Poorly maintained properties

[Jgg7933]

As I drive around from time to time I sometimes see a yard that is in really BAD shape. I mean bad as in it looks like the home is abandoned. It makes me wonder why the neighbors in those neighborhoods tolerate someone not maintaining their property? Grass that looks horrible, grass burnt from not being watered, landscape beds full of weeds etc! Why aren't the neighbors complaining to the villages about the condition of these properties? or are they and the owners refuse to comply? Can an owner refuse to comply without fear of getting fined? I am glad that properties like this are few and far between and not in my neighborhood but those that buy into this area should be REQUIRED to keep the appearance of their property up to an ACCEPTABLE level! The covenants we sign into when we buy here are there for a reason. Your thoughts?

[Rango]

You will probably get better results if you post this in the "general" forum rather than "all about golf carts"

[asianthree]

Sometimes it's due to a death. Or a bank owned property. And sometimes it's due to not having a homewatch person to make sure that your grass is being watered and your weeds are being pulled. Then again they may have a home watch person that doesn't really go to their house and so the owner has no idea then you just hope that your neighbor will shoot you an email so you know what's going on. We have had that happen with a homewatch person that had not been to our house for six weeks or more. Our neighbor down the street sent us photos. We have since changed and found the perfect person who takes care of everything for us" we use The Village Sitter

[Jgg7933]

I posted from New Posts area and do not recall picking a specific forum? How do I get the post moved to "General" forum?

[Jgg7933]

Sometimes it's due to a death. Or a bank owned property. And sometimes it's due to not having a homewatch person to make sure that your grass is being watered and your weeds are being pulled. Then again they may have a home watch person that doesn't really go to their house and so the owner has no idea then you just hope that your neighbor will shoot you an email so you know what's going on. We have had that happen with a homewatch person that had not been to our house for six weeks or more. Our neighbor down the street sent us photos. We have since changed and found the perfect person who takes care of everything for us" we use The Village Sitter

Thanks asianthree. All good points but I know that if The Villages "deed compliance" is notified they will contact the owners. I guess I am to assume that their neighbors are not complaining to The Villages if they don't know the owners email address?

[asianthree]

Thanks asianthree. All good points but I know that if The Villages "deed compliance" is notified they will contact the owners. I guess I am to assume that their neighbors are not complaining to The Villages if they don't know the owners email address?

You can go to Sumter country website look up owners address. Send them a note. It will be appreciated. Or some have their phone number in the phone book

[asianthree]

I posted from New Posts area and do not recall picking a specific forum? How do I get the post moved to "General" forum?

Ask mod to change forum

[ttown]

We have a house in our neighborhood that has been empty for over ten years. We all have called Community Standards multiple times and they whack down the weeds, but bushes and vines have overtaken the whole house. It is in foreclosure and has no clear title.it is frustrating to know that there is nothing that can be done.

[njbchbum]

Thanks asianthree. All good points but I know that if The Villages "deed compliance" is notified they will contact the owners. I guess I am to assume that their neighbors are not complaining to The Villages if they don't know the owners email address?

That is soooo unfair to lay the blame on neighbors who do not complain!!!!! You do know about the 'assume' phrase, do you not?

District Gov staff is good at contacting the posers that be - MAKING those powers actually do something is quite another story! Do you really understand what the timeline/procedure for compliance are?
VCDD Community Standards (http://www.districtgov.org/departments/Community-Standards/community-standards.aspx)

Do you really think any bank truly cares what the bill is for maintaining a foreclosed property? And don't you think it is easier for that bank to just pay that bill after some other entity has gone to the trouble to arrange for the maintenance of same?

