Residence Association???!?!?!

Memnoch

Okay,
So I'm walking home after a long day, and i'm intercepted by some woman who tells me the "residence association" wanted "her" to tell me to get the grass cut. "she's not giving out to me or anything", but she just thought she'd let me know since thats "what they wanted her to do".

my reply was, "sure no problem, i've been looking to have the grass cut myself, but haven't seen anyone in the area doing it recently. If you know someone i'd be more than happy to have it cut, or maybe if the 'resident's association"'can recommend someone that would be great."

What is it with people and my front grass? Its not like its a jungle. Does it somehow devalue their property? I guess i'm too young for this kind of crap.

I'm 23, too busy with college, and sex (well not atm) and wasting away hours of my life on pointless exercises to be bothered with cutting grass. TBH I don't mind, if some kid came along asking to cut the grass ,i'd happily say, here's a fiver, thanks a lot.

But i really don't like the idea of some wierdo's sitting around a table talking to themselves going..

"hmm, no 2's grass is getting over the legal limit"
"yes certainly, its hazardous to the community!"
"want some more tea with those crumpets?"
"no seriously we just HAVE to talk to no. 2 about this"
"oh, I say jolly what, jolly jolly?"

So I guess what I'm asking is, next time this woman comes to moan at me what're my options?

I'm tempted to give her the finger, or a few fingers and tell her she is welcome to cut the grass herself if she is that intersted and to please pass my comments to the resident loosers.

Or maybe that she should go to the gym and loose those 5 stones she's been meaning too instead of getting stressed out over the aesthetic appeal of the grass.

I guess all this **** is just too middle age for me. My parents bought the house, but they live in England, and I'm living here while i'm at Uni.

Maybe i'm just spoilt, or maybe I'm just a 23 year old teenage rebel..

either way... I feel a violent urge coming.

btw who the feck are "residents associations" anyways? I've sneaking suspicion its a bunch of housewives with nothing better to do then run around with inch tapes measuring the length of people's front grass (*disclaimer - no offence to most housewives).

Agent Smith

go and find out where she live's and plant fast grow grass sead in her garden.....



Trust me, just offer a kid a fiver to cut it, the residence ass we got here would report you to the council for the slightest thing, (us for converting a garage into a room)




or give them the finger/s

either is good

rob1891

concrete the lot of it.

We've got a pretty nice bunch here, they did there best to keep the eastern health board from buying a house to be used as a place for children with mental illness to stay in for brief periods (to give parents a break). The association failed thankfully and the health board have it up and running.

At the moment they are objecting to plans for apartments to be built near by, which is semi-laudible. (I'd say **** them we need more places to live in Dublin, they'd say ouch the inflated value of my house is going to go down).

Are they a middle class phenomenon?

Grass cutting and most regular gardening is essentially a fasist exercise of control over nature for no purpose other than self satisfaction. I'd suggest you leaflet the estate and warn the good god fearing citizenship that there is a black shirt in their midst, that or hardcore porn ...

get the grass cut when you feel like it, tell her you don't appreciate the intrusion and you heard their concerns the first time. Just be polite about telling them to fuck off

exCrumlinBoyo

I don't have time for busy bodies like her telling people what to do ! If that were me I would more than likely tell her to Fook Off, with a big smile on my face and tell her that if it bothers you and the assiccosiation that much, well then you cut me bleeding grass !


I would get it cut in the end but wait a few days. I hate fookers like that telling me what to do. They piss me off.

loismustdie

when did this resident association movement come into the world/

Victor

Originally posted by Memnoch
Does it somehow devalue their property?

Yes, marginally - they have "scuffy students" in the neighbourhood. But there is nothing they can do to make you cut your grass.

tuxy

it might be a bad idea to get on their bad side though
they would be watching you like a hawk and if you were ever to do anything even slightly illegal they would have you reported
resident associations can cause people alot of hassle

BuffyBot

Maybe i'm just spoilt

Maybe, just maybe.

