What do you do about sloppy neighbors?

[Anonymous]

I'm not defending your neighbors but I'm curious as to how a brush pile and a single piece of plywood translates into a health concern. Especially since it's fall and people tend to gather deadfall and leaves into piles at this time of year. I know my neighborhood has a regular leaf disposal pick up schedule, and we all pile up our leaves in anticipation. I hope no neighbor of mine calls the health department on me.

[Anonymous]

How bad is it? Not clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not defending your neighbors but I'm curious as to how a brush pile and a single piece of plywood translates into a health concern. Especially since it's fall and people tend to gather deadfall and leaves into piles at this time of year. I know my neighborhood has a regular leaf disposal pick up schedule, and we all pile up our leaves in anticipation. I hope no neighbor of mine calls the health department on me.

This was my thinking too.

[Anonymous]

OP,
PP here. There's something in between knocking on the door and filing a complaint. Maybe this is their mulch pile? I've posted several times because someone called my parents about their backyard when my father was dying.

[Anonymous]

Just to add, a yard isn't a public health hazard just because an unsupervised 18 month old could hurt himself there

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm not taking sides, but speak from experience. If you call the county on the neighbor I *GUARANTEE* they will find out who did it, and there will very likely be repercussions.

They might be the type to hold a grudge, and there may be MANY repercussions. Enough that you wished you never called. Don't ask me how I know. But I absolutely know.

Consider that you might have a control issue. Weigh that with the size of your concern. Then weigh that with who the "offending" neighbor might know, or how far they are willing to go to "get you back", so to speak (neither of which you can predict!). Just be forewarned, you may think the matter is "important" now, but it might just not be worth it when the neighbor is aggravated. Not everything is about you.

[Anonymous]

I agree- why is a pile of brush a health hazard to the community. watch your damn kid and dont let him touch it if you dont want him to. if it isnt attracting rats etc its fine. MYOB please.

[Anonymous]

Also re: repurcussions... if you called the department of health on me for the brush pile and i found out about it i sure as hell would call the police etc for tresspassing when i see your kid on my lawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, an anonymous letter is gentler. What if someone is dying of cancer? They're dealing with that and then the mortification of a complaint. I always try and give the benefit of the doubt. Send the letter, give it two weeks. I know a story ...

I really second this--people are living with all sorts of severe hardship that may not be visible to you as a neighbor or just a bystander of their house on your way home: cancer, caring for aging parents, pending divorce, severe job stress, mental illness. Have some compassion and don't call the authorities on the person. This is not Soviet Russia; don't "inform" on your neighbors in such a vindictive way.

[Anonymous]

I agree with contacting the neighbors directly.

When we were doing a renovation, we had a delay in some of the materials we had ordered, so the contractor stopped working for about a week while we were waiting for the stuff to arrive, and the full dumpster was still in our driveway and did not get emptied that week. A busybody neighbor who decided that the contractor must have "gone out of business" because she didn't see him that week, and that we were no longer even working on the renovation but we were leaving the dumpster in our driveway indefinitely ('cause, you know, it's so fun to have a huge dumpster taking up your entire driveway so you can't get your cars in and out or anything), called the County and told them what she "surmised" - that we had ceased work on the project but had not removed the dumpster, and that we were now commingling our household, non-construction trash in with the construction trash, creating a health hazard that invites rodents, etc. Since she was nosy enough to keep tabs on the contractor's comings and goings, you'd think she would have kept tabs on ME taking my household trash down to the street 2X/wk and NOT throwing in the dumpster, but whatever.

In any event, the County refused to disclose who the complainant was but by process of elimination and talking to lots of people, I found out anyway, and I am STILL pissed off at these people. I had to meet with the county inspector twice, had to call the dumpster company to get the dumpster emptied within 5 days or receive a citation from the county, and a bunch of other crap that I didn't need to deal with since I wasn't in violation of anything in the first place and we had a proper permit for the dumpster and there was no household trash in it. All the neighbor had to do was pick up the phone and call me and say "hey, what's going on with the dumpster, it's looking pretty full, when is it getting removed?" and I would have told her. Instead, she created a huge headache for me. I also sent an email to the entire neighborhood, ostensibly to apologize if anyone was offended by the dumpster and to explain that we had received an "anonymous" complaint and were taking care of it, but the subtext was to "out" the complaining neighbor without naming names, so now everyone in the neighborhood knows who it was.

Calling the County may seem like the easy way out, but just work up the nerve to talk to your neighbor. The County will still be there later - you can always call if you don't get any satisfaction from the neighbor, but please give them the opportunity first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also re: repurcussions... if you called the department of health on me for the brush pile and i found out about it i sure as hell would call the police etc for tresspassing when i see your kid on my lawn.

Fairfax County has snakes and they like to hide in piles of wood and such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP, I'm not taking sides, but speak from experience. If you call the county on the neighbor I *GUARANTEE* they will find out who did it, and there will very likely be repercussions.

They might be the type to hold a grudge, and there may be MANY repercussions. Enough that you wished you never called. Don't ask me how I know. But I absolutely know.

Consider that you might have a control issue. Weigh that with the size of your concern. Then weigh that with who the "offending" neighbor might know, or how far they are willing to go to "get you back", so to speak (neither of which you can predict!). Just be forewarned, you may think the matter is "important" now, but it might just not be worth it when the neighbor is aggravated. Not everything is about you.

Op, forget about these naysayers. I'm sure you can do it anonymously. Maybe this lowlife has a rubbish pile in their yard, too.

[Anonymous]

have you seen a snake? does your property abut this one and do you have snakesn in your yard? has one bit your son? i can not stand neighbors like you - im sorry. we arent all on the same agenda. this is not your business unless it truly is a hazard not just an unpleantry. walk on the other side of the street or just watch and control your child if you are that concerned.

[Anonymous]

The more I think about this, the more ridiculous it seems. Someone has a leaf pile on their lawn -- in October! And the leaves have bugs on them! And your child is attracted to the leaf pile, so it's a health hazard! And these people have to do something about it, immediately.

Jesus Christ. Welcome to the Age of Entitlement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, an anonymous letter is gentler. What if someone is dying of cancer? They're dealing with that and then the mortification of a complaint. I always try and give the benefit of the doubt. Send the letter, give it two weeks. I know a story ...

OP here. I have seen the neighbors in passing. They are probably in their thirties and seem able-bodied. The woman who lives there walks home from (I assume) the bus stop in the evenings and once I did see her mow the lawn, so I assume they are capable of calling bulk pick-up. It's not like they have to remove/haul the items themselves.

Able bodied? You are completely clueless. I have a friend whose husband had stage IV cancer, she had to mow the lawn because he couldn't because of the chemo regimen. But he was still strong enough to walk to the bus stop everyday that he could for work. Are you just jealous of these people for something else? Are you not getting laid? Does your husband have a small cock? Not enough granite counter top space in your kitchen? You should be ashamed of your pettiness. None of us knows when our day of severe suffering is coming--You should move to the exurbs so you won't have to suffer the indignity of neighbor imperfection.