Bermgate 2013

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NonprayingMantis

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#130918 2-Oct-2013 17:45

so apparently I will soon have to mow my own berm.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11133160

This is interesting to me. I have never done it before as I was under the impression that the council owned the land and was therefore responsible for the maintenance. I don't mow the lawns on one tree hill or the domain.
This issue of ownership was reinforced recently when I got a parking ticket for parking my car up on the berm.

So why should I mow the berm outside my house if I do not own the land? And where does my berm end and my neighbours begin? what about the person who lives on the rear section? should we take it in turns?

what about berms outside apartment blocks? should the body corproate pay for it? or the residents?

If I owner the land I could understand, but I definitely don't or I wouldn't have been fined.

I wouldn't mind too much about doing this, but my rates have gone up 10% this year, and will go up again 10% again next year (and the year after that), so the penny pinching by the council to avoid doing maintanence on land it owns seems bit rich.

What do you guys think?

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#906562 2-Oct-2013 17:50

I think that I've always had to mow my own berm, so what's the big deal? Actually I don't do it, but I pay a guy that does it. It comes down to common sense. OK, you don't own it, sure, so let it grow. Do you really want to live like that? If you have a mower and you mow up to it, why not just mow it? While you're at it, mow a bit further down too, the area in front of your elderly neighbour's house. Feels good to be neighbourly.

kiwitrc

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#906602 2-Oct-2013 18:48

I think most of the country has to mow their own berms.

Wade

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#906614 2-Oct-2013 19:30

And most of Auckland does too whether they have to or not.... to the whingers suck it up, take some pride and look after it themselves i say

ubergeeknz

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#906633 2-Oct-2013 19:42

No. Almost everywhere it is the home owners/dweller's responsibility to mow their berm. Why should (parts of) Auckland be any different?

NonprayingMantis

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#906652 2-Oct-2013 20:20

ubergeeknz: No. Almost everywhere it is the home owners/dweller's responsibility to mow their berm. Why should (parts of) Auckland be any different?

Who said auckland should be any different? I'm asking why anyone should have to mow 'their' berms.

surely the rule you would expect is that you are responsible for maintaining your own property, and you pay rates to the council which they use to maintain council owned property.

Why are berms the exception to this rule? It's not like this is just an extension of my lawn, it's a totally different piece of land that just happens to be next to the footpath that goes in front of my house. My title shows that I definitely do not own that peice of land and I was even fined for parking on it the other day. Just seems a really really weird rule. the concrete footpath that sits between the berm and my land is not my responsibility to maintain (as far as I know) so why is the berm?

PaulBags

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#906665 2-Oct-2013 20:34

It's the councils berm, I ain't mowing it. Can't afford a mower to mow me own lawn, gotta cut it with a machette. I doubt the council, or the police for that matter, want me out there swinging a machette around in public while kids kick balls around, dogs pee on lamposts, and a-holes ride their motorbikes up and down the footpath.

Besides, don't we need more jobs in this country, not less?

[edit] And another point, why is it grass anyway? Chuck down some bark chip, or gravel, or more asphalt... heck if people have to maintain their own why can't they choose what goes there?

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Dingbatt

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#906699 2-Oct-2013 20:51

Why do I have to pay rates for an inner city rail loop I'll never use, or support an orchestra I never listen to, provide houses for people I don't know, subsidize public transport that doesn't service my part of the city or pay to make the front of your dwelling look nice when it isn't done in my part of the 'Super city'. We also have to pay for inorganic rubbish collection and have never had free swimming pools for kids that other parts of the metropolis have enjoyed.
It's part of being in one city. So maybe you need to suck it up, or buy some roundup and get rid of the problem once and for all.

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ZollyMonsta

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#906724 2-Oct-2013 21:29

Is only a little strip of grass.. Just mow it. I always have.

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PaulBags

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#906750 2-Oct-2013 22:10

ZollyMonsta: Is only a little strip of grass.. Just mow it. I always have.

So long as I can get a guarantee I won't get arrested for using my machete to do it.

ZollyMonsta

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#906800 2-Oct-2013 23:11

PaulBags:
ZollyMonsta: Is only a little strip of grass.. Just mow it. I always have.

So long as I can get a guarantee I won't get arrested for using my machete to do it.

Just don't wave it around above your head. :-)

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JimmyH

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#906807 2-Oct-2013 23:29

They can't make you mow it. Regardless of what they say, you don't have any legal obligation to maintain their property free of charge, at your expense, for them.

BUT

The key question is whether you should do it anyway. If they aren't going to mow it then you can stand on your principles if you like. You will get unsightly long grass outside your house, likely a build up of accumulating rubbish, and potentially eventually rodents as well. Plus, if your neighbours are mowing theirs and you aren't, you will likely have annoyed neighbours as well.

Personally, I would just mow it.

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#906811 2-Oct-2013 23:39

PaulBags:
ZollyMonsta: Is only a little strip of grass.. Just mow it. I always have.

So long as I can get a guarantee I won't get arrested for using my machete to do it.

Why would you get in trouble? A machete is a legitimate tool for this job and its a legitimate job you are conducting. Unless you threaten someone with it there is a 0% chance you will ever be convicted....

While I can't wave a samurai sword around, if I do it in Samurai class (even in a public place) its fine.

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ubernoob

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#906867 3-Oct-2013 08:34

I believe this has come up before..perhaps not on Geekzone.
I think the official answer from council at the time was " if they had to mow every berm outside every house then rates would be higher" because each householder helps out the city as a whole get lower rates

stevenz

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#906874 3-Oct-2013 08:45

Given the massive increase in housing values over the past few years, surely rates are higher anyway? Their costs will not have increased anywhere near the same proportion I would've thought.

Councils piss away that much money anyway, give a few people jobs and make the place prettier.

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kiwitrc

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#906883 3-Oct-2013 09:05

stevenz: Given the massive increase in housing values over the past few years, surely rates are higher anyway? Their costs will not have increased anywhere near the same proportion I would've thought.

Councils piss away that much money anyway, give a few people jobs and make the place prettier.

Rates dont work quite like that, rates dont double if your property values double as its a percentage of total rateable value of all properties. Of course if for some reason only your property goes up (or down) in price compared to others in the rateable area, then yours would go up (or down).

Of course Aucklanders get to vote shortly on this, if they want their berms mowed by the council and the local body hopeful who is proposing that it should be councils job gets in, then I guess they will see a rates rise to cover the massive investment in people, machinery, infrastructure and management to cover this.

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