Welcome to the world. These people exist, and you have two choices: do nothing, or do something.

TBH it sounds like they're taking it a bit too far, but you might be taking it a bit too seriously.

Dr. Dre

Deffo tell them to fu*k off.

m0rt

ask yourself... what would Tony Soprano do?

rs

You are spoilt.

Perhaps if you had actually worked for the money to buy your house you would understand.

I admit it's a bit much to come around and insist that you cut the grass.

Just remember that a lot of the other people in your estate have had to work very hard and for many years to be able to buy a house.

They don't have rich mommies and daddies that pay their way through life. They would like the place they live to look decent, because in many cases the focus of their life for the past several years has been to purchase their house.

Mighty_Mouse

yes theres two sides to this remember.

most people owning houses living in estates are married couples. They worked bought and paid for their houses. Spent time painting decorating and making a nice home for themselves. They also have gone to a lot of time and effort gardening, buying shrubs etc etc...........

And between all this effort and pride in their homes sits your "****hole" which hasnt been looked after at all. And in fairness the grass must be fairly bad for the residence association to complain!

You have two options:
1. Did you sign a lease which said you will look after the upkeeo of the place?
- if you did then maby ask the landlord for a lawnmower (he might not have to give you one)
"2 If you didnt then ring you landlord and tell him. Its in his best interests not to get on the wrong side of residence associations either. (tax reporting etc )

Finally remember that residence associations can cause an "awful" lotof hassle for you. Parties - reported , gardia for slighest noise,
people coming and going - drugs house (got this one ourselves on time)

Beruthiel

if I lived near you and was in the process of selling my house, I’d probably be very miffed to say the least. I would be looking for a good price and a quick sale, having you next door would do damage to both. What I’m saying is yes, you have a responsibility to your neighbours for things such as these. Not all of us have had your luck in life and have had to work long and hard to buy a home.

Emboss

lads.....

he hasn't cut the grass.....

so f*cking what ?

it's his garden he can have the grass anyway he likes. next time she comes along tell her to mind her own f*cking buisness, and if the grass pisses her off sho much SHE CAN CUT IT!.

I can't belive people have nothing better to do these days than complain about the height of someones grass.

xx

Think you have it bad Memnoch? 'tis nothing compared to the ar$ebags where I live. I'm at home with my family and in the estate where we live there is a big green area where all the kids play usually. But the grass needs to be cut occassionally so the residents committee set up some fund that people pay every 6 months or whatever to get the grass sorted out. However, two points:
- Me and my mates never use the green cuz, well basically, we're too old and would rather go to the pub. Same goes for my parents, they don't go near the place.
- About half of the residents in the place, with kids, don't pay the friggin' thing despite the fact that their kids play on it.

Now every once in a while the committee send these sharky letters around asking for the money (100 yoyo's or so). We've always paid it before (since about 1990) but now that we're refusing to pay it (because of the above 2 points) they're getting all obnoxious and annoying. 'tis a pain.

seamus

Originally posted by Memnoch
What is it with people and my front grass? Its not like its a jungle. Does it somehow devalue their property? I guess i'm too young for this kind of crap.

I'm younger than you, and I prefer a house that looks halfway decent on the outside. As said, yes it can devalue their property - particularly those neighbours close to you. When someone else comes looking at their house, they see an unkept house next door, and immediately think, "Well, what else is wrong with them? Alcoholics? Scumbags? Students? Maybe I'll just pass on this one."

TBH I don't mind, if some kid came along asking to cut the grass ,i'd happily say, here's a fiver, thanks a lot.

Then do that - if she comes around again, tell her to send her son, or one of her neighbour's sons around and you'll pay them. Although cutting grass can be quite theraputic, and is a nice escape when you're studying for exams, it can also be a pain in the arse. You can't possibly be soooo busy that you can't spare an hour on a Sunday morning to clean up the outside of the house a bit.

