Anyone ever fought a city ordinance and won?

cheshire

cheshire

Señor Member
May 25, 2009
2,249
57
0
Tejas
I own a few small rental homes in the city I live in. They're generally low maintenance with good long term tenants. I never hear a peep. Recently the city has started picking on residents in these "low income" neighborhoods. These ordinance notices are sent to me and not the tenants. Normally I'd go complain to the tenant, it gets resolved and everyone's happy, but recently they have been nit-picking the ever living shit out of them.

First, one tenant was cited for parking his vehicle "on the front lawn". The "officer" took a photo of the vehicle "on the front lawn." My tenant drives an old Suburban, she's female, she didn't get all 4 tires on the pavement. The rear drivers tire was half on the pavement, half on the grass. Basically she parked crooked slightly. I was told to "remedy" this situation within 10 working days or be fined for $500. I told the tenant, and now she has to do a walk around after she gets out to make sure half her tire isn't touching the grass. One day in a hurry, she runs in for 20 minutes for lunch, doesn't check her tire position and the ordinance officer cites her again. This is twice in 2 months. Its like he's waiting down the fucking street or something!

Next, I got a notice in the mail for the next tenant, stating there was an "Inoperable Vehicle" parked in the driveway. I go to the house to deliver the notice and check out my tenants "Inoperable Vehicle" thinking there was a broken down car on cinder blocks in the driveway or something. When I arrive there is an older Chevelle in the driveway, I show the tenant the notice and he looks puzzled then proceeds to start the car. The car runs just fine, there's no damage to the body, its a pristine classic car, but here's the kicker ... the registration & inspection expired 3 months ago. Times are tough and he didn't renew it since its his second car. So apparently if your car isn't registered it's considered "inoperable" right up there with wrecked cars, rusted cars, and cars that are truly inoperable and dangerous to the public. Basically, if you don't pay road tax you can't park it in your driveway, park it on the street, or drive it on the road. I mean WTF? When I called the city they suggested I park it in the back yard. Great idea, except the houses are 3ft. apart, you can't fit a car into the back yard. You can barely fit a lawnmower through the gate. Then their suggestion was to build a fence around the car until he has the money to pay the registration. Build a fence, around a car sitting in a driveway!? SERIOUSLY!? WTF?

So my question is, has anyone here successfully fought their local government over retarded ordinances? This is really killing me here. My long term tenants will probably end up moving because they are basically being harassed by city officials on a monthly basis over trivial things. These are good hard working people that keep the property nice, and pay their bills on time, and the city is trying to fuck them, which ultimately fucks me out of a good tenant.
 


That sucks man. I'm looking to invest in small rentals my self... Hopefully won't ever run into problems like that. Good luck
 
taktikz said:
That sucks man. I'm looking to invest in small rentals my self... Hopefully won't ever run into problems like that. Good luck
Click to expand...

Haven't had a problem in 5 years until a few months ago, now the city has a hard on. I know its an attempt to meet their budget shortfalls (headline in the local paper) but I don't like that they are targeting low income, and such minor issues. I guess its an easy target. I live across town in newer, wealthier neighborhood and I could park a rusted leer jet on the roof of my house and no one would say a word.
 
Have you considered running for office? alderman? something like that? Elections are coming up you may still be able to get your name on the ballot, i'm not sure. But most of the time in the smaller offices there is literally no competition... worth a shot.
 
cheshire said:
Haven't had a problem in 5 years until a few months ago, now the city has a hard on. I know its an attempt to meet their budget shortfalls (headline in the local paper) but I don't like that they are targeting low income, and such minor issues. I guess its an easy target. I live across town in newer, wealthier neighborhood and I could park a rusted leer jet on the roof of my house and no one would say a word.
Click to expand...

Same thing over here. My mom lives in the poorer part of town and she gets tickets all the for stupid shit. Like if you don't move your car for 2 days and its parked in the street you get a ticket. They go down the street chalking car tires every day.

My dad on the other hand lives near me and he has 6 cars, 2 which just sit in his back driveway and another in the street covered and has never once gotten a ticket. I leave my boat parked in my court for weeks covered and it doesn't even have plates from my state and no tickets.