[graciegirl]

As I drive around from time to time I sometimes see a yard that is in really BAD shape. I mean bad as in it looks like the home is abandoned. It makes me wonder why the neighbors in those neighborhoods tolerate someone not maintaining their property? Grass that looks horrible, grass burnt from not being watered, landscape beds full of weeds etc! Why aren't the neighbors complaining to the villages about the condition of these properties? or are they and the owners refuse to comply? Can an owner refuse to comply without fear of getting fined? I am glad that properties like this are few and far between and not in my neighborhood but those that buy into this area should be REQUIRED to keep the appearance of their property up to an ACCEPTABLE level! The covenants we sign into when we buy here are there for a reason. Your thoughts?



One previous thread on this subject.
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/abandoned-homes-93210/?highlight=abandoned+property

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Even if a home is abandoned or the owners have died, if you file a complaint with the compliance department, they will have someone cut the grass and trim the bushes. They then place a lien on the home so that they get paid when it sells.

[Moderator]

The thread has been moved to General Discussion.

Moderator

[Jgg7933]

Somehow this thread has slanted toward "foreclosed and abandoned homes". I am not so sure that some of the homes I have seen in poor condition are either abandoned or under foreclosure. Some seem to be "part timers" that simply are not concerned with their property when they are not here. Just seems to me that if you buy into this beautiful community knowing the rules somebody should hold their feet to the fire to keep up their property.

[justjim]

We have a house in our neighborhood that has been empty for over ten years. We all have called Community Standards multiple times and they whack down the weeds, but bushes and vines have overtaken the whole house. It is in foreclosure and has no clear title.it is frustrating to know that there is nothing that can be done.

I know exactly what you are talking about. We had a similar situation in another city several years ago. We had everyone on the case from Congressman, Mayor, neighborhood lawyer etc. down to the HOA. It was very frustrating. Fortunately, after about 3 years, somebody was finally able to purchase the property and the mess was cleaned up.

There were many of these properties during the "economic crisis".

[Bogie Shooter]

Somehow this thread has slanted toward "foreclosed and abandoned homes". I am not so sure that some of the homes I have seen in poor condition are either abandoned or under foreclosure. Some seem to be "part timers" that simply are not concerned with their property when they are not here. Just seems to me that if you buy into this beautiful community knowing the rules somebody should hold their feet to the fire to keep up their property.

That's kinda hard to determine "part timers" from the street.
If you would like to hold their feet to the fire, write down the address(s) and call here:
Community Standards
Phone: 352-751-3912
or
deedcompliance@districtgov.org

[tippyclubb]

On our street there are 18 rental homes. The yard in 7 of those homes are not kept up. One of them has weeds taller than me. We called Community Standards a few weeks ago and nothing has been done , except one house.

We will call again later this week. If nothing is done in the yard across the street from us I will be cutting those 6 foot weeds myself. It infuriates us we have to look at that mess when our yard is beautiful.

[ProximaMan]

We have a house in our neighborhood that has been empty for over ten years. We all have called Community Standards multiple times and they whack down the weeds, but bushes and vines have overtaken the whole house. It is in foreclosure and has no clear title.it is frustrating to know that there is nothing that can be done.

Wonder when somebody buys this place if they'll buy title insurance?

[njbchbum]

Somehow this thread has slanted toward "foreclosed and abandoned homes". I am not so sure that some of the homes I have seen in poor condition are either abandoned or under foreclosure. Some seem to be "part timers" that simply are not concerned with their property when they are not here. Just seems to me that if you buy into this beautiful community knowing the rules somebody should hold their feet to the fire to keep up their property.

The lawn person who originally maintained our snowbird nest crapped out on maintaining our property and we had NO idea that the lawn and weeds had become unsightly...until one of our neighbors called to alert us. Resolved happily ever since. So perhaps the 'part timers' of whom you post have no knowledge that their landscape people have abandoned them; as are they unaware of someone thinking so negatively about them.

[golfing eagles]

The lawn person who originally maintained our snowbird nest crapped out on maintaining our property and we had NO idea that the lawn and weeds had become unsightly...until one of our neighbors called to alert us. Resolved happily ever since. So perhaps the 'part timers' of whom you post have no knowledge that their landscape people have abandoned them; as are they unaware of someone thinking so negatively about them.

