Covenants

While, after 4 months or more of looking at it, our neighbor had finally taken away that old junk truck sitting up on a trailer out in front, within days he brought in another one, but this one he parked in his driveway (along with the other non drive-able truck he has parked there) and had mentioned to DH that he was bringing another one "temporarily" to get the parts off of it. Well, we all know what "temporary" can mean..... He ended up not even coming home this past weekend (and had taken his trailer with him when he left) but came back Monday night with just the trailer. He did park that out front, but at least it's low to the ground and we can look out our front window and see the view we are supposed to see. He picked up the rear ends and just moved them over to the other side of his front yard, LOL.

The wife apparently has not gotten her old job back and is now home every day. She's been putting their dog outside in their back yard tied up about once a day. All winter they kept him inside (a blue heeler dog). When he is tied up outside he will literally bark non-stop until they bring him back in. At first she was leaving him out there about 15-20 minutes. Then an hour. She put him out there yesterday at 4pm and he literally barked until 8pm, when she brought him back in. How does a person just think that is ok? I know it happens all the time, but how can you sit in your own house and listen to your own dog bark for 4 hours straight? 1. It would drive me nuts. 2. I would feel terrible that I was annoying someone else. I feel so bad for the dog. Anyone who knows about dogs knows those cattle dogs are super high energy, as well as smart, and they need to be exercised daily and have their brains kept busy.

Last night DH got a hold of the guy that still owns these vacant lots in this little "sub division". He still has 6 lots for sale and these first two houses were built 8 years ago, so he's been trying to sell a long time. Our previous owners had mentioned he wasn't happy with the condition of the renters place either, as he feels it might be hurting his ability to sell the lots. He lives a couple hours a way, so he's not seeing the condition on a regular basis. DH assumed he was also the one that wrote up the covenants for these properties and wanted to clarify the "we can't even wash our cars here" comment the renters made. We read that particular covenant as you cannot wash or repair your vehicle in the street, but you certainly can in your own driveway.

So, the guy (seems like a nice older retired gentleman) said no, it's just the street you aren't supposed to wash vehicles on. They didn't want people washing off a muddy work truck or something in the street or on the shoulder area. Makes perfect sense.

Of course, DH brought up the fact that the renter is breaking several other covenants that we aren't very happy with, especially as it is hurting our property value/investment and DH was wondering if this guy had ever spoken to the renter's property owner and how receptive she might be to us complaining to her. He said he has talked to her before and she "seemed" receptive and he actually had talked to her about it last August and she told him she planned to move them out and put her mom in the house. Obviously that never happened. More than likely it was just something to say to delay being complained at again for awhile.

Then the guy said that as the developer of this subdivision and since the lots have not all sold he would still be considered responsible for making sure the covenants are followed. He said he'll talk to his attorney today about it today. DH told him that we are also more than willing to join in, either through his attorney or our own attorney, to also be part of the complaint. He thought that was a very good idea to have her receive notification that two property owners are not happy with the covenants being violated. He said he'll see what his attorney says on what is best way to handle this. At the end of the conversation he said he also might just give the woman a call (she also lives a couple hours away) first and see where he gets with her. I would imagine he'd try that route first, so that it might save him some legal fees.

So, I think we'll probably get some resolution at some point. He wants to protect his investment too, as well as get these lots sold at some point. Our good friends who live about a half hour from us, the wife works at a law office in the city and they handle property matters, so if need be we will use someone in her office. I wouldn't think it would cost more than a few hundred dollars to have a letter written to the lady that owns the house.

Honestly, if it weren't for the renters and all their junk vehicles and parts (and now their dog) we would probably seriously consider staying right here and not building our house. It's a quiet area at the end of town. We love this little house.  But, after spending all those years at our old house, living next door to a junkyard and crappy neighbors we are not willing to go through that again.