I'm getting ready to sell my house and the problem is my next door neighbor's yard. He has mowed the front a couple of times so far this year but not the back where the grass is probably 48" high. His yard has a Sanford & Son quality to it. Last year was the same story. There is no homeowner's association but I did call the county last year and was told they had already received several calls about this yard and he had been sent a letter - this was in May. He did eventually mow it about four times between late May and Oct. This is a neighborhood of $600,000 homes and every yard looks great except his. Had his yard looked as it does now when I bought my house, I would have passed it by. The wife died a few years ago and she used to take care of the yard. The irony is he owns a sod farm. He has two college-age kids who are home for the summer who apparently don't mow either.

The only thing I've come up with is offering to pay to have his yard mowed the rest of this season and have all the assorted yard junk hauled away but I'm assuming he would be highly offended. So, before I do that, can anyone think of a more creative way to accomplish this.
Homes are selling in my neighborhood but given the general state of the market and the number of available properties, anyone interested would take one look at any window on one side of my house and see his mess and say forget it. Thanks.

I know your feelings, I have neighbors that don't take care of their yards and would you believe park their cars in their front lawns.!!! We have an Association but no restrictions in their by laws, and the county will not do anything regarding the cars, but Code Enforcement will fine him if his yard is a health hazard. Maybe in your county, Code Enforcement has a violation code that could be applied. I would try your offer first, and then the other, if this doesn't help,and he gets offended, so be it. You have to look out for your self and your own property values.

What about the health department? The tall grass & junk are an invitation to rats & other vermin. We have something called "Vector Control" here in our city.

Do you have an Environmental Court?

Now to the humanistic approach: if the man's wife has passed away he may be simply overwhelmed...and there are lots of college age kids who are great workers, then there are the lazy ones. He may not have the strength/energy to push his kids to work around the house. Perhaps you could offer to help clean it up for the first time, pay to have the junk/tall grass removed etc. and then he might be more inclined to keep it up? Who knows, if you offer to help it could well be that he will even pay for this.

Speaking as someone whose father lost his wife & our mother recently...sometimes they just do not "see". Your neighbor may simply not be "seeing" the problem & how bad it is. If I were you I would try the compassionate approach first; even if he reacts in a negative way I would try once more...he needs to understand the health hazards of this.

Our neighbor next door is elderly & her SIL comes & mows her yard, sometimes, though, he doesn't get around to it in time. When he doesn't, we mow her yard, as we did last week when we had our Open House.

I think when it comes to marketing our homes, sometimes we have to go to some real lengths in this market!

I totally agree with Peri. If you don't know much about him, then you might not know if he is in bad health and is unable to take care of his yard. Or perhaps he is very depressed from the loss of his wife. You say that she always took care of the yard. Maybe that reminds him too much of her and he is unable to handle it right now. There are many factors that we are sometimes unable to see when we are not in the other person's shoes.

I agree that knocking on his door and just asking him if you can help would be the first thing you should do....the most compassionate way to handle the situation. Don't assume he will be offended. He may greatly appreciate the offer!! How old is he? Is he an elderly man?

Well, I think I would bring a fresh baked apple pie, or a nice dish. Let him know how sorry you are for his loss, and talk to him a little.

Get a sense, if he is depressed. He will probably start talking about her..or at least make a comment how much she is missed.


You could say I remember how she loved working in the yard. Many days I saw he out their enjoying nature.

Then may be you could say - are your boys helping you out? Gently, he'll get the hint. You could add if you need some help, please do not hesitate to ask.

Then wait and see if he takes action. If not, I would continue the code enforcement route.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: real estate lady,

I agree with REL. That would be a very neighborly thing to do. Maybe that would be just the thing to motivate him to do something about it.

I'm sure he is depressed and still grieving. My Dad mourned for my Mom for 5 years after her death. He stayed terribly depressed.
There were days he was doing all he could to just get dressed much less to work in the yard. My Mom had been the caretaker of the yard too.

Does this gentlemen keeps his blinds closed? He may not even realize just how bad it is out there.
Then again, he may be not wanting to touch it in memory of his wife. I say this because my Dad made the whole house and everything in it a memorial to my Mom.


Everything had tags attached to it; this is the last jar of stewed prunes Mom made for me; yes, I'm not kidding.They stayed in a glass jar in the fridge for over 2 years before we convinced him to let us throw them out.
This is the last purse Mom used before going to the hospital; this is the last box of shredded wheat Mom opened and so on.

So he may have that kind of an attachment to the yard and not see in his own eyes what a nuisance and eyesore much less a health hazard he has created.

I'd go over and really be direct with him. Explain your house is for sale and no one will buy it because of the condition of his yard.
Ask if there is some way you could come to an understanding because you'd hate to have bring outside sources into the situation.

Ask if there is a reason his sons can't/ won't help or if he needs the help in the first place.
It could be the thing he hates the most in all the world is lawn care and that's why he isn't doing it.

Explain about rodents, snakes, grass fires, etc.
Maybe he hasn't thought that out.

If need be then offer to pay to have his yard cleaned up.I would allow him the dignity to come up with his own solution first.

Good luck.

You should be very careful if you are thinking about taking care of a neighbor's property while your home is on the market. In one of our home purchases in California we found nothing unusual about the particular neighborhood, nice homes and manicured lawns prior to move in. Lived there a couple of months and next door neighbors yard turned to trash, weeds and overgrown grass and it just got worse and worse. Back yard was a mass of dog mess causing flies and we had to call the health department. Found out that the people we purchased from were taking care of the neighbor's yard so that the neighborhood appeared nice while the house was on the market and when they moved, the neighbor yard's went back to its usual mess. It really was horrible for us having just purchased and living next door. It made the neighborhood look and smell awful and it just got worse and worse. We did a lot of research and and we were advised to sue the realtor and previous owners. They were all a part of the deception. I can't remember now what the legal term was but we decided not to sue because we'd never sued anyone in our life and it just didn't feel right. My point, just be careful. Someone else in our shoes may have sued. It took about 2 years but the yucky neighbors lost their home to forclosure and a wonderful couple moved in and took immaculate care of the yard/home and we made a good profit when we eventually sold.

I totally agree with Neesha. The first thing I thought of when reading your post was that I would be very angry if I found out the prior owner was taking care of their yard just to get theirs sold. This is deceptive. I do think some wonderful suggestions and perspectives have been brought up though that may get him moving in the right direction on a more permanant basis...not just to get your home sold. Neighbor issues can be so frustrating so I do understand.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I hadn't thought about the possibility of being sued - I guess I'll stick with contacting the county again and hoping they can light a fire under him. Maybe I can sue him for diminishing the value of my property! I did take food over when the wife died and a couple of times thereafter, and made a contribution in her memory but never received a thank you - which is fine - not everyone is into thank yous. He's not elderly, he's 50'ish, and I'm not sure grief is his problem because he has a lady friend but then everyone handles grief differently. Thanks again.

You could approach him and say that your realtor is concerned that his yard may deter a sale. Offer to find a service for him if he feels that he and his sons don't have the time.

Mention how lovely his wife kept it.

Just try to keep it friendly.

... Or have the Realtor write him a firm letter. Wasted advertising dollars.. etc.

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but if he doesn't care about his own property, why should he care about yours and your sale?

Approach him positively, as others have suggested, and if there are no results, then check your ordinances to see if going that route is viable. Unless there is a law against long grass and "junk" there isn't much you can do. Erect a privacy fence, maybe?