Neighbor is hoarding

[Anonymous]

Mice are abundant in MoCo. I sympathize with your situation but you cannot blame your neighbor. Get traps and an exterminator. Everyone on my listserv is constantly asking for the names of exterminators every fall to get rid of mice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honey, you don't need a hoarder as a neighbor to have mice in your house. It's so disturbing that your post offers no concern for the health and safety of this woman but focuses on mice droppings outside and inside your home.

PP your thinking is way off. As a person who also has a hoarder as a neighbor, I get what OP is saying. I have roaches, which I never had until the hoarding started. And no, its NOT ME. The roaches are not coming from my home, I can assure you.

And no, its not OP's responsibility to help this person. Hoarding is a psychological issue, and OP has no power in that arena. The person needs psychological help, and usually you're met with tremendous resistance from the person who needs the help. So no, OP does not need to spend the few hours a day she has left after her long work day to "try to help" someone who doesn't want the help!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in MoCo.
I knew this post would get nasty/troll responses.
I am looking for opinion/advice for if this continues. I honestly wondered how she would survive day to day without her husband when he died. In the neighborhood, we all do the best for her that we can. Again, my gut feeling is that this has just been an inevitable thing in the making over the past few years. She has a small dog whom I have not seen her take outside for at least a year and I know she has him use pee pads or wear a diaper. I could give more information but that is not the point.
Any genuinely helpful advice/thoughts/experience?

OP I am the PP who also has a neighbor that is hoarding....and now we have roaches. We are not the only neighbors affected by this, we live in a condo in Montgomery County. The homeowners association did get together to discuss how we could help this person. We were met with yelling and a giant sign on the hoarders door which basically threatened anyone who dared to "trespass" in order to help. So we contacted the county and submitted a complaint directly to them about the hoarding situation - it is now in the county's hands. In the meantime, the HOA has hired an exterminator to spray all the homes once a week. Charming......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in MoCo.
I knew this post would get nasty/troll responses.
I am looking for opinion/advice for if this continues. I honestly wondered how she would survive day to day without her husband when he died. In the neighborhood, we all do the best for her that we can. Again, my gut feeling is that this has just been an inevitable thing in the making over the past few years. She has a small dog whom I have not seen her take outside for at least a year and I know she has him use pee pads or wear a diaper. I could give more information but that is not the point.
Any genuinely helpful advice/thoughts/experience?

OP I am the PP who also has a neighbor that is hoarding....and now we have roaches. We are not the only neighbors affected by this, we live in a condo in Montgomery County. The homeowners association did get together to discuss how we could help this person. We were met with yelling and a giant sign on the hoarders door which basically threatened anyone who dared to "trespass" in order to help. So we contacted the county and submitted a complaint directly to them about the hoarding situation - it is now in the county's hands. In the meantime, the HOA has hired an exterminator to spray all the homes once a week. Charming......

A condo getting roaches from a hoarding neighbor is really a different deal than mice from a neighbor on the street.

[Anonymous]

Op I would anon call police non emergency number.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you absolutely certain that she is a hoarder? It sounds like you have no first-hand evidence other than what some other neighbor may have seen a few years ago. And no, having a mouse in your house is not evidence that your neighbor is a hoarder.

[Anonymous]

Wow, unless your're certain she is a hoarder you need to MYOB. She is widow with no family. Why don't you befriend her and ask if she needs anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who works for a city, this is a common problem that we deal with often. Unfortunately there is little that can done on an official basis. Unless she's unable to care for herself or is a danger to others, a serious health code violation is the only thing a city can act on. Simply hoarding isn't one of them.

A typical health code issue we deal with is when the property is infected with rats. As for being a fire hazard, almost anything in a private residence is allowed. When hoarding gets to a certain level our FD is advised and they may or may not make an interior fire attack because of there safety.

As a city, these are a pain to deal with and take many hours of work and documentation not to mention legal costs. Getting family member involved is the secret.

Thank you. This info and insight is very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Uh, the hoarder has nothing to do with your mouse problem. Get some traps. Seal up holes that the mice can climb in. In the winter mice seek warm spots, like houses and sheds.

[Anonymous]

You need to have rats as an issue for the county to take notice. But before you do, you need to be honest as to what your top true intentions are:

1) to keep your property mice free?
2) to check on the health and welfare of your widowed, childless, elderly neighbor?
3) to get help for said neighbor

Honestly, since it seems you haven't taken the time to really get to know your neighbor from 2 doors down it seems like your true motivation is to find a source for your mice. Look, I don't want mice either, I've had them before and we still get them from time to time and have to have those glue traps which I'm not crazy about using. But immediately pointing the finger at a neighbor you think is a hoarder because of mice seems like a stretch. Now if you had roaches or rats, then there definitely could be a correlation.

I am a child of hoarders. I grew up in a loving, but hoarded house, my parents still hoard, I haven't been in there house in over a decade. Instead of cleaning, they buy more houses, they currently own four. There likely is a hoarder in every street in this country, some you can tell from the street, some you cannot. Does the neighbor keep all the curtains drawn all day long, every day? What does her yard look like? What does the outside of her house look like ( paint peeling, weeds?).
In all likelihood a trauma like a spouses death can trigger the worsening of a hoard. If she doesn't have children, there likely isn't anyone to check on her regularly. Hoarding has a very low rate of recuperation. So if you think calling some clean up task force will work, the answer is no. If you call the county to have a health code violation check, are you prepared for this woman to be put on the street and made homeless if her home is condemned? Where will she go? She has no kids.

you can call department of aging and ask if there is a hoarding task force. If you see rats, then you can call the health department for the county. But honestly, maybe it's time to get to know your neighbor better. Make up an excuse, it's New Years, send a card, drop off some cookies, whatever. See for yourself how she lives. See how she's doing. Reach out. If she truly is in a dangerous situation (really unsanitary like an animal or food board or a legitimate fire hazard) then call it in, but be honest with yourself why you're really doing this.

