Friday, June 20, 2008

My life...she is exploding.

My old house has been on the market for almost 2 years now. No bites, hardly any interest- which sucks because it's a really cute house! I would have loved to stay there, but I had to move for Jaysen's education (but that's a whole different story).

I'd been having a neighborhood kid cut the grass and keep the outside maintained, since I don't have the chance to get down there and do it myself. The kid isn't doing it anymore.

I did not know this.

So, imagine my surprise when I received a letter in the mail about a civil infraction mandating me to cut the grass and clean up the "debris" on the property, in 7 days.

I went to work trying to find someone who would cut the grass. I hired a company yesterday, and they were going to come out first thing this morning- but I had to leave them a check for $30 taped to the door. Fine.

I went to the house after work, and to my surprise again, the lawn was already cut! My neighbor told me that a crew came out the day before, cut the lawn, cut down branches and trees, and took a crapload of pictures.

Fuckity fuck fuck. The police contracted the city to do it.

This morning I called the police department to complain that I wasn't given my 7 days. They explained to me that it's 7 days from the notice, not 7 days from when I received the letter in the mail. Apparently, the mailing is just a courtesy. Well thank you for being so courteous. You'd think if that were the case, they could've written the notice date on the letter.

Since I was admitting that it is my responsibility to upkeep the property, I asked if they could tell me what the bill would be. Ready for this??? $380.00. Plus the cost of the ticket they're going to issue me. What the shit is that?!? You've got to be kidding me.

I do, however, have the option of either paying the bill and ticket in full, or paying the bill in full and fighting the ticket in court. Wow- I'm so glad I have options. Oh- I forgot to mention that they're also issuing a bench warrant for my arrest.

I'm such a lucky girl.

9 comments:

Jessica said...

Oh my goodness! Please tell me that they are canceling the bench warrent. That certainly is craptastic!

Anonymous said...

Bench Warrant for over grown lawn..Thats crap!

Mom26children said...

I always thought a stay in jail to be, well, sort of a vacation...
Just a thought...

Jeanette

Jodi said...

That's the worst!

KC's Blog said...

Oh my gosh that is so frickin horrible! What a bunch jerks! It totally blows me away that they are hounding you like this and put out a bench warrant! They should be going after the real criminals for petes sake! I am praying things turn out in your favor when it's all said and done. You are such a nice person, it's horrible when bad things happen to good people. ~Hugs~

A Bishops Wife said...

What the heck is the bench warrant for? That would be strange for a lawn problem.

The fines and fees are really high.
Get help from someone.

Get a lawyer. A good one will understand your predicament and help you.

Keep us posted on things, if you can.

Anonymous said...

I think you should send the bill to the kid who should have been cutting the grass!

Anonymous said...

How horrible!

Have you thought about renting your house out? I couldn't sell mine so I rented it! It's better than something like this ever happening again.

Hugs!

Tina@ SendChocolateNow said...

holy crap! We have gotten notices, but we live here and they are left on our door. We always have like 14 days to do something. That's insane. Now you know how your city makes their money.

Geez.

T.