Deployed Soldier Getting Sued For Not Landscaping His Home

• October 8, 2008

Is there anything in the world more vile than a Homeowner’s Association?

KENNEWICK — Burke Jensen moved to Kennewick about a year ago, bought a nice house in the country south of the city and began to settle into a new job at Energy Northwest.
Then came the call five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait.
So Jensen, who says he is an involuntarily mobilized reservist, headed off, leaving behind a pregnant wife, a young son and a 2.5-acre lot with not a spot of landscaping.
Now, Lt. Jensen is being told to get an irrigation system and landscaping on his property as soon as possible or face legal action from the Oak Hill Country Estates Homeowners’ Association.

Get a load of the sweetie pie who is leading the charge against Lt. Jensen:

“I really don’t give a [expletive] where he is or what his problem is,” said Chick Edwards, owner and developer of the 47-lot subdivision at the south end of Oak Street in Kennewick.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” said Edwards, who insists Jensen has violated terms of the homeowners-association covenants requiring that landscaping be completed within one year after an occupancy permit is issued for a home.

Wow.
Discussion question: Why on earth would you buy property in an area controlled by a Homeowner’s Association? Do you really want to live in a situation where your neighbors can vote to decide what color your house is going to be? Or how you landscape your yard?

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http://www.sayanythingblog.com/ electnixon

(mostly unrelated to the current posting):

A guy here at work said that their older neighbor came over and told his wife that she could not get her mower to start and asked if the wife would mow her lawn so it didn’t get too tall. Being a good neighbor, she did.

The next month, the old woman was back to complain that she hadn’t come back to cut her grass yet.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

When I lived in Houston our HOA got so out of hand that we could not even out up a for sale sign! Before signing the dotted line people really need to investigate the HOA in the desired neighborhood.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

HOA’s can be a menace. However if you live in a neighborhood with homes that are half a million $$$’s and up you might want one. I am not one to pick about colors or political signs in the yard or even get picky about landscaping. BUT there are some things that I would like to see my HOA enforce. It just so happens we have a neighbor who doesn’t mow or edge, has coolers and trash out in their front yard and driveway, has mufflers and beer cans on the driveway, & has a huge trailer with motor cross bikes parked on the street. It is not pretty! Sometimes HOA’s can be very petty. BUT sometimes property values can fall when home owners neglect certain specifications.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Wouldn’t the right thing to do to be at least in part helping this guy get his yard landscaped?
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

That is so funny!!! HA haha! I like that old lady!
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

If I were her, I’d put up a big sign in my front yard (probably also prohibited by the HOA) stating

“My husband is overseas performing his duty to his country and putting his life on the line in the defense of freedom.
That includes defending your right to harass him, his pregnant wife and child over not landscaping the damn yard while he’s deployed, Chick!”
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I’d fire her.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

That is the kind of thing that would happen in Midland Texas too! I actually wanted to send my yard guy over and have them mow and edge our neighbors yard on my dime. It wasn’t really a matter of money with them though. They just had to be nudged into doing it for themselves. Landscaping is a totally different matter than mowing and keeping the outside looking nice and trash free.
di butler

I live in a HOA community, and they pick and choose who to harrass. However, can’t the people in the neighborhood get together and raise the money for a service to come in to do this? What a bunch of asses. And that developer is a true American…idiot.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

electnixon: Reminds me of that story of the fellow sitting out in a lawn chair drinking beer while his wife mows the lawn. A neighbor comes over to scold him: “You should be hung!”
To which he replies, “I am!”
larry hilt

the soldiers and sailors act will help protect him but the local VA/DAV/VFW need to get involved as well as any vet in the area ,, if this guy wants to ever sell another piece of dirt ,,,free dirt,,,he will chip in and set the land right for a returning vet
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Wouldn’t the right thing to do to be at least in part helping this guy get his yard landscaped?

That’s the sort of thing that would happen in North Dakota.
WOOFX

Good chance the reservist had no idea of the extent
of the Home owners Association control of the property.

As the developer is head of the Assoc. it probably
means he has a majority of unsold property.
Developer/ Assoc. president be able to start fining the reservist as a prelude to a lien on and the taking of the property.

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Deployed Soldier Getting Sued For Not Landscaping His Home

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