I think its just easier to mess with the low income people as they take it. The wealthy people know people, fight it, ect and it just turns out to be a pain for them.
 
I have a few lower income properties, too. And know EXACTLY what you're talking about.

I own two five units beside each other. There's literally a 10 foot wide driveway between the houses and then an area to park in back of both properties. Between the two properties there used to be a fence since the buildings were owned separately before I bought them.

Since it was all paved and the fence was just semi stuck into the pavement I got a guy to cut the posts down as far as possible to hopefully get a few more spots open. it took him two days to cut, and sand each post so it didn't drag out the underbelly of any low cars.

...Anyway he had half the old posts stacked up on one of the buildings as he took the other half to the dump.

After 8pm you aren't allowed to do any construction without a special permit so as a cop drove by, and saw the posts, he assumed they must've been there awhile or something. Honestly have no idea what he was thinking.

Then I get this $500 ticket for basically having what's deemed as a "unkept" property since the "junk" can clearly be seen from the road (not sure you can see it in the dark).

Anyway I got the mail with my friend in the car and I was pissed (probably like you) because I'm already one of the very few lucky people in Canada that pays DOUBLE TAXATION on my property taxes and on top of that I poured a lot of money into actually making and continuing to make these buildings look decent and try and bring up a part of town that's less than desirable.

I decided to calm down and went to my friend who's a cop and told him about it, kind of casually, and he knew I was renovating the properties and trying to add fucking value to the area and he took care of it. And he said it's no big deal to take care of these little tickets (unlike say a parking ticket or something that's at a higher level of the law).

So that'd be my advice. Instead of taking legal pursuits and fighting it talk to a friend (if you have one) that's a cop or if you don't get in touch with one whether it's walking into a police station and asking to talk to one, driving them to your properties, and explaining the situation.

I find cops, by nature, are very quick to jump if you do. But when you sit down and "ask a favor" they're usually very understanding about things like this.

inb4 "lol yeah, try and be above the law!", "asking for favors is legal?! amirite, amrite?!", and also "give him 20 bucks while ur at ittt!"

You aren't being above the law, you're resolving past tickets that any officer has the ability, usually without higher consent from higher-ups, to do.
 
I know a few people suing the city of Clemson to overturn two ordinances:

1. No smoking in bars (letting the bars choose)

2. No more than 2 unrelated people can live in the same domicile (bullshit law to keep students out of certain areas, all it did was hurt the rental market. Being challenged on constitutionality)
 
Unfortunately no friends that are cops. I talked to my attorney briefly and he suggested I fight it, just curious if I'm wasting my breath. I don't want to have them stop picking on just me, basically I want the section of the law that says unregistered cars are considered "inoperable" and the section of the law that says "half a tire on the grass constitutes parking on the law" repealed from the books. Or if they won't remove it I want them to come over here to my neighborhood where the city council lives and start picking us apart.

I get the rules, you don't want people parking their cars sideways across their front lawn dripping oil and toxic fluids into the water table. You also don't want rusted broken down, wrecked cars on blocks sitting in peoples driveways (disease, rats/snakes live inside) its dangerous to the public. But, fuck! Is the city so clean and perfect that they have to cite people for parking crooked in their own goddamn driveway or just parking their car in the driveway!?
 
I got a ticket for having one of my tires further than 6 inches from the curb.

Beyond the fact that I snapped a picture with a ruler there showing 5 and 1/4 inches I'd be fighting stupid shit like this anyway.

I was at a buddies house. 4 blocks away on my way home I was approached by a prostitute, saw others dealing, etc...

But shit - spend time and resources on a car not touching the curb makes sense.

(BTW - it was a real cop, not a parking cop)
 
K time to complain about tickets. I got a $200 ticket for fireworks lol and I disputed that shit and its been 10 months, still haven't heard from em. Just 2 years and 2 months and that motherfuckers void!
 
When towns get like this, the only way to resolve it is to get news agencies involved.

City officials taking advantage of "less fortunate people" and and discriminating who they give tickets to?? Those scummy Fox Investigative reporters eat that shit up.