But i really don't like the idea of some wierdo's sitting around a table talking to themselves going..

btw who the feck are "residents associations" anyways? I've sneaking suspicion its a bunch of housewives with nothing better to do then run around with inch tapes measuring the length of people's front grass (*disclaimer - no offence to most housewives).

Yeah, pretty much just bored housewives. Strictly speaking they're not necessary, and in some areas they're nothing more than gossips pits and nosey moaners, but other times they can be useful as a way of getting what you want, or refusing what you don't want. Remember, they see the estate as their home, the place they'll live for the next x years. You don't see it that way, which is probably why you're not interested in making it a nice place to live.

Sleepy

Does she have a young lad that'd do the grass for a few euro?

I know we're guilty of the same in my house here in Dublin but it's literally because we don't have a lawn mower and haven't had one since we moved in. The landlord gets someone in to do it about every 6 months but it still looks a bit scruffy...

If you've got a lawnmower I'd reccommend just cutting it, otherwise you'll end up with the police outside your door every time you have a party / gathering of any kind.

mycroft

We've got a pretty nice bunch here, they did there best to keep the eastern health board from buying a house to be used as a place of mentally retarded children to stay in for brief periods (to give parents a break). Failed thankfully.

rob you're all bloody heart.......

if you met their parents or saw what they had to go through you'd be a little more sympathetic.....

seamus

Originally posted by mycroft
rob you're all bloody heart.......

if you met their parents or saw what they had to go through you'd be a little more sympathetic.....

I could be wrong, but what I think he meant was they failed to block it happening (thankfully).

rob1891

crap, I just read over that and it comes across a little wrong. The res. assoc. are a shower of cunts for going against that purchase and luckily were unsuccessful in attempting to stop the house being put to that use, I see the kids coming and going every so often and they are trouble to no one (they're kids ffs!).

eep!

They do some helpful things in the estate but this kind of behaviour is the true face of our residence association, and for that I'd have nothing to do with them, protecting their hard earned investment or not.

AntiRip

they came to my door asking for E50 to cut the big open green area in the estate !

seamus

Originally posted by AntiRip
they came to my door asking for E50 to cut the big open green area in the estate !

The local council should look after that. They tend not to touch it during the winter, btu where I used to live, they cut it every 3/4 weeks during the summer.

Sleipnir

Originally posted by AntiRip
they came to my door asking for E50 to cut the big open green area in the estate !

The council should do that shouldn't they?
Did every house surrounding the green area give 50 euro?
For 30 houses that's €1,500.
I'll do it for half that!

eth0_

The residents association where I live tried to block a planning application for one of the houses to be used as a day care centre for autistic children. Autistic children! Now, I could understand their chagrin if it was to be turned into a halfway house for rapists and murders, but these kids are well supervised, we have big back gardens so they are never out on the many communal greens we have, yet the people next door still moan that these kids 'make noise' and 'shout things repetitively' when they're playing in the garden. Well duh. I'd rather listen to a kid chanting a different vowel a week over and over for an hour, than to the residents associations foul mouthed little brats out on the big green behind my house!

But I can see their point about people who don't look after their houses...I know if I was going to buy/rent a house and saw the next door was quite scruffy, the first thing that would spring to mind is 'students' or 'knackers'. I know it could be something simple like the owner has fallen on hard times or is ill, but it's human nature to think the worst lol

As for paying a yearly fee to keep communal areas looking nice, I bet it's mostly the renters etc who complain, having well kept communal areas DOES add to the value of your house, and those who are too miserly to pay it ruin it for everyone else, for instance we used to have a playground on one the largest green in my estate, 2 years ago this was all dismantled because hardly anyone was paying their residents assoc. subs, and they couldn't afford the insurance (which is ENORMOUS) anymore. Of course, the people who were too miserly to pay it still sent their kids down there to play on the swings!

