Lawn care included in homeowners Amenity fee???
 

Before TV I lived in a 55+ community near here, in Leesburg. I think there was 1,000 single family homes there. One lawn service company. $$$ cost was in monthly amenity fee. Was great. All grass in areas was cut and trimmed in one day. Very efficient. Done well and no doubt a much lower cost than in TV where it’s private for each homeowner.
I think it would be wonderful if each CDD could contract with a licensed firm to cut each property. Cost could be based on approx lot size. Or one general charge for Premier, Designer, and Villa. Would be so much easier for most homeowners, especially snowbirds or owners renting homes.
It’s probably too late now that TV is so entrenched , but I feel the benefits would be awesome. Each homeowner done in each area. Less roads being blocked with many landscape trucks daily. Noise concentrated to only a part of one day per week. And no doubt lower costs for homeowners. Very efficient.

Lots of owners do their own lawns.

I wouldn't pay a nickel for Dean's or Massey to touch my lawn.

:icon_wink:

I love being able to choose who does my lawn, and we do it as a group in our neighborhood so we get a deal. Best of both worlds.

I'll take care of my own lawn/landscaping thank you.

One of many reasons we chose a rock landscaped courtyard villa

Villages too big for that.

I love to cut my grass. It's my time to relax. I don't like to vacuum, do laundry, or dishes, but nobody is suggesting a mass employment to make that part of the amenity fee. Anyone wanna start that?

I look after my lawn and bushes etc. Most of the time ….

I mow my own lawn. Good exercise. I am too fussy to have a tractor spinning around my yard leaving deep ruts and bringing plant diseases and pests from other yards.

Wow! Just think of the size of the contractor needed to maintain all of the yards. There are over 2000 rooftops in CDD 2. Multiply that by 13 and you have a lot of grass to mow!

With you 100%.

That works in condos, with small yards or virtually no yards.

I want to be able to control who cuts my grass, not some administrator.
The CDDs can’t even take care of golf courses consistently, what would they do to my grass?

In The Villages, we OWN our property, it's not community property or leased. We are responsible for our own property, not for anyone else's property. We pay for or do our own maintenance on it, and we don't pick up the costs for anyone else's. If the neighbor moves out and abandons his property, we're not stuck with the tab to keep it from getting overgrown. That's up to his estate, or the bank if there's a foreclosure.

I'm happy about that. I'm also happy to know that if I die, and there's no one to leave my home to, that my neighborhood won't be stuck with the bill for landscaping on my property.

I don’t want their weeds
 

The lawns they mow end up with crabgrass and all sorts of weeds. No thank you. Plus, it’s nice to cut the grass when it needs it on my terms.

Or a stay as it is. Can you imagine how bad the service would be if they signed with one company to mow every lawn?

Your comparing 1000 homes with 10’s of thousands of homes? Then you would get the argument that the CDD is overspending on lawn care, etc, etc. I could not imagine a company taking on a large task like this.

Let’s put our trash in cans and have the CDDs mow our grass - brilliant ideas.


I will, however, let the CDDs shovel my snow, I don’t have a shovel in my garage.

Exactly ... It took a lawn fungus for me to wake up! My mower deck and my woman don't stray all over town...

I recall that there were a lot of complaints at OTOW about the poor lawn care provided on the leased lots. A hard pass from me.

Why is it “awesome”? The cost is the cost—-you’ll pay it individually or in the amenities fee. BUT, I can complain to my guy and fire him if I want. I can also get someone else if his rate climbs too high. Does anyone think the CDD would do a better job of monitoring performance than the individual homeowner???

I mow my own lawn. Frankly a horrible idea imo.

Well, that’s probably great for a place with 1000 homes but there are over 70,000 homes in TV spread out over miles and 3 counties. Literally not possible. They can’t even do trash pickups on the same day.

Like everyone has said TV is too big to have one service to every lawn. It would be nice to have the same service do a street as there is someone always cutting all days of the week. It seems due to the many different services that are doing lawns they don’t take any care in their lawn care as they are just cutting and moving on to the next one. Also having those large mowers for the small spaces that leave large divots and tracks in the grass.
I like the idea of doing lawns together on a street and will ask my neighbors if that’s something they would like to do.

I can't remember the last time every poster in a thread agreed (well disagreed)...

I cut my own grass and usually in the rainy season every 4-5 days. No lawn service does that

I have to agree with that!

The verdict is unanimous.

OP You are confusing HOA fees with Amenity fees ! You paid HOA fees. TV has 70,000 - 80,000 homes! Never going to happen! Thank god!

Ya, no……………

I do my own because none of the previous services could do it as well. They continued to cut our St Augustine grass too short which puts it under stress. They were also reactive on chinch bugs instead of being proactive. My grass looks thick and fabulous.

Lawn
 

After 40 years of lawn maintenance, no way I waste my precious time in paradise cutting my lawn. I've earned the pleasure of letting the pro's of Dean's take care of my lawn. No storage for equipment anyway.

no thanks, that's the best way to spread weeds, unwanted grass types and more....

We have a robot lawnmower, but it took timed to program. I do understand what you are saying. In Minnesota we had a choice which garbage service to use before the city came in and contracted with one company. It was terrible before that. Everyday big garbage trucks would come in and tear up the roads, the noise, etc. Then the city contracted the service and just one garbage company on Tuesdays. I was very nice.

Purchasing a new home in TV next week. I have had lawn service through our HOA for the past 7 years in the Bradenton area.....I will be doing my own after seeing what 3 different services have done. I can do a much better job and save a few bucks.

As stated above, I prefer to hire who I want to take care of my yard. I frequently see people recommend using the same mower that your neighbors use. Before you do that, take a close look at your neighbors yard. My neighbor only hires mowers. No fertilization, no weed control... He has bermuda sprouting up all through his back yard and when we had the same mower it got spread to my yard. I switched mowers and explained to the new mower why I switched. When my neighbor approached him about mowing his yard, he politely declined by saying he wasn't taking on new clients. He had my back!

Totally agree
 

Before moving here, 8 years ago, we lived in a gated community in Hudson. All lawn care, cutting grass, trimming bushes, mulching was taken care of one lawn service company same day of the week each week. Never had a problem with their service. Always done well. Cost was $100.00 per month collected by the homeowners Association. Currently that community is paying $125.00. I would be interested in a similar service here, but due to the varied opinions about this, it will never happen.

It is less money to hire whom you want. I pay $50 per month and it is cut every week as compared to $125 per month in a gated community.

Rock garden and concrete. No need to charge me.

Presently pay $55.00 a month for a little larger than average lot and have had the same great company for 15 years now. If you let some government type group control this, the quality will go down and the price up.

Nice idea, but could never work. One person has trees and other person does it one person has bushes and other person doesn’,t way too many variables. Could never have a set price

No thank you. I prefer consumer choice.