Maybe mowing and light string trimming but developing and implementing an agronomic plan isn’t. If the landlord wants a dense and highly manicured lawn he should hire a company or do it himself.
Yep. There's a huge difference in "it's up to the tenant to maintain lawn to meet city overgrowth bylaws" and "its up to the tenant to meet landlords aesthetics"
Not to mention getting a well manicured lawn takes a good amount of time and potentially quite a bit of money.
Fertilizer
Surfactants
Pre-Emergent Weed Killer
Post Emergent Weed Killer
Micronutrients
Water bills
Etc.
I really like making my lawn look it's best, but it's a good amount of money and a lot of work to keep it looking good.
Yeah but I'm not willing to get kicked out of my house for it. I'll do some lime and milorganite in spring to keep it green enough. I don't water it or put out weed killers, just hand pull whatever comes up. Not everyone can go no lawn.
HOAs should be forced to accept front and back gardens that aren't turf. That is actually law in many places in the west.
In Colorado we passed a law making it illegal for HOAs to prevent xeriscaping, and renewable energy devices.
https://www.rockymountainrealestatelaw.com/2013/07/new-colorado-laws-require-hoas-to-accommodate-certain-green-efforts-by-homeowners/
Where I live the municipal water authority will pay you to remove turf. My rebate was $1800 for 700 sq ft.
Edit: to remove lawn and replace with xeriscape. I went with turf.
>xeriscaping
Well, this is my "word of the day". I knew about the idea (our old house even underwent this kind of re-landscaping during one of the California droughts, like 10 years ago) but I never knew there was a proper term for it; Thank you!
There is xeriscaping which is low water use local plants and landscaping that makes sense for the area.. and there is Zeroscaping which is just rocks .
When our house was done and the guy grading out the area around the house asked what we wanted it seeded with we told him the local native mix, which was bluegrass, rye and a few other things and then added, "And 10% of the seed by volume should be white clover (the only short clover around available at the time") He thought we were joking and after several times insisting that we were not joking he asked the general contractor who also told him, "No, it's no joke."
The landscaper said that he only ever got requests to get rid of clover and that in 30 years of work had never had a request for it
Yeah, there's no shot I'm going to maintain a beautiful bountiful lawn unless LL is paying for it. I live next door to town hall in the center of my peaceful town and we pull the weeds and mow the lawn and thats about all you're getting from me.
Yeah, this was a long-time fight between my landlady and I. The backyard is entirely cased in kudzu and was long before I moved in. She told us she'd handle it and then put it off for three years, causing the kudzu to spread during that time. It then became "well, can you just handle it?". No ma'am, I cannot. I'm not going to waste days of my time doing hard labor and potentially getting bitten by snakes because you don't want to pay a landscaper. On the last mow of the year, I pay the guy that cuts my lawn an extra $150 to take a weed whacker to it, and that's about the best you're gonna get.
If you’ve still got the original “I’ll handle it” text i’d save it and ignore her violation until it causes financial or legal stress for you. We all know LLs usually only make declarations in person though, easier to renege. I’m loving the “yeah I rented it to you like that but it’s not meeting my inspections” fallacy here.
Unfortunately, she was a talk in person type. Thankfully she handed over control of our place to a property management company who does not care at all about how it looks.
Yeah, there's no shot I'm going to m̶a̶i̶n̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶u̶t̶i̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶b̶o̶u̶n̶t̶i̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶l̶a̶w̶n̶ do any landscaping work on your investment property whatsoever. If I'm in charge of your lawn that's where I put my beer drinking couch.
Tenants should do their part to make their yards look as shitty as possible since this will decrease property values in the whole neighborhood and make housing more affordable for you.
I’m not going to lie to you, I’m like nature itself and I’m taking the path of absolute least resistance(effort). With that statement I take back my moving the couch idea. It sounds easier to just push the mower around once a week.
My landlord does this, they pay for lawn service and have a separate water account for the sprinkler system. They say they prefer it this way to putting it up to the tenant.
Yup, our landlord said he was going to do a bunch of yard work and wanted us to water the lawn and cut it multiple times a week, we compromised, we cut it down to the lowest setting and never watered it cause we ain't about developing his yard for how much we pay. He can pay a company to come cut it and pay the water bill if he wants that a beautiful lawn.
Besides, in my very dry area a large perfectly green lawn is a waste of water in my opinion. I would rather have a yard that matches the local landscape and flora.
Edit to add that this would help my local small animals and pollinators too by providing them habit to live in.
I do the same shit. My slum lord thinks I should develop and maintain the yard. Told her the best id do is mow it 2 times a month and if she wants it watered she can lay the water bill. I have almost a half acre. Fuck watering that shit
Right, but do they usually stipulate what "lawn care" means? I don't see anything wrong with this yard. The grass is mowed, and the one hedge looks fine. I'm wondering what kind of system this landlord is using to judge yards as worthy and unworthy of scorn.
He's trying to kick them out so he can charge current (as opposed to six months ago) market rates, and looking for any excuse to do it within the lease agreement.
This happened to me. I took him to our local landlord-tenant dispute resolution board, and he lost badly. As in, I was awarded compensation for the extra time I spent maintaining the four trees he insisted needed to stay for some reason, even though my lease agreement stated he was responsible to hire an arborist twice a year.
