Who's responsibility is it to mow the nature strip or verge?
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I just stumbled across an in depth discussion about the ins and outs of mowing your nature strip, and was interested in the fact that there seems to be a lot of confusion about it! Some people thought that it's the council's responsibility, others thought that it was the resident's responsibility, most agreed that not mowing it looks horrible, and those with corner blocks were unhappy that they had so much more to mow.
Walking around the streets of Melbourne, I've also seen some amusingly mown nature strips - the ones where one resident has mowed only up to the property line, leaving the rest of the nature strip wild and unruly in what can only be a passive aggressive statement to their neighbour. It seems like nature strips or verges are a confusing area and pit landlord against tenant, neighbour against neighbour and resident against council!
A lot of the cause for this trouble and strife is about the lack of consistency in the rules across councils, and therefore confusion with residents. So what are the rules? Wikipedia says that the residents mowing the nature strip is a 'custom', which implies that it's not a law. A few city council websites (Moreland, Whittlesea, etc) also support this - mowing your nature strip is not law but it is appreciated. The Moreland City Council website explicitly states "Council relies on the goodwill of residents to help us maintain nature strips.". In NSW (where nature strips are called verges) there are only a handful of councils who mow nature strips left (Marrickville, Botany Bay and Leichhardt).
When the council does mow it, people complain that it's not mown well - one comment was "the council's contractors are very good at turning grass into dirt, but not much else – they tend to cut the grass about half way through the roots". And given that one of the main purposes for nature strips and verges is to keep the dust down, this makes it a little pointless. But, as they'll only mow it 2-3 times a year they practically have to remove it so that the grass doesn't grow past the recommended 10 centimetres before the next mowing!
So, I'm afraid we can't answer the question for you but we can tell you to check with your local council to find out whether it's your job to mow the nature strip or verge. If it is your responsibility to mow the nature strip, you don't have to do it yourself - you can always find a quality gardener and lawn mower on Service Central. Remember that the nature strip is public property so public liability insurance is very important - and all Service Central businesses are appropriately insured.
To read a little more about the history or purpose of nature strips or verges, click here.
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all very well, but what if your verge is 20 metres wide and you are an old age pensioner
over a year ago by Lexie -
we have a neighbour, possibly Australia's worst... for the past 6 years we have been using the nature strip to park our cars on at night as said neighbour refuses to allow residents to use the residential car park to park in "I do not want to look at cars all the time" he said. So, to keep the peace, residents have been parking cars on the nature strip at the front of the complex. Each resident has been paying approx $180 per year (around $900 per year) to maintain the nature strip. However, recently said neighbour has informed council (after 6 years) that we were parking our cars on the nature strip. The main reasons for doing this was that the road (A Minor B road) was not wide enough to allow a truck (railcorp often use the road with large trucks, we have a swimming pool centre who use large trucks on the road, and of course council garbage collection needs to be able to use the road). Council "had" to act on the complaint and we have now been told to get our cars on the road. In the one week that we have been doing this, one car has already been vandalised (its a dark road, as mentioned its B road) and my own car has been vandalised also prior to us parking on the nature strip, closer to the house.
over a year ago by Jon
The situation is now, council have acknowledged ownership of the land, but refuses to mow it. They told us they have no issue with us maintaining the land (im sure they dont) and also no issue with us parking on the nature strip due to the concerns of moving vechicles on the road. The Neighbour from hell, however, refuses to let council renege on their initial order and so we are in a position now where we have cancelled our maintenance contract for the land in question, and council will have to deal with the local businesses who cannot get past our vehicles on the road due to it being such a narrow road. The neighbours answer "sell your car or take it somewhere else"... problem is now that we have 20 residents on the road who are being forced into parking cars off the nature strip and onto the narrow road. Council are between a rock and a hard place, residents are now cancelling their own maintenance of the nature strip, and council will probably not maintain the land at all, as the land opposite is an eyesore, a real eyesore and council have not maintained it for well over 2 years. commonsense needs to apply in certain cases and in this particular case, council could reverse their decision by citing restriction to traffic issues as a result of cars on the road. But, as yet, they haven't... -
I have recently tried to repair my nature strip where my neighbor's visitor has damaged the corner. I have sown grass seed and put top soil on the area where their cars have been driving across the corner and put stakes in to protect the growing area.
over a year ago by Dave Kaye
True to the nature of Narcissistic arsoles, they complained to the moreland council, who sent someone to warn me to remove the stakes or they will fine me $200...I was further told the nature strip is not my responsibility and that I do not have to mow it.
I,ll just leave the corner unmowed and let the dogs use it as a toilet for a while....
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Insurance is a major issue nobody seems to consider when mowing the nature strip. We are not covered by Council's insurance when mowing the nature strip. So it is very important to find out if your home insurance covers you for mowing the council's land. How easy would it be to put a stone through someone's window, or knock a childs eye out with a stone while you are mowing that area?
over a year ago by Jim
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