On Tue, 1 Apr 2003 20:02:26 +0000 (UTC), (Marc
Stephenson) wrote:


We don't all live in a city. Maybe Travis County would intervene, but I
haven't had the need to call them. Our HOA took care of it. :-) If you
don't want an HOA, by all means, avoid neighborhoods which have them. If
there is one, make sure that you understand the deed restrictions and are
willing to abide by them before taking ownership of the property.

We have no HOA, but we have deed restrictions and I can take anyone here to
court if their piles of crap lower my home value in any way.



The issue is not a matter of deciding which plants are okay. If this
woman planned and maintained her landscape/habitat, then she ought to be
able to document what's there, show plans, etc. We've seen such
lists right here. If she's just letting it
run amok (hey look, crabgrass, nutgrass, Johnson grass, broadleaf "weeds",
yahoo!), then she's not being considerate of her neighbors. I admit that it's
a subjective process. In this case, there's some evidence that the woman in
question was just paying lip service to the agreement which she signed
(she thought they would go away) and that tilts me away from straight sympathy
for her side of the situation.

When they brought in "black dirt" for my backyard, it came with Johnson
grass, and plenty of it. If I had just decided that having five-foot stalks
of Johnson grass dominating my property, should my neighbors not have the
right to complain? What if I said, I don't mind it being there, so it's
not a weed?

I don't expect my neighbors to have to follow any rules that I don't have to
follow, and I do expect them to follow the same rules that I have to follow.
Works out okay. I know what the rules are and so should they.