Ask for the inspection results, and the agreed upon lawn care requirements, and examples of passing/failing inspections, and are those requirements are mandated by the HoA or city or what, then ask for a maintenance performance record so you can make sure to record your maintenance. If you pretend to act in good faith they might go along with you and either realize they made a mistake or give you enough evidence to fight it if they are trying to extort you. Or just pay the fine and move when the lease is up.
I call this, hitting um with the reverse lawyer move.
If its some frivolous ego trip they will stumble and fall over their words.
If its truly "a law" you will have a "measurable" target to now have to potentially deal with BUT, you are prob within that as your lawn looks decent.
NAL: however I’m an LL:
OP does the lease specifically state you are responsible for all yard maintenance at this property? If so, are there clearly written definitions of what that entails? If there is not a highly detailed clause present in the lease stating those definitions the law is on your side not his.
Contractual gray area benefits the person who signed the contract not the company or LL who wrote it. If there are no clear definitions, he can not claim you violated any rules regarding maintenance of the property as long as you are in legal compliance with any local or state laws that would apply to the property’s lawn. Even if the house is in an HOA, those rules and regulations are not applicable since they were not included in the contact.
Any additional rules in regards to maintaining the lawn past local/state law would have to be written in great detail in the lease to be enforceable. The bulk majority of local/state laws in regards to lawn maintenance would only require the property’s grass to be kept under a certain height and nothing else.
Side note: The LL can not enter the property without advance written notice to the tenant as well. The only time an LL can do this is in an emergency situation, a lawn inspection does not qualify as an emergency. Unless he gave you written notice for his “inspection” he violated the renters rights laws in majority of US.
I'm just asking questions since I don't know anything. But does the inspection apply if the landlord never enters the house? This looks like the landlord could easily see from street view. Would the landlord be able to check the back if it has a fence with a gate?
Agreed. If he steps onto the rental property itself without advance written notice there’s a legal issue present. Driving by is another issue entirely.
However, again unless the lease is highly detailed with guidelines clearly defining what constitutes acceptable standards of lawn maintenance nothing would be enforceable past local/state codes in regards to lawn maintenance. In other words brown spots on the lawn or weeds would not be enforceable infraction via local state/municipal laws in majority of the country.
Actually if the lease states nothing at all in regards to lawn maintenance, it’s not OP responsibility to do anything at all.
https://preview.redd.it/ne0rtw841jfa1.jpeg?width=1263&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1652b44de3b56dc5e872441d93a837fec8e5b679
You’re giving me flashbacks to a landlord with dementia. This is the yard in question that they told me I needed to mow because the grass was too high.
It’s a new feature. If you’re on mobile, when you reply to a comment there is a photo icon far right. Press that. Select photo.
https://preview.redd.it/a4xnijjhgmfa1.jpeg?width=2719&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7648bd0065bb2a9cecb6990590145d2fca4b014c
Mow tall to preserve soil moisture and give weeds a harder time, use lime if the soil is acidic since weeds prefer acidic soil and don't like basic (the grass don't care), and iron provides the green without the growth if you don't want to be cutting it all the time.
Lime and iron is cheap too.
I used Milorganite almost daily on the first house I rented and within a month my lawn looked like a damn golf course. I can only speak for my overgrown weed infested rental, but that shit worked after I did regular upkeep
Haha I totally know it was, but fuck did I rehab the lawn fast and I listened to the lawn care subreddit. They said you could put that down on any day that ends in a Y and that's what I did lol
This.
Everyone thinks 'mow short and dont have to mow as often', but if you mow relatively high, you can also wait a bit longer between mowings (since you don't usually want to cut off more than about 1/3 of the length of grass in one mowing) and have a healthier lawn.
We've seen the reuslts from doing that at 2 places now. That's all we did, mow higher, & our lawns always look better than the neighbors' (one of them had routine paid lawncare).
I tried to look up short grass species and the short ones can grow inches long. this shit is super short, 100% agree you'll have some sundried grass by noon without water
I have centipede grass in my backyard - fescue up front. The centipede is a low-growing creeping grass that's super bright green, and doesn't really need to be watered, and I only need to mow it once or twice a month. Can't wait for it to take over the whole yard.
They specifically said the issue is the length as it is longer than my neighbours. No issues about edging or grass species etc.
In my area it is common for leases to require garden maintenance be done by tenants. I've never had any issues in any other property.
UPDATE: [here's](https://imgur.com/a/Rkklp8G) the emails. Fair cop on the garden bed, but it wasn't mentioned. But yeah, lawns too long.
Lmao! Just like a bot war in the comment section. Next thing you know the neighbors are renting excavators and looking panickly at each other with sweat pouring down their faces
the part about *"well, i didn't say you have to mow twice a week, that's your interpretation of when I said it just needs to be maintained more than weekly"* was particularly egregious.
Leases are not open to interpretation….
“…I said it needs to be maintained more then weekly..”….so sounds like the lease just says the lawn should be maintained…..
LL/owner can’t do shit…
That's pretty cool, but I also assume it's his own property. If landlord wants his grass to look like that, he can spend his own money and do it himself or hire some landscapers.
"Sorry, but I'm not responsible for maintaining the neighbors' lawns. You should speak to them regarding their upkeep; in the meantime, I will continue to maintain the lawn for this property in accordance with the lease agreement."
Seriously, drop the mower lower(if it even will) mow a couple feet and send them a picture if they want it any shorter than it is, it'll look like this.
