I’ve come to the conclusion that I must be your worst nightmare.
I bought our house from my dad – so I benefit under prop 13/58. Strike 1. Unlike your neighbors, I paid full market price for the house (and have a mortgage) but I do get the tax break.
I also am not super fast about weeding the front yard, and our driveway has some cracks from an old tree- so the front of the house looks a bit “Clampet” style. It was worse when we were building the granny flat so we had a porta-potty in the driveway plus a concrete washout pit. Not to mention trenches for the water lines/back flow preventer… etc. So – since my house isn’t cosmetically wonderful from the front – that’s my second strike.
Truly – the cosmetic stuff you describe sounds like it would all be addressed if you lived in a strict HOA community. Like you, I’m in an older neighborhood. No HOA police to tell people to weed, mow the lawn, etc. A neighbor up the street – who bought the house from as stranger so has NO prop 13 benefit would also drive you nuts… the house is ill maintained and his kid fixes up old z-cars in the driveway – there are always at least 2 project cars in various states of disrepair in their driveway.
I happen to agree with CAR and the person in the link edna_mode posted – that 2nd homes/commercial property/etc should not necessarily get the benefit. I know a lot of rental properties are held in corps/llc’s… you can sell the corp/llc and have the prop rate get passed on to the new owner… that seems like a loophole that should be closed.
I’d even understand if they repealed the prop 58 thing – but keep in mind – not all folks who benefit from it got the house free and clear – I paid market rate in 2003 – which meant it was more than a half million… I have a mortgage. But it was a purchase mortgage (not pulling out equity to expand my lifestyle). But… feel free to get mad at me for not being more proactive about my weeds.
