Buying A House: C or D?

tells us that he believes he's owed compensation for cleaning up leaf litter from the trees on my property

Is there a homeowner's association that requires everyone in your association to clean up leaf litter in their yards? A town council? If so, then I'd inquire of the officers of the HOA or town council if there's some precedent for neighbors owing this kind of compensation. Otherwise, that leaf clean-up sounds voluntary on the part of your unfriendly neighbors and I'd bet you have no legal obligation to pay for it.

The other consideration is whether you think those neighbors are just jerks who'll never be converted to friendly, cooperative neighbors. If they seem past hope, be polite, but refuse. If they seem reachable, talk it over with them, not their freaking adult son. They're the ones who live there. They're your neighbors, not him. He's the hired help.

That's a shakedown. I lived across the street from a park for over 8 years and would have to clear leaves that blew into my yard/driveway every single day during the autumn so it wouldn't clog up drains. That would've been hilarious if I had tried to charge the city for my time.

If he asks again just say that the parents can swing by if they feel like there are an excessive amount of leaves they need help with between the son's visits.

yea this is total bullshit

just research the laws in your area and tell him what it says

I’m delighted to have the backing of the ilx council on civic relations, property issues subcommittee. Thanks all.

That is such a scam that he's running. It's the same when random strangers on the street provide you or your car a service without asking if you even want it and then demand money.

Neighbor: Hey, I raked my own yard.

You: I see. Looks nice.

Neighbor: That'll be $50.

I wonder if he rakes all the leaves, then sorts them into “ours” and “theirs” piles & stores them plastic shopping bags just waiting for his day in court when he can march in the leaf bags like Miracle on 34th St etc

omg

stock portfoliage

lol

I wonder if he rakes all the leaves, then sorts them into “ours” and “theirs” piles & stores them plastic shopping bags just waiting for his day in court when he can march in the leaf bags like Miracle on 34th St etc

Not quite but he has filled my compost bin a few times... without permission of course.

In the summer, your neighbor is probably receiving free shade from a tree that is on your property. Send him a bill for that.

In most jurisdictions, whatever falls in your yard is your problem, no matter whose property it came from.

It gets slightly more interesting when you have (as we have) trees that are exactly on the property line. We had a property-line tree fall down recently. Though its trunk had been 90% in my yard, it was still shared, legally speaking. When it fell, it was almost all in my neighbor's yard (having missed his house by inches). I was expecting him to be a dick about it, but miraculously he paid for the entire removal. I paid to rebuild the fence and it was all quite amicable.

My neighbor's peach and apple tree used to hang over the fence into my driveway. The fruit would drop off into the raised garden, rot and attract all sort of crap. THIS IS LIFE. We also used to have to duck our heads under the fruit bearing branches sometimes when leaving the house. I asked the neighbor if he could cut it back instead of, you know, being a jerk and cutting it myself and then charging him. The son sounds like work is slow and he's scrounging up money or is just annoyed about having to maintain the yard anyway.

they probably sit there and stew about it, ginning up the injustice of it all

Sparkle Motion's neighbor's son seems to have some sort of bizarre grift going on, but he's not very good at it

Yeah, the $400 reduced to $300 charge above is telling. He and his friend (labor) likely illegally dumped the wood or gave it away. It's beginner mobster business to tell/discuss with someone the fee after you've done the work.

"I'll take care of it" followed by charging you means that he was not, in fact, taking care of it imo

listed our place. gangbusters with viewings. mortgage approved. all moving pretty fast 😬

so the son came over and talked to me directly (he had previously run this whole scheme past my wife prior) and told me that my trees were my responsibility, and I need to make it right with his family. As soon as I balked he started to get angry so I'm saying things like "look I want to be good neighbors here but that's not how it works at all."

"well if you want to be a good neighbor then you need to show me a good faith love offering, or you can bring your own crew over here every four months to clean out my mother's gutters, because she shouldn't have to"

"she doesn't have to. you don't have to pick up anything out of your backyard, man."

"that's right, because it's your tree and your responsibility"

"I'm not paying you to clean your own yard"

and on and on it went until we both walked away shaking our heads. good god. I'm going to ignore the whole thing and see what happens.

Did he really say "good faith love offering"? Are you the sole owner of trees in the neighborhood?

“Good faith offering”, “love offering” and “neighborly contribution” were all phrases he employed.

“If these trees weren’t here my mother’s gutters wouldn’t be clogged”

“If there were no trees anywhere no one would have to pick up any leaves”

“I’m not talking about all trees, I’m talking about your trees”

and so on

I had a neighbor who on the first day I moved in, warned me not to park on the street in front of my own house.