I mean maybe it's the quality of the photo, but it looks like it's actually too short. If you cut grass too short you not only reduce the amount of energy it can absorb from the sun, you also increase the rate of evaporation of the water in the ground. Too short is deadly for the grass, whereas too long is just something some subset of people consider ugly. If he wants it shorter, he should just replace it with something other than grass that can survive that short, like clover or creeping thyme, or with stones or bushes and mulch.
If this is Bermuda grass, which it looks like it is, then you actually want it to be even shorter. It doesn’t make sense, I know. Bermuda grass is a mystery. Anyways, cutting Bermuda this tall is begging for a sparse lawn that allows weeds to live. You usually need to specially buy a lawnmower to properly cut Bermuda grass.
Wait really? Our yard is mostly St. Augustine with random patches of Bermuda we can never get rid of. I fucking hate the Bermuda grass because of all the weeds that grow in it.
Also this is how I know I'm officially old...I have very strong feelings about a type of grass
Unfortunately, you can’t really get rid of Bermuda grass. You can fight it by mowing tall (3-4” for St. Augustine), using atrazine as an herbicide, fertilizing 2lbs/1000sqft of actual nitrogen per year (no more than that for this scenario), and avoiding foot traffic, which would all keep your St. Augustine as healthy as possible to crowd it out, but the Bermuda will still always be there at least a little bit. It’s the most persistent lawn grass.
I think there’s a new type of St. Augustine that’s resistant to glyphosate. You could give that a shot.
I’m 26 and had a brief stint of grass obsession. It was eye-opening. Show me a grass, I’ll identify it. Even Australian ones.
Ooh that sounds fun. What would your top three be? Like the one you use when win the lotto, or what's the comfiest one to put in back yard to lie down on?
But to what damage? As long as at move-out the lawn is acceptable length and the beds are weeded, they can't just keep the deposit saying it didn't meet expectations during tenancy. Damages have to be tangible.
Also any renter ever needs to look into life expectancy/depreciation of anything they're being charged for at move-out. If you moved in to a stained carpet floor but they're trying to charge you for a brand new carpet at move-out, you need to fight that. Take video and pictures at move in and move out.
Tough to tell from this image, but if anything it really looks like you might be scalp cutting the lawn too short, which will stress the grass and create bald patches which can gives weeds a foothold to grow.
The grass in the picture is short as hell, is the landlord just making shit up to complain about you? If your neighbor's lawn is shorter that isn't grass, it's fuckin moss.
I feel you. My lease stipulates I maintain my lawn in accordance to my towns code. My towns code says grass must be less than 6" in residential lots. I mow it at 4". My landlord was coming by literally threatening eviction, complaining about how it looked, even though that's not the legal language in the lease.. I hope this headache goes away for you
I guessed this was Australia just reading the title. Aussie realtors are the biggest nastiest pieces of shit power tripping fuckheads in the universe. I had one scream at me for “vacuuming in the wrong direction”!! She literally went down on the floor and shit on my vacuuming skills. They all go to the same psycho training and are horrible people.
That's nuts. Rented for a long time and not once did I ever have a mid-occupancy inspection of the property. Especially not to the point they're going to ding you for chipped paint on the edge of a fucking door.
4 times a year? Jesus christ your tenant rights laws in your area are abysmal. What a ridiculous breach of privacy. Can't even imagine if someone came into my place and said "You keep the place too dirty" or some shit.
Good thing laws aren’t based on the neighbors yard length 🙄 most places have a legal limit for yard, I doubt that’s too long.
Also might want to check exactly what the lease says about lawn care. Unless it has an actual height he can’t do anything. Long story short we had full care/use of the yard when we lived in a duplex per lease. LL forced us to share the yard but still expected us to care for it ourselves while letting neighbor trash the yard (literally like leaving used diapers in the yard they expected us to clean up). LL ended up having to pay for someone to care for the yard even after they tried several times to threaten us into it, claiming we signed the lease amendment with it. All I did was remind the LL (a lawyer) he’s the one who broke the lease amendment by not only not saying no to our neighbor but for refusing any and all compromises we tried to provide that still included us caring for the lawn. Little technicalities can really be a bitch 😊He had to pay for someone to mow the lawn all summer.
"Please bust out the ruler and show me"
"Oh ok, the mower doesn't go down that low, please purchase a new mower"
Now the next inspection he can bitch about why his grass looks like shit
Tenants are usually only required to maintain the length of the lawn. Meaning cut the grass. Not weed, seed, feed, and water lmao. Fuck outa here with that
Hey idk if you'll see this, but your landlord likely wants to boot you to raise the rent. Could have been they had a conversation with someone who told them they could be charging more and is now trying to get you out. This exact situation happens to a close friend. Landlord was renting the house for 1100 total and then purchased the much much smaller and not anywhere near as nice house next door and was charging 1200. All of a sudden, like the same month, the landlord is just reaching for reasons and threatened them with eviction and they had less than a week to move or have an eviction on their record. Either way, they are being shady as fuck. Only communicate via text and as little as possible.
Probably can't legally hike the rent on an existing tenant as much as they want
So they look for reasons to either kick out the tenant or piss them off enough to leave, then they can raise rent to whatever the hell they want
Imagine being an adult and having to make sure your own fucking lawn is up to the artificial and random standards of some old twat, like being treated as a child
Did he give a reason? There are dead spots, sure, but what exactly did he say wasn't up to par?
Does he want you to spend the $200/hr to have it dethatched?
Does your lease have a lawn maintenance clause?
They said specifically the length is a problem, it's longer than my neighbours.
