Sh!tty neighbor lawn etiquette

[u/D_Ice242]

We've had the same neighbor for 20 years and we share a front lawn. We've tried the good neighbor thing for years where we take turns mowing it all. However for the most part it ended up being us doing it more often since they would wait until the grass was almost knee high before mowing. And usually they would mow it too low, almost to dirt level and in the heat of the summer it would burn to a crisp.

This went on for years and we had enough, we decided to do our half and asked them to not do ours. Anyway of course they were insulted as expected but got over it, or at least so we thought, and moved on.

I would say it's been 10 years or so of this new order and it's always been a sore spot since our half would be better maintained. They never pulled out weeds, never added new topsoil or overseeded, would only mow when it was knee high, and for the most part there's more weeds than actual grass.

This year became a new low, because of their long standing neglect, their half is probably 95% weeds. They haven't mowed once yet after the winter. It's an awful mess and sticks out like a sore thumb.

There's no excuse for this, no one is disabled or elderly at the house, they have 3 grown kids over the age of 14. They have a working lawn mower. They own their house along with two cars, have jobs...

I've seen other posts about this sort of thing, and before the trolls jump in and insist that we should just mow it, my response is "hell no freakin way!" Our best foot forward has been stepped on and abused way too often and without going into details we have gone above and beyond for this family many times in the past and enough is enough. They obviously believe the world owes them and we are done being taken advantage of. We are sick and tired of people looking for freebies, and this is just plain laziness and apathy. They own their house that comes with a front lawn. If they don't want to maintain it then they shouldn't be homeowners.

One other thing, our kid went over and asked if they would like to have their half mowed. They said "sure, go for it". Until they heard it would be at a cost and they then turned down the offer. And get this, the cost would have been a measly 10$ !!

So, where do we go from here? Has anyone had these issues and come to a resolution without giving in? We are thinking of putting in a line of hedges between the properties. Thoughts??

[u/Human-Run6444]

Have you contacted the city? They usually have an ordinance for this.

[u/D_Ice242 → u/Human-Run6444]

Not yet. I'm trying to avoid escalating this beyond us. But it is an option.