Our street was on an incline. He said that whenever a car was parked there, and it rained, the water would wash down the curb, hit the tire, and somehow ramp out of the curb and into the next yard below mine. Making a mess, I guess, since that yard was already downhill from the street.

I told him I'd keep an eye on it as a courtesy, but hey, the only thing more public than he street was the rain itself.

I didn't need to park on the street anyway because I had my own driveway,. But at least twice, he or his wife asked friends who were visiting to move their cars. Once, I came home at two in the morning with a friend who had parked her car there. Yeah, it was raining. As we got out, through the darkness and the rain, I could hear the dude yelling from his porch, "Ahhhh, see what it's doing?"

Go sue the Lord, dude, I wanted to tell him.

xpost I don't know which subreddit the tree controversy belongs in but I feel like it wouldn't be out of place on the Choosing Beggars one. He's trying to appeal to you being a good guy and wearing you down. He should do a forensic analysis of everything stuck in his mom's gutter.

I would happily call bullshit on his claims of cleaning her gutters even twice yearly. In 7 years I have never seen the guy on a ladder for any reason.

thinking about this tree son vexes me

you should definitely come up with things to charge him for, though. does your tree shade the neighbor’s house at all? charge for the savings on air conditioning they’re realizing in the summer.

I have a beautiful Japanese maple in the backyard that he acknowledges is “cool, because it gives shade”. I did not seize the opportunity to hand him an invoice.

good god. i am so sorry you have to deal with this twerp.

though it does sound like these phrases he's using, like "good faith offering" or what the fuck ever, mean that he understands the law isn't on his side. he's probably looked it up during one of his family stewing-in-it sessions.

also “token of your esteem”

mate

Pay nothing for the trees you like, charge for the ones you don’t! Act now!

I asked him why we’re only hearing about this now after living next to his parents for 7 years.

“It just occurred to me”

...

should I keep updating this madness or no? Sorry if I’m boring everyone.

"It just occurred to me that you're trespassing"

I would have called the cops on this fuck by now

should I keep updating this madness or no? Sorry if I’m boring everyone.

This is better than my NextDoor group. Keep it up.

I live for these types of squabbles. Keep updating.

I'd start blowing my leaves into his yard.

When my latest neighbors moved in they kept their dog in the back yard 24/7 and it was breaking out constantly, shitting in my yard and tearing up my trash so I started throwing it all in their yard. Dog situation was quickly resolved, she's now an indoor/outdoor.

Just visited friends in the suburbs for the first time since they moved out there about 1.5 years ago--they are really the classic house-poor family. They bought a 3000 square-foot house and their taxes are 19,000/year. Granted they have four kids and I guess 19k/year is a pretty good deal for a top public school for four kids. But they have almost no furniture.

Damn. $19k.

Yeah, that's the NYC metro for you. And now you can't even deduct most of it as far as I understand, under the trump plan, which was specifically designed to fuck states like NY.

My last two visits to people who own houses have kind of given me cold feet on owning a house. Maybe I'll just stay in my nice cheap coop where there is virtually no chance of a major repair that I'm on the hook for. The worst thing that can probably happen to me that isn't covered by the building or insurance is needing a new kitchen appliance.

Found a 7,500-SF house on the golf course, at the end of a peninsula. Bought in 2013 for $1.67 million.

Taxes last year were $17,000.

https://i.imgur.com/NlAAusC.jpg

xpost, are they in westchester? I found it almost impossible to go on a long vacation worry free when owning a house. I have an apartment that I left for 2 months and it was a completely different feeling.

Sounds like Large Adult Son is not the homeowner next door, so why on Earth does he think he’s got any business talking to you, Sparkle? Thousand-dollar bet his mother doesn’t know he’s pulling this crap with her neighbours. Write to her, maybe?

This tree business is amazing but also giving me anxiety.

Small update if anyone cares: we successfully cancelled our pmi, and the bpo document was also cool to get. So mh otm basically.

xp Long Island

I have no idea what I said re: that but I very cautiously accept this endorsement *looks around nervously*

Re: tree - no further discussion, no contact, no response. Anything else is just legitimising this guy trying to shake you down. Zero response is the only way to shut such people off. It's not his business, but he thinks he is negotiating with you when in fact he's not.

tree stuff is hilarious keep posting

starting to get the_fear about the amount of reno work we’re going to have to do 😬