I've seen this before. You get new people moving in and they want to remake the neighborhood (or community) in their own image. It's pretty selfish and self involved to think that your neighbor ought to change just to suit you. Those kind of newcomers are troublemakers. When you tell em' to piss off they get on the phone and try to bring the government down on your head.

Whether that plays or not depends on the values in your community. I've heard that you can be fined for not mowing your lawn in parts of Florida. If that kind of thing is the accepted community value in your area then it's not looking so good for your neighbor the hoarder.

It's a hard call. We had a similar thing here recently. There's an old curmudgeon with a rundown property down in the center of town. He's okay to get along with as long as you treat him with dignity and respect. If you're one of those people who looks down on him then he will go out of his way to make things difficult. He's made more than a few enemies over the years.

In a way, he's kind of the onion in the petunia patch now. It used to be that the downtown area was a real honest to gosh Maine fishing village filled with real down to earth people who worked hard for a living. They didn't give a darn if a place was run down because their own properties weren't that special either. Things have changed. Millions of dollars of outside money have flowed into that area in the way of property development. Those people ... the ones pumping money into the community ... they have their rights too. Old Mr Cranky just flips them the bird.

Eventually the community leaders reached a compromise. They hired a landscape architect who did some very tasteful work that blocks the view of Mr. Cranky's property so that it's not such an eyesore to his neighbors. He calls it the hate fence. Others call it an improvement. Guess it all depends on your outlook.

What's the deal with the 250 k. in fines T ?



See it's one thing to do your own thing on your own property. It's another thing to cause harm to your neighbors. Is there pollution running off from all of the hoarded stuff onto his neighbor's property or is it just an eyesore ?