I think RA's are a *good* thing, if anything they encourage a bit of community in an estate, which is a nice thing in an age where lots of people don't even know their next door neighbours' names!

eth0_

Originally posted by seamus
The local council should look after that. They tend not to touch it during the winter, btu where I used to live, they cut it every 3/4 weeks during the summer.

That sounds like rubbish. (Unless you live in a council owned estate) My county council has no responsibility for this - and i'm pretty sure it'd be the same of every co. council - (can you IMAGINE how much it would cost Dublin corpo to cut the grass in every estate every few months?), for obvious fiscal reasons! The council only has responsibility for the maintenence of the roads and the street lamps and they can barely handle that, I wouldn't like to think how they'd handle grass cutting heh

seamus

Originally posted by eth0_
That sounds like rubbish. (Unless you live in a council owned estate) My county council has no responsibility for this - and i'm pretty sure it'd be the same of every co. council - (can you IMAGINE how much it would cost Dublin corpo to cut the grass in every estate every few months?), for obvious fiscal reasons! The council only has responsibility for the maintenence of the roads and the street lamps and they can barely handle that, I wouldn't like to think how they'd handle grass cutting heh

The responsibility for cutting the grass, maintaining the roads, lighting, barrier walls, and pretty much everything not on a private piece of land falls to the organisation who owns it. For most places, that's the Local Council. When you buy a house in an estate, you buy a set plot, and have no ownership over any green areas in front of it. Same for everyone else in the estate. So who looks after the green areas? The councils do. When a developer is finished with an estate, they arrange handover of any public areas and facilities to the council. A few places in Lucan have been without street lighting for extended periods - the developer refused to pay for the electricity, and the council refused to take ownership due to some discrepancies.

Third_Echelon

Originally posted by Sleipnir
The council should do that shouldn't they?
Did every house surrounding the green area give 50 euro?
For 30 houses that's €1,500.
I'll do it for half that!

its private land so the council are not responsible for maintaining it.. usually after a set number of years there is a handover type thing where the council then become responsible for it...

Memnoch

hehe, some interesting replies there...
anyways I don't have a lawn mower, the grass isn't that bad, apparently the guy who used to live here before me got a lot of hassle as well. Anyways, like I said, I have no problem paying to have the grass cut, but I'm not around during most of the day so I haven't seen any kids offering to cut it.

though i have to say some of the "points" being made are a bit over the top
I can't believe that having a little bit of grass outside the house somehow turns me into an alcoholic, or a skanger.

Ya its true i'm not living here "permenantly" nevertheless, I think i'm just too young to give a **** about useless crap like this. If people think like that, then they seriously need to have their heads examined.

so anyways in conclusion, if someone comes by asking to cut the grass i'll happily get it done, but if they give me anymore hassle I'll tell them plain and simple, sure I can't find anyone, if u can fair enough, otherwise quit bothering me.

I don't really have parties or make any noise so they can't really report me for anything. (except the dungeon under my house where I keep illegally captured lions from africa, but they don't know about that)

It really does sound like a bunch of bored housewives though... what a bunch of loosers :P

eth0_

Originally posted by Memnoch


though i have to say some of the "points" being made are a bit over the top
I can't believe that having a little bit of grass outside the house somehow turns me into an alcoholic, or a skanger.

Yes, to you it might be a 'little' bit of grass, but it's hard for us to judge without actually seeing what it's like. Take a pic :OP

As for the council, I can think of at least 5 estates around my side of my town for which the council are not responsible for grass cutting..

seamus

Originally posted by Memnoch
though i have to say some of the "points" being made are a bit over the top
I can't believe that having a little bit of grass outside the house somehow turns me into an alcoholic, or a skanger.

Ah it doesn't, but as eth0_ said, people immediately assume the worst - i.e. If you're not looking after your garden, there must be something seriously deficient.
Tbh, if the grass isn't that long (If you couldn't lose a Chihuahua in it like), then it's not a problem. Some gardens just look untidy until there's some landscaping done around the edges, or flowers put in, or weeds killed, etc, and no amount of grass cutting will make it look any better. They can fnck off alright if they want you to start planting roses

Asok

Ah the good old R|A the middle age mafia.

