the yard that had probably not been mowed in a decade. One day I was coming home from work and a fire truck was blocking my street. Since my parents were staying with us and my mother smokes, I immediately feared my mother had burned my house down. Fortunately, it was the cat lady’s house that burned down (and yes, the cat lady survived the fire.)
Once I knew everyone was safe I told my parents that my property value probably just went up 10% as a result of that fire. With the benefit of hindsight (and knowing how much I made when I sold that house), that was probably an understatement.
The house was a complete loss because apparently she had torn up all the floor boards for heat but every room and hall way had stacks of newspapers from floor to ceiling. Once the fire started there was nothing they could do but protect the neighbors’ houses.
Wouldn’t a good Libertarian say that he or she is not at all opposed to a Home Owners Association? It’s a contract which you enter in to freely. No one forced you to move in the neighborhood. What the Libertarian would be opposed to is the government telling you that you had to get rid of your broken down chevy full of roofing material.
Do we? Some people are utter slobs, and their houses are trashed because they lead disordered lives.
Oh, you’ve driven by, eh? Well I’ll have you know…I’m remodelling…
An HOA is a basic experiment in direct democracy, provided that it is honest and locally managed, as opposed to being a perpetual annuity revenue stream for the builder as so many condos seem to be. Power accrues to those who show up. Often , people don’;t want to show up, it is too much work. Thus, those who want to run things do; it take quite a bit of time to manage things. Our HOA president retired and spends a lot of time on this, but is also thus readily available just a few doors down.
Our subdivision of 114 units is about exactly right, and I like the annual walk-through that enforces curb appeal. The architectural standards are too rigid, but we are re-writing those as I “speak”.
No. Maybe some of us have seen bad neighbors once to often.
But, hey, if it works for you to make anyone who disagree with you in to someone who is just afraid of freedom , you demonstrate you don’t want to talk you want to call names.
Yet again, we see libertarianism is just like the left.
Ideally, HOA disputes would be handled by private arbitration, not the full force of government authority.