[Anonymous]

"MYOB" doesn't really apply when your home is attached to another home. Hoarding attracts rodents, which cause disease, and it raises the risk of fire or structural collapse, both of which could affect the entire row of houses. OP is allowed to be concerned about the safety of herself, her family, her pets and her possessions.

If someone wants to hoard in peace, they should move to a single family house on some land so nobody else is affected.

I'd report. It might be nothing. But it also might alert county health/social workers to someone who needs help, and she might ultimately be better off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to have rats as an issue for the county to take notice. But before you do, you need to be honest as to what your top true intentions are:

1) to keep your property mice free?
2) to check on the health and welfare of your widowed, childless, elderly neighbor?
3) to get help for said neighbor

Honestly, since it seems you haven't taken the time to really get to know your neighbor from 2 doors down it seems like your true motivation is to find a source for your mice. Look, I don't want mice either, I've had them before and we still get them from time to time and have to have those glue traps which I'm not crazy about using. But immediately pointing the finger at a neighbor you think is a hoarder because of mice seems like a stretch. Now if you had roaches or rats, then there definitely could be a correlation.

I am a child of hoarders. I grew up in a loving, but hoarded house, my parents still hoard, I haven't been in there house in over a decade. Instead of cleaning, they buy more houses, they currently own four. There likely is a hoarder in every street in this country, some you can tell from the street, some you cannot. Does the neighbor keep all the curtains drawn all day long, every day? What does her yard look like? What does the outside of her house look like ( paint peeling, weeds?).
In all likelihood a trauma like a spouses death can trigger the worsening of a hoard. If she doesn't have children, there likely isn't anyone to check on her regularly. Hoarding has a very low rate of recuperation. So if you think calling some clean up task force will work, the answer is no. If you call the county to have a health code violation check, are you prepared for this woman to be put on the street and made homeless if her home is condemned? Where will she go? She has no kids.

you can call department of aging and ask if there is a hoarding task force. If you see rats, then you can call the health department for the county. But honestly, maybe it's time to get to know your neighbor better. Make up an excuse, it's New Years, send a card, drop off some cookies, whatever. See for yourself how she lives. See how she's doing. Reach out. If she truly is in a dangerous situation (really unsanitary like an animal or food board or a legitimate fire hazard) then call it in, but be honest with yourself why you're really doing this.

Did you read OP's follow-up responses?

She will never answer her door if you knock, but she will respond to phone messages and chat outside of her house.

[Anonymous]

Contact the task force someone mentioned above.

The main red flag that stood out to me that she's a hoarder is that she doesn't open the door or allow others inside. The dog thing, while sad that the dog doesn't get outside, doesn't necessarily mean she's hoarding. I know several older people who have small dogs who use pee pads because they aren't able to take them on frequent walks.

It's possible that when her husband died and the hoard was discovered, it wasn't bad enough to be reported. Your house has to be pretty inaccessible to EMTs and firemen to get reported by them.

Even if the county declares her not a hoarder, they may help her with other programs for seniors in her situation with no family support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to have rats as an issue for the county to take notice. But before you do, you need to be honest as to what your top true intentions are:

1) to keep your property mice free?
2) to check on the health and welfare of your widowed, childless, elderly neighbor?
3) to get help for said neighbor

Honestly, since it seems you haven't taken the time to really get to know your neighbor from 2 doors down it seems like your true motivation is to find a source for your mice. Look, I don't want mice either, I've had them before and we still get them from time to time and have to have those glue traps which I'm not crazy about using. But immediately pointing the finger at a neighbor you think is a hoarder because of mice seems like a stretch. Now if you had roaches or rats, then there definitely could be a correlation.

I am a child of hoarders. I grew up in a loving, but hoarded house, my parents still hoard, I haven't been in there house in over a decade. Instead of cleaning, they buy more houses, they currently own four. There likely is a hoarder in every street in this country, some you can tell from the street, some you cannot. Does the neighbor keep all the curtains drawn all day long, every day? What does her yard look like? What does the outside of her house look like ( paint peeling, weeds?).
In all likelihood a trauma like a spouses death can trigger the worsening of a hoard. If she doesn't have children, there likely isn't anyone to check on her regularly. Hoarding has a very low rate of recuperation. So if you think calling some clean up task force will work, the answer is no. If you call the county to have a health code violation check, are you prepared for this woman to be put on the street and made homeless if her home is condemned? Where will she go? She has no kids.

you can call department of aging and ask if there is a hoarding task force. If you see rats, then you can call the health department for the county. But honestly, maybe it's time to get to know your neighbor better. Make up an excuse, it's New Years, send a card, drop off some cookies, whatever. See for yourself how she lives. See how she's doing. Reach out. If she truly is in a dangerous situation (really unsanitary like an animal or food board or a legitimate fire hazard) then call it in, but be honest with yourself why you're really doing this.

Did you read OP's follow-up responses?

She will never answer her door if you knock, but she will respond to phone messages and chat outside of her house.

well, how many times has she knocked? one time last year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you live that your townhome that doesn't already have a water sprinkler system built inside?
You are obviously only concerned about the mouse in your basement. You work 12 hour days how the hell would you see people visiting her or her taking her dog out in.those 12 hours you're gone? You are truly an asshole OP.

NP - but I've owned two different townhomes and neither had sprinkler systems.