Florida Woman Fined $190,000 for Overgrown Yard

AP ^ | Feb 27 2004

[billhilly]

Your post was well written, well thought out, and it exhibited good grammer. Unfortunately, it did meet the norms for this thread.

[VermiciousKnid]

When I was a kid my dad would have ordered me to go over there and cut that lady's grass.

Mine would have, too.

Regards,

[Delphinium]

Oh, for cryin' out loud! If the neighbors are so offended I think they could have taken turns cutting the grass every couple of weeks. Or, at least once or twice in the past 2.5 years! If she really has these health problems (or even if she's just a lady living alone) the neighbors could have made an attempt to be "neighborly". When I was a kid my dad would have ordered me to go over there and cut that lady's grass.

Same here, we would have had to mow her lawn.

What if she liked her lawn that way? Its her private property!

[an amused spectator]

When I was a kid my dad would have ordered me to go over there and cut that lady's grass.

Bingo.

[an amused spectator]

Failure on your neighbor's part to maintain their lawn damages the value of your property. So, in that regard, her actions damage your property.

Interesting. You live in a state where you actually own your own property?

[an amused spectator]

I can't, the front of your house bothers me.

LOL!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

That sounds like the story I heard about a guy who was denied permission to alter his house because it was in an "historic district." He retaliated by painting his house with polka dots...I think the color scheme was yellow with purple dots.

[Iscool]

Let's see...Who pays the taxes on this property???

Tell em' if they don't like to look at your property to put a fence around theirs so they can't see it...

IF this lady's required to contribute to the neighbors property values, she's entitled to some of the profit when they sell...

[tutstar]

She gets fined for her grass. We have a certified mentally unstable neighbor who can get away with all kinds of stuff because of it. She even threatened a toddler with a bowsaw and they wouldn't arrest her because she didn't hurt anyone.
The woman in the article ought to try and find someone to help her out. I do think that $200 per day is overkill! But a lot of things in Florida defy logic!

[BJungNan]

She is right, it is goofy. She can hire a gardener. But fines of $200 a day are outrageous.

[BJungNan]

Oh, for cryin' out loud! If the neighbors are so offended I think they could have taken turns cutting the grass every couple of weeks. Or, at least once or twice in the past 2.5 years! If she really has these health problems (or even if she's just a lady living alone) the neighbors could have made an attempt to be "neighborly".

You are exactly correct. Right on.

[GodBlessUSA]

I don't want to sound so callous. I think that if we had a neighbor so bad off, my family would try to help when we could. That said, it's not the neighbors responsibility to do so. I agree the fine imposed is extreme. Though, I'm sure she was warned time and time again. I sympathize for her as I have arthritis myself in my back, knees and shoulders. However, there is no sympathy for someone who makes the neighborhood look like garbage and then blames her handicaps for it. There are solutions. It has a major negative impact on the families and people who care for their yards and it brings the neighborhood down to have a unkept home.

[CajunConservative]

Well it used to be that neighbors took care of each other. That is what built and strengthened communities. We have lost that in this country. Everybody is so worried about their property values and stuff.

What good is a home when all your neighbors look to see if you are breaking a code of some sorts so they can report you to the governing authorities.

Heck the time it took to call the authorities and for them to come out to check would have been adequate time for a couple of able bodied men to have taken care of her yard. Her church is taking care of it now and has been for over a year, the city is just plain greedy.

[GodBlessUSA]

I agree about neighbors helping neighbors. There are 4 houses in my area and we all look out and help each other. We all would be upset if someone moved in and had an extreme eyesore to take away from what, we all in the neighborhood, have accomplished with our homes. However, I agree since the church is taking care of it now they should drop it. They accomplished what they set out to, they should leave well enough alone now.

I don't see anywhere in the article that states that neighbors didn't offer to help. There is an older man a block away who is blind and no matter how much people want to help him, he refuses the help unless it's on his terms only. He's very gruff and sometimes extremely nasty. Maybe they offered and she didn’t want it until forced into it. Who knows what really occurred? In any event, they should drop the fines now.

[gatorgriz]

My next door neighbor's wife can only walk with the aid of a walker and Sam frequently has to travel overnight as part of his job... It snows frequently out here in the winter months in Montana and snow removal chores aren't completed until Margale can get to her newspaper and mail boxes...

It's called being neighborly...

If this lady has the health problems she claims; it makes me wonder what's wrong with her neighbors?

Or have we, collectively, fallen so far that common decency and neighborly concern are ignored because of our selfishness? If so, then I'm glad I live in an area where I know all my neighbors on a first name basis and we pitch in and help each other whenever possible...

[Modernman]

""The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must." - Thucydides) "

Aren't you enlightened! Stock shelves for a living?

You haven't read Thucydides, have you? If you did, you'd get the quote.

[george wythe]

If so, then I'm glad I live in an area where I know all my neighbors on a first name basis and we pitch in and help each other whenever possible...

Count your blessings, you're lucky.

[JasonC]

Correct. The neighbors are indeed "goofy". They want it cut, all they have to do is send over a local kid every other week and pay him whatever nominal sum. But they don't want the grass cut, they want to force this old lady to admit she must do what they say. Which means they are acting like jerks.

[george wythe]

The woman in the article ought to try and find someone to help her out. I do think that $200 per day is overkill!

Correct. Even the city could send someone with a weed whacker to clear her yard, and still, it will never amount to $200 per day.

[rebootit]

This lady needs to file a homestead claim for her property and the liens placed on her property will go away. The State Constitution forbids liens on homestead property for cival fines. The code board has not authority on homestead property.