I have a question regarding keeping a park clean and more importantly how to make residents keep their lots neat, and free of personal belongings? Is there any hard and fast rule that can be enforced with tenants? I was in my park a few days ago and there was just so many toys, bicycles, stacks of firewood laying around that it was a bit disturbing. I plan on having a Spring clean up and am planning on providing dumpsters for two week but I am looking for a solution that has more permanence.
Has anyone ever tried to incentivize the tenants or make any kind of punitive rules that were actually enforceable?
My community rules make it very clear that nothing , aside from lawn/patio furniture, is permitted to remain on the lot when not being used. Nothing is to remain out over night. Mine is a adult only community but the same would apply if it were a family community. Long term residents respect and comply. New tenants usually need to be reminded a few times. If they do not get onboard willingly and voluntarily it escalates and has in the past resulted in a couple of evictions.
All residents in my community have a high level of pride of ownership and the community attracts like minded applicants when homes do go up for sale. When screening I always view where they presently live and if they own or rent a place with a lot that is messy I reject their application. It has taken many years to move up from a “park” to a residential community.
1 Like
I just did the “spring cleanup” at my park. Rented a dumpster and the manager called on the first day stating that it was full and needed another one to “get the job done”. Sounds like it was going well and all the residents are in good spirits about cleaning everything up (when I’m paying for it). I’ll get out there next week to see for myself. For me the price of a dumpster or 2 is worth it.
As far as “incentivizing”, other that letting them stay I wouldn’t reward people for doing what they are supposed to do. If they are breaking the rules evict the worst one and the rest will fall in line.
1 Like
Good advice, thanks for the reply.
Beware of outsiders filling your dumpsters with junk and piling it up next to the dumpster to boot. Once word gets out that there’s a dumpster in your park everyone may try to use it. So there’s that to watch out for.
1 Like
Our method at our park is getting a dumpster every couple of years in conjunction with a letter restating the rules with the addendum of that letter of noncompliance and fines will follow after X date. We also have a diplomatic on site manager that plays good cop with the “owners” being the bad cop. He goes to the people that will need a little more encouragement and reminds them what they have in violation and that fines will follow.
We do a couple of +80 year old and wheelchair bound resident at our park. Our handy man assists these resident with compliance (just don’t tell the owner).
It helps that the management team have a good working relationship with our residents. They can see that we are investing in basic upgrades (roads, parking pads, new units) and removing residents that are problematic.
Like my garage getting filled with clutter this problem will most likely never be fixed but more of a semi annual issue.
1 Like
Black, thank you for the input. All good points. Thank you.
If I see trash on the ground, I pick it up instead of walking past it, thinking that someone should definitely clean it up. Because most people just walk past trash thinking “that’s not mine, I’m not picking it up,” if every park user did that, the park would be considerably cleaner for everyone.
The relatively few in today’s trash-filled society are unable to pick up after the masses. Our cities and parks would be much nicer if we all did just a bit.