Ours are fairly sound just have some annoying rules like the bins can be left out the night before and only from 6am on the day of collection which doesnt really matter in our gaf as im usually out the door before 7am...........its just a matter of me remembering its bin day. Our neighbours have saved us so so so much grief from them as they are very nice people who we just called over to and said " if we are ever making too much noise just come over to tell us and we will keep it down" and tbh we get on fine with them hell the guy next door comes over and does our lawns and keeps the shrubs in check.Every time though im there and want to give him a few quid as its doing us a huge favour.

Cookie

be very charming and act like they're offering - 'THANKS, GREAT! If it bothers you, please feel free to come into the garden whenever suits'

Unless they have a communal lawnmower or something...

Hellrazer

Our Assoc wanted to give every house hold a disposable camera to photograph undesirables in the estate.
Ony one problem with that though--It would probably be me(and a few friends) on a Saturday night falling from the nightlink to my hall door who would be on most of these cameras.
They also asked one of the residents to paint the outside of their house as it looked untidy.He did paint it---A totally different colour than every other house on the road AND painted his window sills bright green.

Emboss

i'd go to the nearest travaller site and buy an aul wrecked caravan and stick it in the front garden. just to piss her off!

that should cheer her up!

Emboss

Originally posted by Hellrazer
Our Assoc wanted to give every house hold a disposable camera to photograph undesirables in the estate.
Ony one problem with that though--It would probably be me(and a few friends) on a Saturday night falling from the nightlink to my hall door who would be on most of these cameras.
They also asked one of the residents to paint the outside of their house as it looked untidy.He did paint it---A totally different colour than every other house on the road AND painted his window sills bright green.

rofl classic.....

some aul wans just need a good lash!

hubbys must work _alot_ around your area

Sleepy

It's amazing what forms sexual frustration comes out in at times....

As for resident's associations determining "rules" about not putting the bins out the night before etc. That's a little ludicrous to say the least...

Third_Echelon

Originally posted by Hellrazer
Our Assoc wanted to give every house hold a disposable camera to photograph undesirables in the estate.
Ony one problem with that though--It would probably be me(and a few friends) on a Saturday night falling from the nightlink to my hall door who would be on most of these cameras.
They also asked one of the residents to paint the outside of their house as it looked untidy.He did paint it---A totally different colour than every other house on the road AND painted his window sills bright green.

That would be invasion of privacy though... wouldn't it? I'd be calling the cops on those busy boddies...

Hellrazer

Its a classic alright.Each month theres a newsletter sent around which reads like a miniature Hitlers Mein Kampf.
I think I still have that one about the camera around somewhere.Another one was about the bins so I leave mine out the night before on purpose.
Then they wanted all the roads washed(Yep washed).
Our one is a real militant one--As for their meetings--Im not even going there.

Third_Echelon

Originally posted by Hellrazer
Its a classic alright.Each month theres a newsletter sent around which reads like a miniature Hitlers Mein Kampf.
I think I still have that one about the camera around somewhere.Another one was about the bins so I leave mine out the night before on purpose.
Then they wanted all the roads washed(Yep washed).
Our one is a real militant one--As for their meetings--Im not even going there.

you should ring gerry ryan or someone like that and complain about them... that'd be funny...

washing the roads!!! what a joke!!!

I'd nearly go to one of the meetings for the comedy value and oppose everything they say....

NeMiSiS

Theres a pack of those rat bastard pychotics around here, and the ****ing **** beasts aint in charge of an estate..they got hold of a whole ****ing town ! A TOWN !

They get together and object to houses being built etc, but heres the deal yeh.. one of these ****ers brothers is a property developer.. where ever this **** wants to build houses 'oh yeh no problem !' point is they never object to what he wants to do. My family tried to build a house, and they went ape****, they aint particulary fond of my family.