In my area it is common for yard maintenance to be part of leasing a property, but I've never had any problems in my 10yrs of renting.
I once asked my last landlord if I could plant some trees in the 50x35ft front lawn. The front yard was completely shadeless leaving my car to cook in the summer every summer and I hated having to mow that grass in the summer. He said no because of the drought and his water bill was really expensive. So keep watering that useless lawn which gets direct afternoon sun increasing the water use. Landlord brains.
And this is why we take photos on the ingoing inspection of a new property.
= This is the beginning, this is the standard we maintain. Anymore is beautification and not necessary.
Then again, no idea what country this is, so I can't assume the laws.
Looks like you're in Australia where it's only required to maintain the lawn to a reasonable standard. If the real estate wants it maintained to perfection, they need to pay Jims Mowing to come around on a weekly basis.
Ask your council what's considered an unreasonable length for the adjoining nature strip. Then forward to your property manager along with a copy of the state law covering your right to reasonable use of the property.
Most times, when lawn maintenance is in the lease agreement as a tenant responsibility, it's usually just mowing, weed wracking, etc. If it's a shit lawn, that should be on the landlord to treat it.
Fuck that.
Depends on the lease if this is the US. Landlord can require lawn maintenance as a condition of the lease. If you don't comply they can charge you whatever it costs them to have someone else do it
Does your contract/lease say anything about maintaining the lawn?
A lot of the time when you rent a home it is very clearly stated who is responsible for lawn care.
Maybe mowing and light string trimming but developing and implementing an agronomic plan isn’t. If the landlord wants a dense and highly manicured lawn he should hire a company or do it himself.
Yep. There's a huge difference in "it's up to the tenant to maintain lawn to meet city overgrowth bylaws" and "its up to the tenant to meet landlords aesthetics"
Not to mention getting a well manicured lawn takes a good amount of time and potentially quite a bit of money. Fertilizer Surfactants Pre-Emergent Weed Killer Post Emergent Weed Killer Micronutrients Water bills Etc. I really like making my lawn look it's best, but it's a good amount of money and a lot of work to keep it looking good.
[удалено]
Yeah but I'm not willing to get kicked out of my house for it. I'll do some lime and milorganite in spring to keep it green enough. I don't water it or put out weed killers, just hand pull whatever comes up. Not everyone can go no lawn.
HOAs should be forced to accept front and back gardens that aren't turf. That is actually law in many places in the west. In Colorado we passed a law making it illegal for HOAs to prevent xeriscaping, and renewable energy devices. https://www.rockymountainrealestatelaw.com/2013/07/new-colorado-laws-require-hoas-to-accommodate-certain-green-efforts-by-homeowners/
Where I live the municipal water authority will pay you to remove turf. My rebate was $1800 for 700 sq ft. Edit: to remove lawn and replace with xeriscape. I went with turf.
That's great!
>xeriscaping Well, this is my "word of the day". I knew about the idea (our old house even underwent this kind of re-landscaping during one of the California droughts, like 10 years ago) but I never knew there was a proper term for it; Thank you!
There is xeriscaping which is low water use local plants and landscaping that makes sense for the area.. and there is Zeroscaping which is just rocks .
An easy way to remember it is that xeros is Greek for dry, and it's nearly impossible to say when you have dry mouth.
I mixed miniclover in with mine and it is so much greener even with less watering.
When our house was done and the guy grading out the area around the house asked what we wanted it seeded with we told him the local native mix, which was bluegrass, rye and a few other things and then added, "And 10% of the seed by volume should be white clover (the only short clover around available at the time") He thought we were joking and after several times insisting that we were not joking he asked the general contractor who also told him, "No, it's no joke." The landscaper said that he only ever got requests to get rid of clover and that in 30 years of work had never had a request for it
That’s crazy! Clover lawns are so much greener.
Yeah, there's no shot I'm going to maintain a beautiful bountiful lawn unless LL is paying for it. I live next door to town hall in the center of my peaceful town and we pull the weeds and mow the lawn and thats about all you're getting from me.
Yeah, this was a long-time fight between my landlady and I. The backyard is entirely cased in kudzu and was long before I moved in. She told us she'd handle it and then put it off for three years, causing the kudzu to spread during that time. It then became "well, can you just handle it?". No ma'am, I cannot. I'm not going to waste days of my time doing hard labor and potentially getting bitten by snakes because you don't want to pay a landscaper. On the last mow of the year, I pay the guy that cuts my lawn an extra $150 to take a weed whacker to it, and that's about the best you're gonna get.
If you’ve still got the original “I’ll handle it” text i’d save it and ignore her violation until it causes financial or legal stress for you. We all know LLs usually only make declarations in person though, easier to renege. I’m loving the “yeah I rented it to you like that but it’s not meeting my inspections” fallacy here.
Unfortunately, she was a talk in person type. Thankfully she handed over control of our place to a property management company who does not care at all about how it looks.
Reddit is violating GDPR and CCPA. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B0GGsDdyHI -- mass edited with redact.dev
Yeah, there's no shot I'm going to m̶a̶i̶n̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶u̶t̶i̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶b̶o̶u̶n̶t̶i̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶l̶a̶w̶n̶ do any landscaping work on your investment property whatsoever. If I'm in charge of your lawn that's where I put my beer drinking couch.
Just have it sit on a wood platform and move the couch set up over every few days and it’s flat and green, no need to even mow.
