14 DAY TRIAL // Ken Mould, a 50-year-old man from Rugely Staffordshire, finally trimmed his home after leaving it for 10 years engulfed in black ivy and weeds. The house was hidden in plants, making it look like a huge green bush between other similar buildings.
Surrounded by wild plants, it could no longer be made out from the ground as even the chimney was covered in weeds. Not even a Stafford Magistrates' Court fine of $1,630 (€1,190) could convince Mister Mould to change his mind about his house's wildlife until now.
The family's home was completely hidden under the ivy and, despite the fact that even the windows and roof were entirely covered in weeds, the man and his wife refused to cut off the plants. Council members intervened and ordered the family to remove the plants from the front of the property.
The order issued in February included the trimming of the garage and front lawn and stipulated a pricey fine in case it wasn't executed. “Basically he has been told to make it look how you would expect a house to look – at the moment you can't tell whether you're looking at the front or the back of the building,” Council planning officer Mazer Aqbal said, according to Daily Mail.
Neighbors described the fully covered building as a nightmare and were shocked of the fact that the family was not bothered at all by the embarrassing aspect of their home. After finally deciding to trim it down, the residents of the neighborhood expressed their relief.
“I don't know how they lived in there, must have cost a fortune in lighting. The windows were completely obscured, I wonder if he'll leave it now again of keep it trimmed,” James Partridge, one of the Mould family's neighbors, said.
The owner of the house is known as a kind of rebel and, with all the pressure everyone was putting on him to remove the ivy from his home, he may have decided to give them a weird lesson. It may seem that ten years of having his property covered in weeds may have been enough as he finally decided to remove it.