A Lubbock County woman is afraid her house might catch on fire because her neighbor’s weeds are so tall, some reaching 6 feet in height. She said it’s becoming a hazard and wants the county to do something about it.
It’s been a problem since June, and so far, nothing has been done.
“I maintain my property. My neighbors west or east to me should maintain their property as well,” said Sue Motley.
Motley has lived in her house for 35 years. For the last six months, she’s been fed up with her neighbor’s lawn after the weeds have grown to new heights.
“Yeah, it bothers me,” said Motley. “It’s an eye sore, who wouldn’t it bother? There’s rodents. There are opossums. I’ve been complaining about it since June.”
With the weeds reaching almost 6 feet tall, she’s mostly concerned about the possible fire hazard the weeds have to her home.
“Somebody passes through and throws out a lit cigarette. Boom. The property goes up and mine does, too,” said Motley. “This is not fair to me. As far as getting this cleaned up, because like I said, one cigarette butt and boom, boom, boom.”
In the county, weeds can reach a height of 3 feet before they’re considered a nuisance. The weeds outside this house are reaching 5 and 6 feet tall.
Motley said she’s called the appropriate county officials multiple times, but there has been no response.
There are county agencies that help handle disputes between neighbors, like the Office of Dispute Resolution.
Ideally, they can work together and figure it out, fine,” said the director of the Office of Dispute Resolutions, Gene Valentini. “Eventually someone’s going to push them, and we get referrals from Lubbock Sheriff’s Office and Lubbock Police, where officers have tried to resolve the problem, and if they can’t, they come over here.”
Those services are free of charge.
EverythingLubbock.com reached out to the Sheriff’s Environmental Agency who handled overgrown weeds in the county, but they were unable to respond at this time.