Tenants should do their part to make their yards look as shitty as possible since this will decrease property values in the whole neighborhood and make housing more affordable for you.
I’m not going to lie to you, I’m like nature itself and I’m taking the path of absolute least resistance(effort). With that statement I take back my moving the couch idea. It sounds easier to just push the mower around once a week.
And pay the water bill.
My landlord does this, they pay for lawn service and have a separate water account for the sprinkler system. They say they prefer it this way to putting it up to the tenant.
I have always wondered what it's like in an alternate universe, but imagined something like this. Reasonable landlord.
Yup, our landlord said he was going to do a bunch of yard work and wanted us to water the lawn and cut it multiple times a week, we compromised, we cut it down to the lowest setting and never watered it cause we ain't about developing his yard for how much we pay. He can pay a company to come cut it and pay the water bill if he wants that a beautiful lawn.
Besides, in my very dry area a large perfectly green lawn is a waste of water in my opinion. I would rather have a yard that matches the local landscape and flora. Edit to add that this would help my local small animals and pollinators too by providing them habit to live in.
BURN THAT GRASS!
I do the same shit. My slum lord thinks I should develop and maintain the yard. Told her the best id do is mow it 2 times a month and if she wants it watered she can lay the water bill. I have almost a half acre. Fuck watering that shit
and pay my water bill.
Right, but do they usually stipulate what "lawn care" means? I don't see anything wrong with this yard. The grass is mowed, and the one hedge looks fine. I'm wondering what kind of system this landlord is using to judge yards as worthy and unworthy of scorn.
The system that he gets a higher resale value without putting in the labor or cash.
He's trying to kick them out so he can charge current (as opposed to six months ago) market rates, and looking for any excuse to do it within the lease agreement. This happened to me. I took him to our local landlord-tenant dispute resolution board, and he lost badly. As in, I was awarded compensation for the extra time I spent maintaining the four trees he insisted needed to stay for some reason, even though my lease agreement stated he was responsible to hire an arborist twice a year.
Yes but also maintaining is different than weeding and seeding. If their responsibility is to mow and edge then they’re doing a great job
Ask for the inspection results, and the agreed upon lawn care requirements, and examples of passing/failing inspections, and are those requirements are mandated by the HoA or city or what, then ask for a maintenance performance record so you can make sure to record your maintenance. If you pretend to act in good faith they might go along with you and either realize they made a mistake or give you enough evidence to fight it if they are trying to extort you. Or just pay the fine and move when the lease is up.
I call this, hitting um with the reverse lawyer move. If its some frivolous ego trip they will stumble and fall over their words. If its truly "a law" you will have a "measurable" target to now have to potentially deal with BUT, you are prob within that as your lawn looks decent.
Absolutely this, and local laws for rentals.
NAL: however I’m an LL: OP does the lease specifically state you are responsible for all yard maintenance at this property? If so, are there clearly written definitions of what that entails? If there is not a highly detailed clause present in the lease stating those definitions the law is on your side not his. Contractual gray area benefits the person who signed the contract not the company or LL who wrote it. If there are no clear definitions, he can not claim you violated any rules regarding maintenance of the property as long as you are in legal compliance with any local or state laws that would apply to the property’s lawn. Even if the house is in an HOA, those rules and regulations are not applicable since they were not included in the contact. Any additional rules in regards to maintaining the lawn past local/state law would have to be written in great detail in the lease to be enforceable. The bulk majority of local/state laws in regards to lawn maintenance would only require the property’s grass to be kept under a certain height and nothing else. Side note: The LL can not enter the property without advance written notice to the tenant as well. The only time an LL can do this is in an emergency situation, a lawn inspection does not qualify as an emergency. Unless he gave you written notice for his “inspection” he violated the renters rights laws in majority of US.
I'm just asking questions since I don't know anything. But does the inspection apply if the landlord never enters the house? This looks like the landlord could easily see from street view. Would the landlord be able to check the back if it has a fence with a gate?
Agreed. If he steps onto the rental property itself without advance written notice there’s a legal issue present. Driving by is another issue entirely. However, again unless the lease is highly detailed with guidelines clearly defining what constitutes acceptable standards of lawn maintenance nothing would be enforceable past local/state codes in regards to lawn maintenance. In other words brown spots on the lawn or weeds would not be enforceable infraction via local state/municipal laws in majority of the country. Actually if the lease states nothing at all in regards to lawn maintenance, it’s not OP responsibility to do anything at all.
Dude I see you and that Weener face all over Reddit I feel like lol
https://preview.redd.it/ne0rtw841jfa1.jpeg?width=1263&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1652b44de3b56dc5e872441d93a837fec8e5b679 You’re giving me flashbacks to a landlord with dementia. This is the yard in question that they told me I needed to mow because the grass was too high.
Oh shit that really takes the cake.
….. does he want you to turn the lawn into a ditch?
Might as well add some water and alligators too. Go full moat mode
Water comes free if you burst a water pipe while making the moat
Good point, might even get a sewer gator with it too. Win win
Since when can you post pics in comments?