Sounds like history of the nit-picky citations, clear documentation and calls to every newspaper and tv station in the area are due. Make sure to demonstrate how they pick on your tenants that live in the "lower income" sections of town and victimize the people being given citations. Stories about the big man stomping on the little guy are magnets of controversy, and as such, good News stories.
 
I would SEO the cops name - say a farticle with the city name in it saying he was "suspected" of possessing and/or distribution of child porn. Home address, employment and everything. Word it in a way that just indicates there is some suspicion (leave it really vague to protect yourself legally) and that no charges have been filed yet. Then call his Sergeant and ask if the police department would like to comment on the allegations about the officer. Finally, I would talk to the cop and calmly explain you can make it all go away if he stops being such a cocksucker. Of course, if he does actually have child porn on his computer he might do an hero....problem solved either way.
 
I had this problem with a car that the plates had expired on. I just put a car cover over it.
I usually fight something like this if I have the time, I just go in and filibuster and take up as much time as I can. They usually get tired of me and waive the fine.
 
My neighbor is a city commissioner and he used to mess with me and a few neighbors all the time. Basically acting like Napoleon, because he thought he had power and could walk all over us. He would call code enforcement, the fire department (long story) etc etc. I managed to get recorded calls of him making these complaints and one of my neighbors (who he messed with the most) filed a harassment suit, sent a C&D to the commissioner, the city and the mayor. Because he was acting in an official capacity, using a city cell, and identifying himself as a commissioner the attorney said they could all be held liable. Not a peep since. Win.
 
jmizzle said:
When towns get like this, the only way to resolve it is to get news agencies involved.

City officials taking advantage of "less fortunate people" and and discriminating who they give tickets to?? Those scummy Fox Investigative reporters eat that shit up.

Sounds like history of the nit-picky citations, clear documentation and calls to every newspaper and tv station in the area are due. Make sure to demonstrate how they pick on your tenants that live in the "lower income" sections of town and victimize the people being given citations. Stories about the big man stomping on the little guy are magnets of controversy, and as such, good News stories.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to suggest.
 
I was once fined $250 a day for flying my 15' by 25' American flag atop my 80' flag pole over my Palm Beach estate. I ended up suing the town for $10mil and was once quoted by Fox News saying, "The day you need a permit to put up the American flag, that will be a sad day for this country." .

Now, if you excuse me I must meet with the newly crowned Miss Universe.


Oh wait...
 
Btw once used to live in a city worth than that, Cary, North Carolina. Basically no businesses could have the color red on their building or any other 'threatening color', your choices for a brick and motar business on the outside (or visible from the outside) had to be brown, green or beige (they wanted to keep up the wooded appearance of the posh city). All houses couldn't be a dark/bold color your choices were the same as the businesses or a variety of pastels/off-whites. One guy lived across the street from a very rich neighborhood (he's probably dead by now), and he had lived there for longer than the city had been established. His entire front lawn was decorated with various trash, old tires etc, basically very tacky, bright colors, etc. Even had a big wooded sign that had a paragraph about respecting other's people will to live and such and ended off with a "if you don't like it you can just fuck off". The city had been fighting him in court for over 25 years when I lived there, and every time he kept winning cuz he was granfathere'd in prior to the city's establishment/expansion.

There was even this very tall as 'dead' tree, ugly as hell, even once mentioned they should take the tree down. It wasn't a tree, it was the sprint cell tower disguised to look like a tree cuz the city didn't want any man-made structures there to ruin the natural beauty of the place.

When I moved to wake forest, NC , I remember living in a small start up neighborhood, small 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house (bout 90K at the time, employers bought it for me), but the neighborhood itself had a housing committee, you'd get fined for having your grass half an inch too tall, or having anything more than a lawn chair on your porch, and a number of other things, used to mow the neighbor's yard once a week for him after I did my own lawn cuz the committee kept harassing him and he was like 60, diabetic and couldn't be outside in the summer heat for that long. Needless to say I really hate the nit-picking my life type of invasion, and it really irks the fuck out of me when they go after you for every tiny technicality they can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom