"Carmen Troyer" wrote in message ...

His place is an eye sore, simply because he's lazy. I'm embarrassed to
have company over, cause from my deck, it looks like I live next door to a
dump.

Tall fences make good neighbors, or at least make them tolerable--that and
some screening vegetation.

You aren't going to change this guy's character, he'll be like that until
the day he dies. Any means you might employ to force him to clean up the
place have the potential to start a neighborhood feud and those often turn
out to be worse than the original cause of irritation. Back when I was an
apartment dweller I had several neighbors kicked out for bad behavior, but
in that situation the landlord does the heavy lifting and takes any heat
that results, it's different with a home owner.

If you (and perhaps other neighbors) just can't live with the mess then
maybe it's worth a few hundred bucks to consult a lawyer and find out if
there is anything that can be done that won't cost you a fortune in legal
fees. Maybe the city can be convinced that conditions attracting and
breeding vermin require action like a cleanup order your neighbor would find
it difficult to ignore.

I'd go with blocking the view of the dump--tall fence, bushy trees etc. and
see if that makes it tolerable. Anything beyond that is likely to become
its own source of stress.