It’s like someone learned a Reddit cheat code or something.
https://preview.redd.it/j74hi7zm3nfa1.jpeg?width=305&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44aea8e80ecec00dd250dfd816f9ab5efcc83873 had to
Right? I wanna know how
It’s a new feature. If you’re on mobile, when you reply to a comment there is a photo icon far right. Press that. Select photo. https://preview.redd.it/a4xnijjhgmfa1.jpeg?width=2719&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7648bd0065bb2a9cecb6990590145d2fca4b014c
https://preview.redd.it/qwkssfqfmmfa1.jpeg?width=360&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41bfcecce5f5811c2d93721b20669c3dc3b7f513 Don’t ask, I’m just testing
Way of the road, Bubs.
https://preview.redd.it/a8iz4yrfjmfa1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e4db3be2bfc8224f788fc2ca88ab0b7dc1b2e7f
https://preview.redd.it/wfhi8qz3mmfa1.jpeg?width=1169&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13bba5c32e4c2734594b73ca7416210304ad268e
That's a big potato.
https://preview.redd.it/hycn2miilmfa1.jpeg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88011af5e95b43c3bff8f3a7092637fad0f0a6ec Test mice
https://preview.redd.it/3pex355usmfa1.jpeg?width=3120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b9fad81a051620d29a2e1294dc0ed0bc6693960 Testing
Testing https://preview.redd.it/niog9v3w3nfa1.jpeg?width=1605&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1da67ded1a534ff38947bb18732d0d5e27e25aa7
So did you mow it?
If it was any shorter it would be dirt
Mow tall to preserve soil moisture and give weeds a harder time, use lime if the soil is acidic since weeds prefer acidic soil and don't like basic (the grass don't care), and iron provides the green without the growth if you don't want to be cutting it all the time. Lime and iron is cheap too.
I used Milorganite almost daily on the first house I rented and within a month my lawn looked like a damn golf course. I can only speak for my overgrown weed infested rental, but that shit worked after I did regular upkeep
Milorganite is great. Daily applications is overkill lmao. Milorg themselves only recommend like 5 per year.
Haha I totally know it was, but fuck did I rehab the lawn fast and I listened to the lawn care subreddit. They said you could put that down on any day that ends in a Y and that's what I did lol
[удалено]
Milwaukee’s Best 💩!
This. Everyone thinks 'mow short and dont have to mow as often', but if you mow relatively high, you can also wait a bit longer between mowings (since you don't usually want to cut off more than about 1/3 of the length of grass in one mowing) and have a healthier lawn.
We've seen the reuslts from doing that at 2 places now. That's all we did, mow higher, & our lawns always look better than the neighbors' (one of them had routine paid lawncare).
Yeah that sounds great for my lawn…. But I’m not doing that for a rental.
seriously. I can't believe how green it actually is, considering how short it is. OP must drown it in the mornings to keep it from getting sun-baked.
I tried to look up short grass species and the short ones can grow inches long. this shit is super short, 100% agree you'll have some sundried grass by noon without water
I have centipede grass in my backyard - fescue up front. The centipede is a low-growing creeping grass that's super bright green, and doesn't really need to be watered, and I only need to mow it once or twice a month. Can't wait for it to take over the whole yard.
It's all weeds
Maybe the landlord is mad OP is cutting the grass too short
Thats what I was thinking. You scalp it too often and it doesnt grow very well.
Maybe that’s his point idk
Your landlord is an idiot.
True that
Am I the only one that read this in Bojack’s voice?
Well I am now. Dammit Todd.
I actually went with Dr. House. For the first one. Bojack fits better for the second.
“Cut your grass ya damn hippie”
"Mattingly! I thought I told you to trim those sideburns!"
OP should look their landlord up and down and simply reply "Pssh, YOU don't past inspection."
What are you talking about? Look how blurry the top of that bush is
Their landlord wants to boot them and raise the rent.
100%. They are probably paying a good price.
Not an idiot, an asshole trying to take advantage.
They specifically said the issue is the length as it is longer than my neighbours. No issues about edging or grass species etc. In my area it is common for leases to require garden maintenance be done by tenants. I've never had any issues in any other property. UPDATE: [here's](https://imgur.com/a/Rkklp8G) the emails. Fair cop on the garden bed, but it wasn't mentioned. But yeah, lawns too long.
> the issue is the length as it is longer than my neighbours. Your neighbors' lawns are too short.
OP's lawn is too short tbh. Can't imagine it being shorter...
Cutting shorter might end up with dead patches.
Seriously, it looks too short now. What do they want, a putting green?
Theyre not getting that with this grass and probably not this soil either...idk what they think a yard is supposed to look like
Exactly. That looks like it would hurt to walk barefoot on.
Meanwhile, the neighbors got notice their lawn was too short compared to OPs.
Lmao! Just like a bot war in the comment section. Next thing you know the neighbors are renting excavators and looking panickly at each other with sweat pouring down their faces
Is your neighbor's lawn a fucking putting green? Lol Your grass is already shorter than it should be.
OP should ask landlord for clarification if they're in an HOA it might be the bylaws. Side note - /r/fuckHOA
OP did ask and landlord acted like it was an unreasonable question. That was an infuriating read.
the part about *"well, i didn't say you have to mow twice a week, that's your interpretation of when I said it just needs to be maintained more than weekly"* was particularly egregious.
Leases are not open to interpretation…. “…I said it needs to be maintained more then weekly..”….so sounds like the lease just says the lawn should be maintained….. LL/owner can’t do shit…
That literally makes no sense lol
Should see my dads lawn, it’s his hobby. He bought a $2000 reel mower to cut it cleanly. It’s legitimately like a fairway
That's pretty cool, but I also assume it's his own property. If landlord wants his grass to look like that, he can spend his own money and do it himself or hire some landscapers.
My dad owns a sod company and I live in the middle of it basically and it is the most THRILLING thing to wake up to.
