There is a basic disconnect between we the city have rules and I the homeowner have rights.
I live in a suburb of Norfolk. We have a neighbor who will call the city when you have one blade of grass or weed over 6”. The inspector comes out and writes a ticket for city ordinance violation that comes with a $1000 a day fine if the cited problem is not resolved to their satisfaction after the deadline. She did this to several people and even reported our neighbors house as abandoned. She reported mine as abandoned when my lawnmower broke and we were waiting for it to be shipped to us. I did look into having it mowed it was robbery just like the fines. She came over and mowed my lawn, she felt bad about the report in the process she broke my fence, my sewage drain cover and ran over the end of my hose. She replaced the sewage cover.
It is a far stretch from having weeds that can grow 6” in 3 days here and raining for 2 weeks straight to being a negligent homeowner who’s property can be called a health and safety hazard.
I was trying to address the problem and she was falsifying claims of abandonment. It was the perfect storm. Does she face any consequences for false reporting? No. She’s a former council member and none of the neighbors will have anything to do with her. Yet when she calls the city they respond.
I talked with the inspector, told him the plan and he was good. He could see exactly where my lawn mowed bought the final mow. Rip. He seemed pretty unconcerned and bothered to be here. Left me his phone number and I texted him a picture of a mowed lawn. Much ado about nothing.
Maybe this guy has been harassed ad nauseum by his neighbors. It would be time to move if that was the case. That would be my solution. It wouldn’t be at the end of a gun for people who were just doing their jobs. He was literally shooting at the wrong people. If he was being needlessly harassed then there are solutions to that too. I don’t know what was in his mind. No one does.
