- 17 Aug 2016 06:46
#14710845
I have a friend who lives in a small unincorporated area of our rural county. Although unincorporated, the houses only have a few feet between them. Many of his neighbors neglect their homes....like severely neglect them to the point where I'm sure there would be health code violations. It's like a civil war in the area between those that keep their homes well maintained and those who have neglected them to the point they could easily be defined as dilapidated.
Now by my view, poorly maintained property generally lowers land values of the surrounding areas, so by a neighbor neglecting their property, they are essentially stealing value from mine.
According to my state code, the solid waste authority seems to be responsible for enforcing problems of waste that could be a public nuisance, contribute to lowering land values, harbor disease carrying rodents and pests that could affect the public health, etc etc. I'm sure many of the homes in the area would fall into these descriptions.
Now one friend brought up the point of if you get the authorities involved, then where would you draw the line? Should your neighbors who have ugly garden gnomes and pink flamingos have the authorities called on them for being a public nuisance? I however think there is a big difference between disliking your neighbors taste in decor vs. neglecting the property to the point that it lowers land values significantly and becomes a possible safety hazard.
Thoughts on how this should be handled from a libertarian stand point? Should the neighbors who neglect their property be free to do so despite their neighbors objections and possibly lowering land values of their neighbors and potentially causing public safety hazards? If not, then what would be a good recourse of action given that they refuse to clean it up by their own will?
Now by my view, poorly maintained property generally lowers land values of the surrounding areas, so by a neighbor neglecting their property, they are essentially stealing value from mine.
According to my state code, the solid waste authority seems to be responsible for enforcing problems of waste that could be a public nuisance, contribute to lowering land values, harbor disease carrying rodents and pests that could affect the public health, etc etc. I'm sure many of the homes in the area would fall into these descriptions.
Now one friend brought up the point of if you get the authorities involved, then where would you draw the line? Should your neighbors who have ugly garden gnomes and pink flamingos have the authorities called on them for being a public nuisance? I however think there is a big difference between disliking your neighbors taste in decor vs. neglecting the property to the point that it lowers land values significantly and becomes a possible safety hazard.
Thoughts on how this should be handled from a libertarian stand point? Should the neighbors who neglect their property be free to do so despite their neighbors objections and possibly lowering land values of their neighbors and potentially causing public safety hazards? If not, then what would be a good recourse of action given that they refuse to clean it up by their own will?