One of these good for nothing bastard sons and daughters (mostly daughters) of Hitler went on TV and made bull**** cliams about my families business, cant go into it too much but it involved absestos and school kids..

So ya know what id do to Ol Mrs Mow your lawn and her SS Brigade.. Id salt their lawns, pour petrol all over them and *WOMPH* Then you got the god damn best kept lawn in the place !

Tom

Sleepy

or for the more subtle amongst you, use miracle grow (or any type of decent lawn feed) to spell out B|TCH on her lawn during the dead of night. It'll take a few weeks to take effect but it'll be worth it

Beruthiel

this thread is very close to being binned
B

Memnoch

Originally posted by Beruthiel
this thread is very close to being binned
B

why? people seem to be having fun venting their frustrations at the local RA, which in general sound like more trouble than their worth from all i've read so far TBH

mycroft

crap, I just read over that and it comes across a little wrong. The res. assoc. are a shower of **** for going against that purchase and luckily were unsuccessful in attempting to stop the house being put to that use, I see the kids coming and going every so often and they are trouble to no one (they're kids ffs!).

Sorry rob.

Just working on a doc about the lack of support for families with mentally disturbed children, it's a nightmare for their parents and it's been difficult to watch, I can only imagine the hell they're going through.

Unpossible

Ask to rent a lawn mower for an hour or two, when they give it to you somehow manage to hurt yourself with it eg trip over it, sprain your hand trying to start it etc,

you can then make a claim against the person who gave you the lawn mower (this is the reason my dad doesn't give people his ladders anymore). Tell them you'll drop the case if they leave you to live your own life. A lawsuit over one of their members will make them think twice about causing you trouble.


then again this is a derranged mind talking would it really kill you to keep your garden tidy? if you decide to cut it but feel like being a bastard then take off the box of the lawn mower & let the cuttings spread everywhere, don't clean them up if asked why you didn't say that you believe in naturally fertilising the lawn. The smell of decomposing plants on a hot summer day might stop them asking you to cut your lawn.

again this is a derranged mind talking

Red Alert

The RA in our place is similarly a breeding ground for hacks - essentially it's the SU for the middle-aged.

To the thread starter, it's your garden, your lawn and therefore you call the shots. She can whine until the cows come home, but at the end of the day it's your decision. Imagine if I walked into the Supermarket and told them I didn't like the colour of the floor

Unpossible

spead salt or weed killer all over your own lawn. then you'll never have to cut it, problem solved. Tell them you don't know why the grass stopped growing but the mud patch is comming along nicely

Sleepy

Beruthiel - If you don't want this thread in PI can I suggest moving it to After Hours instead? It's quite entertaining...

eth0_

Originally posted by Hellrazer
Its a classic alright.Each month theres a newsletter sent around which reads like a miniature Hitlers Mein Kampf..

Have you got any old ones? Scan them the hell in! haha! We get a newsletter about 2-3 times a year!
Ohyeah, I meant to point out that res assocs can do good stuff, like the one in my estate holds a huge BBQ every summer in our park and also puts on a christmas do with santa every year in the country club behind our estate...

Unpossible

Shout at them in Benders voice
"I going to start my own Res Assoc, with blackjack and hookers..........
infact forget the Res Assoc"



aaaah futurama where would i be without thee.

You could of course try and claim that your only a student renting the house and that they should speak with your landlord about it. This won't work if they know you

Hellrazer

Originally posted by eth0_
Have you got any old ones? Scan them the hell in! haha! We get a newsletter about 2-3 times a year!
Ohyeah, I meant to point out that res assocs can do good stuff, like the one in my estate holds a huge BBQ every summer in our park and also puts on a christmas do with santa every year in the country club behind our estate...

Ill see if I can find them.If I do Ill post them up here.
Richie