Halloween is just around the corner, which means most people are busy picking out pumpkins to carve and planning weekend excursions with their families to local corn mazes. And since Halloween falls on a Friday eve this year, some party-goers may be preparing to attend or host festivities just wild and freaky enough to land complaints from neighbors, or perhaps a visit from police about community noise ordinances.
Synonymous with October’s spooky holiday, though, is haunted houses. There are those homeowners who don’t go overboard with the outlandish party; instead, they decorate their front yards to look like graveyards with web-covered porches and strategically placed cauldrons of dry ice. There’s always that super special moment when someone dresses up in costume pretending to be motionless, then tries to startle you as you approach the front entryway while creepy noises of people screaming over organ music play in the background. Maybe not enough to creep you out, but it’s all in good fun for the little kids.
In Glendale, Arizona, one homeowner invested $40,000 into his haunted house, but the Homeowner’s Association he belongs to is threatening to bring about a $2,500 fine for each night he operates his house of terror. He spent two years on the construction of his horror house; however, he failed to get proper approvals before spending the funds to decorate his home. He altered a community wall, planned to open community gates to outsiders, and planned to charge a fee for entrance… all neighborhood violations. The homeowner says he will “scoop up enough people that want to come out and donate ten bucks a head then take all that money for one night and pay the fine.” He adds, “And we’ll have a good time doing it.”
So, it’s pretty clear that the threat of a $2,500 fine may deter him from running his operation throughout the entire month of October, but it hasn’t stopped him from planning a huge one-night shindig.
After all that hard work (and lack on his part of obtaining HOA approval), is he justified in opening up his haunted house to the public so they can enjoy the fruits of his labor, even though the consequences require him to incur a monetary penalty? What about the flipside… if you were his neighbor, would you mind the house operating for one night (aside from the possibility of excessive noise levels or the disturbance of strange/intoxicated people hanging around)? Another option… pay the $10 fee to attend and check out what all the fuss is about. Come November, we may be reading a new post on www.rottenneighbor.com!
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