Related (I think): I had a pest control salesman come to my door and explain, "We're different from your average company. Most companies just spray a little around your house to keep bugs from getting in, but we treat your entire yard."
I was floored.
When I explained, "We go out of our way to create insect habitat in our yard," his smile twitched and he realized he had no way of closing the sale.
But I'm simply amazed such practices are legal. "Hey! How about we spray a neurotoxin all over your yard? I'm sure that won't cause any unforeseen problems."
I had a similar contact a month ago with a neighboor regarding my dandilion population, which had brought in a crazy amount of bees and other insects. Also the front yard looked pretty--just tons of yellow flowers. Anyways, he asked me if I wanted him to come over and spray my yard with some sort of stuff to kill the weeds. I just looked at him with a puzzled look and replied "You are asking me if I want you to come and spread poison all over my yard where my kids and dog play???" He realized immediately that I wasn't a lawn person, and backed off.
Fines, usually. Enforcement without your consent, at your cost, is an option. They could sue you. They can place a lien against your property. Some could have you evicted.
HOA's are the worst way of making sure people don't treat their property like shit. Better ways include: fostering a sense of community. Communicating with your neighbors. And finally, minding your own damned business.
> fostering a sense of community. Communicating with your neighbors
Look, I loathe HOA's as much as the next person but this doesn't pass the Chesterton's Fence test. If your alternative doesn't handle the case of an uncooperative antagonistic neighbor then it won't at all be persuasive to someone is pro-HOA. "Just stop caring about the problem that HOA's were established to solve" only sounds good to people who arlready agree with you.
Sure, the "And finally, minding your own damned business" was probably aimed at the pro-HOA. Honestly, if there's a problem you can't work out with a neighbor, and you don't have a legal basis for demanding anything, then put up with it.
If the homeowner having rights is a problem, I suppose an HOA solves for that, otherwise I don't understand why the pro-HOA view need to be privileged at all.
We had a similar high-pressure close-now kind of pest salesman who showed up. He talked about how there were spiders in our doorway and his company would spray and remove them all. I just told him "I like my spiders" and shut the door in his face. Good riddance.
I've had two of those just last week. Like they think I'm scared of spiders? As far as I'm concerned, if a spider is finding enough to eat it's doing me a favor.
I had someone in a Verizon uniform bang on my door after nightfall, then one of my neighbors refuse to usher him out of the building as one of their customers used their Verizon supplied telephone connection to threaten to kill me.
(I filed a police report, but folks don't seem to take it seriously.)
I'm thankful that aside from that, the number of spammy people in or around my home has Markedly decreased lately, but not as much as I'd like.
Edit: They might not have been Canadian, so edited "non-US".
If they're here, authorized, it shouldn't matter where they're from if there is not a language barrier.
I was floored.
When I explained, "We go out of our way to create insect habitat in our yard," his smile twitched and he realized he had no way of closing the sale.
But I'm simply amazed such practices are legal. "Hey! How about we spray a neurotoxin all over your yard? I'm sure that won't cause any unforeseen problems."