Our Goal Is To Inform and Help Our Neighbors

How I Helped A Neighbor That Refused To Maintain His Property

For years I have had problems with a single male neighbor who has the money, the knowledge but no desire to maintain his property.  His lack of maintenance and desire has been a problem for 15 years.   I tried talking to him and helping him reseed his lawn and even mowed it for him for years.  I had to  protect my property because I was getting weed seeds from his lawn, insects both on the plants and in the air and even by installing a divider with shrubs, nothing seemed to help.

I attempted to help him with the work that needed to be done. In the beginning, it worked for a small period of time and then it stopped.  I got angry when he stopped caring and his lawn was overgrown and full of weeds.

I  tried to talk to him and find out why he wouldn’t be more responsible.  He told me he didn’t really care, he grew up in a home that had weeds and he didn’t see anything wrong with that. He said he wasn’t the only home on the block that looked that way.

I attempted to explain how his poor attitude and lack of maintenance directly effected my property and the others around us.  That didn’t work either.  I finally discovered that Hazlet had a Code Enforcement office and would step in and do what was necessary if he refused to comply to many code violations.  Even with the warnings, Hazlet finally had to take court action to force him to put a new roof and siding on his home..

Over the years the code officer was here to make sure he complied each year and when he did the minimum amount of work to comply, I would step in and help.  He never asked for my help, but never objected either.  So for years I would mow his lawn when I mowed mine. I cut back his shrubs that were overgrown, killed the insects and weeds that had infested his lawn and shrubs and even applied fertilizer and other beneficial lawn products when I treated my lawn.

Although this single man earned a great deal of money on his job, he never stopped me from doing the work or offered to cover the cost.  I had no choice and had to keep my family safe from the insects that were breeding in his back yard and protect the value of my home by doing what he wouldn’t do.

Other neighbors told me they wished I was their neighbor.  The thought occurred to me, what if Hazlet offered a program where neighbors could help neighbors.  For those of us who love to garden we might find the support for a program like this.  Imagine a program where High School students and volunteers would be available to help the elderly or those that didn’t have the knowledge or money to do it themselves.  What a great summer job it would be for so many Hazlet students looking for work for the summer. We could attempt to cover some of the costs through sponsorship programs and donations that we would put into motion.

Grassroots Support – Join Us Now

At the Hazlet committee meeting I was able to address the mayor the board with some of my ideas to upgrade and beautify Hazlet. There was some interest and some thought it was a good idea, but it seems as if they will not help in this effort.  For this reason, it was my decision to make this a grassroots effort, one that would be done with the help of our residents.  One that would not depend on township or government support.

I decided to take the first step and create this new online publication to help get the word out and reach Hazlet residents and businesses.  So with our readers support and a plan in place, I believe we can help our towns residents through this program.

The code office and the county health department would be an important part of the project and would have to review current codes and enforce them when necessary and if you need to place a complaint, we now have a link on the site to the Code Office and the appropriate form to register the complaint.

When the code officer visits a home with a code violation they issue a warning to the homeowner.  If they do not comply, they may issue a summons.  If you have reached out and offered your help to a neighbor who is neglecting his property or has other code violations that impact your home or the value of your home, you have the right to file a complaint. This is certainly better than ending up in arguments or worse with the neighbor and gets the town involved in the solution, rather than you.

Lets Make This Happen – Join Us On Facebook

We are urging all Hazlet residents to subscribe to our FEED so you will be emailed when a new article is posted and sign up for our email list so we can reach out to you with important breaking news.  We have also put up a new HN Group on Facebook and a FB Page, so please become part of our group and LIKE our new page.  Our Facebook effort will enable all of us to communicate better, day by day and we can than identify the problems people are having and try to address them.

If you are interested in being part of this effort, please email me and we can begin to form a group of concerned citizens. In the meantime, look at your property and see if you are guilty of neglect and make the decision to do something about it.  By doing so you can take pride in your homes, help regain the value of your property and become the good neighbor we should all be.