I hope you weren't still paying them regularly---If you were, it's fraud,--- if you weren't you probably overlooked that the bills stopped coming. Best advice for absentee homeowners---get a reliable homewatch person---it's very cheap and can save tons of $$$---power/electrical outages, plumbing leaks, irrigation settings, general maintainance, etc

[njbchbum]

I hope you weren't still paying them regularly---If you were, it's fraud,--- if you weren't you probably overlooked that the bills stopped coming. Best advice for absentee homeowners---get a reliable homewatch person---it's very cheap and can save tons of $$$---power/electrical outages, plumbing leaks, irrigation settings, general maintainance, etc

I'm from Jersey - SO I'm not stupid. ;)

[golfing eagles]

I'm from Jersey - SO I'm not stupid. ;)

Huh? Never implied anyone was---was just hoping you and others in the same situation weren't getting ripped off. BTW, if NJ residency equals immunity from stupidity, maybe all politicians should be required to live there.

[Fred McNickle]

We have a few of these on our street and they take away from the rest of us.

[gomoho]

When I lived in TVs I noticed it wasn't only foreclosed, abandoned, part-time etc. some people just don't really care how the yard looks. They take pride in doing it themselves and usually don't have a clue so it looks like hell. Never liked it, but what are you going to do? Grass was usually cut - the little amount of grass they had - and weeds were pulled from the beds when they got around to it. Not a priority for everyone and it's the luck of the draw when you buy a home in TVs.

[justjim]

On our street there are 18 rental homes. The yard in 7 of those homes are not kept up. One of them has weeds taller than me. We called Community Standards a few weeks ago and nothing has been done , except one house.

We will call again later this week. If nothing is done in the yard across the street from us I will be cutting those 6 foot weeds myself. It infuriates us we have to look at that mess when our yard is beautiful.

I guess this is a street in TV that I haven't traveled and I have been down a number of them. I have seen a few yards that were not acceptable but I can't recall anything Like a number on a particular street.

In any community "rentals" can be a problem especially if they are not kept to the same standards as everybody else.

[tbussche]

We are closing on our house the end of the month. The house is great with a numbers of upgrades, but the front yard is all but dead. On our walk through we seen the front yard sprinklers are set to 6 minutes. We know this is not nearly enough time. Once we take ownership of the house we are planning to everything we can to restore the yard. It is an eyesore to the neighborhood in its present condition.

[asianthree]

We are closing on our house the end of the month. The house is great with a numbers of upgrades, but the front yard is all but dead. On our walk through we seen the front yard sprinklers are set to 6 minutes. We know this is not nearly enough time. Once we take ownership of the house we are planning to everything we can to restore the yard. It is an eyesore to the neighborhood in its present condition.

Call the Warranty Department and they will come out and take care of the issues. The front of our house all of our bushes were dead 15 days after we closed when I came down. The sprinklers were not turned on for longer than five minutes. They replaced the sod and all of the bushes that had died. Good job from the Warranty Department

[tbussche]

The house we are buying is preowned. Will that make a difference?

[Bogie Shooter]

The house we are buying is preowned. Will that make a difference?

Warranty dept is out of the picture.
Was the grass brown on walk thru?
The seller is the one who let the grass go dormat/die by not watering. Ask him to fix it!

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Somehow this thread has slanted toward "foreclosed and abandoned homes". I am not so sure that some of the homes I have seen in poor condition are either abandoned or under foreclosure. Some seem to be "part timers" that simply are not concerned with their property when they are not here. Just seems to me that if you buy into this beautiful community knowing the rules somebody should hold their feet to the fire to keep up their property.

Very true. I know of several homes where the owners simply don't care. These are the ones that the compliance department really has to do something about.

[justjim]

Poorly kept yards can fall into every so called category. Rentals (owner living in TV and out-of TV) full-time owners (not a yard person) snowbirds (without home watch) Foreclosure, etc. etc.

All you can do is file a complaint and hope for the best and go do your "thing". Fore!