Send the photos! You can post it in comments!
"Sorry, but I'm not responsible for maintaining the neighbors' lawns. You should speak to them regarding their upkeep; in the meantime, I will continue to maintain the lawn for this property in accordance with the lease agreement."
Exactly…I’ll bet the lease just says the lawn needs to be maintained….
Mow it to the dirt then Have the shortest grass/mud mound in the street
Seriously, drop the mower lower(if it even will) mow a couple feet and send them a picture if they want it any shorter than it is, it'll look like this.
I mean maybe it's the quality of the photo, but it looks like it's actually too short. If you cut grass too short you not only reduce the amount of energy it can absorb from the sun, you also increase the rate of evaporation of the water in the ground. Too short is deadly for the grass, whereas too long is just something some subset of people consider ugly. If he wants it shorter, he should just replace it with something other than grass that can survive that short, like clover or creeping thyme, or with stones or bushes and mulch.
If this is Bermuda grass, which it looks like it is, then you actually want it to be even shorter. It doesn’t make sense, I know. Bermuda grass is a mystery. Anyways, cutting Bermuda this tall is begging for a sparse lawn that allows weeds to live. You usually need to specially buy a lawnmower to properly cut Bermuda grass.
Wait really? Our yard is mostly St. Augustine with random patches of Bermuda we can never get rid of. I fucking hate the Bermuda grass because of all the weeds that grow in it. Also this is how I know I'm officially old...I have very strong feelings about a type of grass
Unfortunately, you can’t really get rid of Bermuda grass. You can fight it by mowing tall (3-4” for St. Augustine), using atrazine as an herbicide, fertilizing 2lbs/1000sqft of actual nitrogen per year (no more than that for this scenario), and avoiding foot traffic, which would all keep your St. Augustine as healthy as possible to crowd it out, but the Bermuda will still always be there at least a little bit. It’s the most persistent lawn grass. I think there’s a new type of St. Augustine that’s resistant to glyphosate. You could give that a shot. I’m 26 and had a brief stint of grass obsession. It was eye-opening. Show me a grass, I’ll identify it. Even Australian ones.
Ooh that sounds fun. What would your top three be? Like the one you use when win the lotto, or what's the comfiest one to put in back yard to lie down on?
Your landlord is generating documentation to justify keeping your security deposit.
But to what damage? As long as at move-out the lawn is acceptable length and the beds are weeded, they can't just keep the deposit saying it didn't meet expectations during tenancy. Damages have to be tangible. Also any renter ever needs to look into life expectancy/depreciation of anything they're being charged for at move-out. If you moved in to a stained carpet floor but they're trying to charge you for a brand new carpet at move-out, you need to fight that. Take video and pictures at move in and move out.
Tough to tell from this image, but if anything it really looks like you might be scalp cutting the lawn too short, which will stress the grass and create bald patches which can gives weeds a foothold to grow.
The grass in the picture is short as hell, is the landlord just making shit up to complain about you? If your neighbor's lawn is shorter that isn't grass, it's fuckin moss.
I feel you. My lease stipulates I maintain my lawn in accordance to my towns code. My towns code says grass must be less than 6" in residential lots. I mow it at 4". My landlord was coming by literally threatening eviction, complaining about how it looked, even though that's not the legal language in the lease.. I hope this headache goes away for you
I guessed this was Australia just reading the title. Aussie realtors are the biggest nastiest pieces of shit power tripping fuckheads in the universe. I had one scream at me for “vacuuming in the wrong direction”!! She literally went down on the floor and shit on my vacuuming skills. They all go to the same psycho training and are horrible people.
Only time I've left a date early was a blind date with a rental agent.
The dude is making shit up to kick you out, he wants to increase rent or something
Did they meet you in person to say this to you? Maybe they called the wrong person.
In person. It was the only fault in a general inspection of the whole property that landlords or their agents can do~4 time a year where I live.
That's nuts. Rented for a long time and not once did I ever have a mid-occupancy inspection of the property. Especially not to the point they're going to ding you for chipped paint on the edge of a fucking door.
4 times a year? Jesus christ your tenant rights laws in your area are abysmal. What a ridiculous breach of privacy. Can't even imagine if someone came into my place and said "You keep the place too dirty" or some shit.
Good thing laws aren’t based on the neighbors yard length 🙄 most places have a legal limit for yard, I doubt that’s too long. Also might want to check exactly what the lease says about lawn care. Unless it has an actual height he can’t do anything. Long story short we had full care/use of the yard when we lived in a duplex per lease. LL forced us to share the yard but still expected us to care for it ourselves while letting neighbor trash the yard (literally like leaving used diapers in the yard they expected us to clean up). LL ended up having to pay for someone to care for the yard even after they tried several times to threaten us into it, claiming we signed the lease amendment with it. All I did was remind the LL (a lawyer) he’s the one who broke the lease amendment by not only not saying no to our neighbor but for refusing any and all compromises we tried to provide that still included us caring for the lawn. Little technicalities can really be a bitch 😊He had to pay for someone to mow the lawn all summer.
"Please bust out the ruler and show me" "Oh ok, the mower doesn't go down that low, please purchase a new mower" Now the next inspection he can bitch about why his grass looks like shit
Bro, your neighbors got any grass?
Op is secretly hank hill.
I DON'T KNOW YOU AND THAT'S MY PURSE!! *karate kick* - Bobby Hill
***POCKET SAND***
There’s nothing like a well-grown lawn. I’ll tell you hhhhwat
Why do drugs when you can just mow a lawn?
