I’ve seen a couple of videos now where a landscape crew will, to make a neighborhood look better, mow the yard of an abandoned home. Now I know the city can do that and then tax the owner as a special assessment so my question is the legality of a private individual doing it. I’m assuming it is not legal but if not, what damages could they sue for? What liability is there for the landscaper? Could it be criminal such as trespassing or destruction of property?
ETA: I suspect the “abandoned” aspect is fake in these videos and the owners are just lazy and probably pay for the job OR new owners of a previously abandoned house paid for the work. If they were unable physically to care for a yard the content creator would play up that angle…
It likely would be considered trespassing in most jurisdictions.
Not that the owners of an “abandoned” property are likely to care, but well-intentioned or lawn-obsessive people who mow a neighbor’s grass because they think it looks unkempt are setting themselves up for trouble.
IANAL, but as I understand it criminal trespass typically requires some kind of notice or a request to exit the property. If you want a definite, factual answer, though, I recommend you refer to your jurisdiction’s criminal statutes or speak with an actual attorney.
As far a civil trespass… sure, no notice required, but then who is going to bring suit?
The lot next to me is just woods up to the side walk. The tree lawn is nice grass put in by the city. Whenever I am mowing the front lawn, or the neighbor on the other side is, we mow that strip. It has sold a couple of times but no one has built on it yet. I was talking to the owner a few years ago when he stopped by and mentioned it to him. He was fine with it.
Since the term “tree lawn” is used by less than 2% of the US population, I’ll note that this means the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. “Curb strip” is the most common term but apparently most people don’t have a word for it at all.
Allow me to offer a slightly modified hypothetical that may deal with the issue: one neighbor believes in a “wild garden” approach and another believes such is an eyesore. Second neighbor mows offending weeds/wild garden down.
How does the law handle it, assuming the village allows such gardens? (Some encourage them. Good for the pollinators and for decreased water usage.)
That page that @markn_1 linked to was probably the work of our own @samclem , who was an amateur etymologist, and who made the “tree lawn” a particular object of his inquiry.
@DSeid , I would imagine that if the owner of a property wants a particular sort of garden, and that garden is allowed under local law, and their neighbor cuts that garden down, that would be vandalism, no?
Huh, i call it a tree lawn, but according to the maps, I’m not in a “tree lawn” area. I would understand verge or curb strip. Berm means something else to me (a pile of snow left by a plow, or dirt similarly pushed into a linear pile) and the others would confuse me in this context.
Anyway, yeah, if you mow down my garden I think you are a vandal. If you mow my lawn while I’m away or incapacitated, without asking my permission, you are probably a well-meaning busybody. If you do it with my permission you are a great neighbor.
Around here I think people call it the verge. At least in our neighborhood Great Dog Poop Debate of 2020, the “verge” was agreed as an acceptable place for a dog to relieve themselves. As long as the human carers picked up any solid product.
I watched one of those yard clean-up videos the other day…the guy was using his weed whacker, and a rock must have flown up to the front door and it shattered the glass. He got permission to do the yard clean-up from the resident, but after he was done, the guy pointed out the shattered glass, and the yard guy offered to pay for a brand new door. The home owner agreed.
While I know the yard guy was responsible, the home owner got a FREE front and back yard clean-up job (it was really bad too), and he was about to get a fine from the city for the overgrowth. Plus there was all kinds of junk in the back yard that the yard guy had to move and then put back too. I guess if you offer to do such jobs, you have to take the risks along with it.
I’ve never heard of the term tree lawn, nor verge…around here we usually call it a parking strip. I’ve heard median strip too, but that usually is for spaces in the middle of the road. I think curb strip is more apt.
Strip or right-of-way to me, though I’ve never lived in the states that Wikipedia says use those terms, and I’ve never heard the terms ascribed to the states where I have lived.
When I was growing up in the St Louis area, my folks used to call it the “easement”. Of course, you can have an easement without a sidewalk, which is the case with my own front yard. I asked my wife, who has lived in NE Kansas all her life, and she said “I didn’t know it had a name.” When I read off the choices from the linked map, she decided that “curb strip” was probably the best fit, and I agreed.
Actually, it probably does have a different legal status than the yard. At least in my town, the tree lawn and the sidewalk are legally part of the road, and belong to the town, not to the owner of the property that abuts them.
It’s customary for the homeowner to tend that land. I planted day lilies in mine. The neighbor on one side also planted flowers. Most of the other neighbors mow grass in that strip. But none of us actually has any legal authority over it, nor any obligation to tend it.
I think in many places you don’t have any legal authority over it, but you DO have an obligation to tend it. In fact, sidewalk maintenance is often the homeowner’s responsibility too.
To the OP, I tend to agree that civil trespass would generally apply, but vandalism should* only apply to the “pollinator garden” scenario since many places have laws about unkempt yards.
*I recall a situation in NYC or SF where an old man repainted the historic (and I think still active) fire alarm call box on the street in front of his house that was looking pretty rundown, and he was cited for vandalism.