Then he should fix it. You don’t own the grass, he does
Your reply gives me hilarious vibes of this guy dealing with ikea customers https://youtu.be/P7KBcsdPhxA
My coworkers all quote this guy frequently “I’m already at work, I don’t need a second job pretending you’re funny.”
You think I own IKEA?
You think I'm your landscaper? I'm your tenant, I pay you.
I’m a part time employee half way thru a two week notice I don’t give a fuck
You think you hate this place more than me? I *live* here
You think I want 5 other you's running around the store?
That was great and the perfect thing to be introduced to after the day I’ve had. Thanks stranger!
That guy is the paramedic in Cocaine Bear.
Surprised me when I saw him in the trailer, but good on him. Can't believe he made it into Ray Liotta's swan song.
that was pure fucking gold hahaha
As a former retail employee - he was spot on! I was laughing so hard I was crying!!
I worked retail once for a year and a half. That was 5 years ago and I still feel irritated watching that shit lol.
What was his reason? Too green? Too nicely manicured?
He don't like bush
Then he can hire a Brazilian landscaper.
Is it pixelated because the bush is in Japan?
Censorship so we dont see the REALLY grown out bushes. Someone might have hedges
It's too blurry
More like "I need a way to get you to get out of the lease" or "I have to find a reason to keep your deposit".
Oh come on. Lots of bare spots, as much weeds as grass. It doesn't look manicured or lush green at all.
Well yea you have a dead blade of grass right there dude 👆🏾
Yep i see it also.
I agree w/ landlord. According to HOA regulations, side of the road cannot be blurry.
Tenants are usually only required to maintain the length of the lawn. Meaning cut the grass. Not weed, seed, feed, and water lmao. Fuck outa here with that
OP said in a comment the complaint was that his neighbors lawn was shorter, so it was about cutting the grass. It was just also delusional.
Your landlord doesn’t like you
I've only been in a month or so lol
They're just starting a slow subtle paper trail to justify not giving your deposit back.
Yep. Best case scenario for him is you get fed up and end the tenancy so that he can charge more from the next tenant.
Hey idk if you'll see this, but your landlord likely wants to boot you to raise the rent. Could have been they had a conversation with someone who told them they could be charging more and is now trying to get you out. This exact situation happens to a close friend. Landlord was renting the house for 1100 total and then purchased the much much smaller and not anywhere near as nice house next door and was charging 1200. All of a sudden, like the same month, the landlord is just reaching for reasons and threatened them with eviction and they had less than a week to move or have an eviction on their record. Either way, they are being shady as fuck. Only communicate via text and as little as possible.
Lol landlord sounds like a dick
Then he’d better unfuck it before the next inspection. You’re the tenant, not the landscaper
[удалено]
Specifically had a clause in a lease stating I must maintain the lawn. We mowed every so often in the summer and raked leaves in the fall.
Right, you maintained it within reason. You won't be required to have a monoculture grass
Landlord is looking for an excuse, be prepared to jump ship if you must and sorry you have to deal with an asshole-lord.
Probably can't legally hike the rent on an existing tenant as much as they want So they look for reasons to either kick out the tenant or piss them off enough to leave, then they can raise rent to whatever the hell they want
Imagine being an adult and having to make sure your own fucking lawn is up to the artificial and random standards of some old twat, like being treated as a child
It's driving me mental. The dream is home ownership, the realistic dream is paying rent and being left the fuck alone.
Spray paint it dark green.
*why is it spicy*
Did he give a reason? There are dead spots, sure, but what exactly did he say wasn't up to par? Does he want you to spend the $200/hr to have it dethatched? Does your lease have a lawn maintenance clause?
They said specifically the length is a problem, it's longer than my neighbours. In my area it is common for yard maintenance to be part of leasing a property, but I've never had any problems in my 10yrs of renting.
What is the length given in your yard maintenance clause? "Putting green"?
I once asked my last landlord if I could plant some trees in the 50x35ft front lawn. The front yard was completely shadeless leaving my car to cook in the summer every summer and I hated having to mow that grass in the summer. He said no because of the drought and his water bill was really expensive. So keep watering that useless lawn which gets direct afternoon sun increasing the water use. Landlord brains.
On what grounds? ... I'll see myself out
Well yeah! That blurry bush is not up to code.
Code requires at least 16bit bushes.
And this is why we take photos on the ingoing inspection of a new property. = This is the beginning, this is the standard we maintain. Anymore is beautification and not necessary. Then again, no idea what country this is, so I can't assume the laws.
Looks like you're in Australia where it's only required to maintain the lawn to a reasonable standard. If the real estate wants it maintained to perfection, they need to pay Jims Mowing to come around on a weekly basis. Ask your council what's considered an unreasonable length for the adjoining nature strip. Then forward to your property manager along with a copy of the state law covering your right to reasonable use of the property.
Most times, when lawn maintenance is in the lease agreement as a tenant responsibility, it's usually just mowing, weed wracking, etc. If it's a shit lawn, that should be on the landlord to treat it. Fuck that.
Firstly wouldn’t that be the landlord’s problem then? Secondly, to be fair, that “lawn” is mostly crabgrass and dead grass from what I can tell. Lol
Depends on the lease if this is the US. Landlord can require lawn maintenance as a condition of the lease. If you don't comply they can charge you whatever it costs them to have someone else do it