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code inspectors and datsuns


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the story starts on a nice febuary day in Georgia. i had just drove 50 miles west towards alabama, and purchased a 1977 Datsun b210 to be picked up later. so i get back to work and a call from my wife brings distressing news. code inforcement officers are at my house asking why i have so many untagged vehicles. whoops! i end up getting 2 violations, 1 for untagged vehicles, and 1 for not parking on a "hard surface" {i guess my gravel carport, that has been there since the eightys is not exceptible}also got cited for doing major work to automobiles.{they say i can only do brakes and oil changes} so i quickly put in for 3 vacation days and get to work. as my wife reminded me about 100 times, now was not the best time to bring home a datsun with the trans un-attached. screw that, i want it. first step was to bail out my altima collection{quite fond to the heart } my baby{1994 alty, with custom black leather and a subtle lip kit, blown motor:mad:} go to my fathers house. my goldy{1995 stock,fixer upper to sell, almost done:mad:} goes to a friends sisters house. there was also my ex-roomates accord and his engine hoist{they said i cannot use a hoist at my house:(} well that is great, i have wanted that accord out of here since he left 6 months ago! that took a whole day with dolly's and spinning tires in gravel with 2wd pickups! the next moring i go rescue the b210 from being towed out of the apartments it sat in. so now i have the wife's buick, my frontier, and 2 datsuns. well i can't have 2 dattos with no tags, so i tag em and insure them ever though they are not running. so time to get them running. now i normally probly would have taken forever to work on them, because the wife and kiddy's and the job just don't allow me too.if you follow my project thread on the 210 you know i ran into some troubles. well at the last minute, about 11:30 on sunday night i get her running and off the jack stands. what a relief, i really wanted to get here done before they came out. so the 1974 620 is still not running and i have the new weber for it, but it turned out ok. it looks good and was tagged. well the moral of this long story is if it wasn't for the code peaple i wouldn't be driving a datto right now. i got to clean my yard like i have been wanting to and drive my datsun! besides the unfortunate altimas, i am happy with the result. all it takes for my wife to let me do what i want outside is a threat of prison! i joke but the kids are 8 months and 2 years old, so she has a tough job. my yard looks great now, and i feel good about it, instead of before when there where old tires, engines and sockets everywhere. of speaking of motors i have 2001 KA motor for my altima in the back of my frontier, and the hoist is gone. that wasn't the best plan! oh well i'll figure it out.

 

afterword: my house is on a cut though type street with at least a couple of acreas woods on all sides. i have been going though cars for years with no issues. it was the new neibors{about 100 yards though the woods on the left} that did this to me. they move in and bring about 15 really junky vehicles, and more crap that i could accumlate in 5 years. so i was just a afterthought for the code peaple, they where probelly leaving and spotted my place.

 

anyone else ever have troubles like this?

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Wow, Alabama is hard on car fans. I never heard of a requirement to tag/register a car. Here in Washington, all we need is a title. And how can they forbid you from working on a car? Sound like that benefits the mechanics associations.

 

In my town there is a requirement about "non-running" cars, but I haven't heard of it being enforced. I've also heard of a hard-surface requirment as in the car must be in a garage or on a paved driveway.

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anyone else ever have troubles like this?

 

YUP!!!

worse maybe...

my neighbor can look into my yard from his 3rd story balcony and doesnt like any noise from datsun restorations.

so i hide in my neighbors yard and do the work so he cant see me :sneaky:

 

i laugh when i open my mail w/threats from the city collection agency wanting the $5100 (and counting) in fines for noise, body work and painting, non-running vehicle storage.

like you, from 1 fucking PITA neighbor who in ~2years has not/will not talk to me.

 

he cant say anything about my son and i making LOTS of other noises :D

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I've also heard of a hard-surface requirment as in the car must be in a garage or on a paved driveway.

 

in CA it varies from county to county and isnt enforced until a complaint (or 16) are filed.

what really sux is that there are 4 others code violators on my street, but since the asshole next to me, or ANYONE else, hasnt complained, its OK :rolleyes:

 

i have to have a non-registered car out of site from the public or garaged (but thats where all the parts are-no room for a car)

parking is allowed on a 3 paragraph described surface=no gravel or paving stones.

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sux hang510. i understand what youre goin thru with bitchy neighbors. unfortunately in los angeles (maybe all of cali?) a neighbor has the right to complain about almost anything that they dont like on YOUR property. anything from noise, too many cars, overgrown vegetation, unpainted trim etc. there is some law that protects idiots like that and they can really give you hell. i have a friend that had the cops show up at his door because the tv was too loud and the neighbors complained :blink: only problem was that he was sleeping and there was no tv on :lol:

 

 

 

so... either way some places are more easygoing about this stuff than others. i think in LA you can have a bunch of cars on your property as long as theyre not visible from the street.

 

 

 

and if you dont like youre neighbors.... go here and tell the interweb about them

http://www.rottenneighbor.com/

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It's definitely all of California. Unless you have a ton of land out in the country or something your neighbors can file a complaint with the police for anything they don't like about you or your property.

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I have a similar problem here in Pierce County. I've been given 3 warnings in 9 years form code enforcement over "imporper storage/accumulation of junk vehicles". You aren't allowed to have any junk vehicles on the property, but the definition of "junk" can be interpreted liberally:

 

1) Is over 5 years old

2) Is apparently inoperative

3) Is missing or has damage to any major components (lights, fenders, doors, windows, engine, tires, etc)

 

If it meets 2 of those, it's considered a junk vehicle. There's nothing that says it has to be registered, or where on the property in can/cannot be, though the code enforcement inspector said they can only cite those visable from the street. I've never been given an actual violation or fine- the inspector has always cleared me once he has come by. However he says he gets a complaint every couple months and has to tell the complaintant that there isn't a violation.

 

However, I am currently fighting the county Health Department- they have issued me a violation, even though the inspector said I didn't really have a problem. She's just being picky... it started in October (that's why I had that big parts giveaway in November) with a warning notice over "Improper storage of solid waste". Now, it's true my yard was a mess, I had a bunch of parts scattered around that were too big to put in the garage. So I cleaned it up, gave away a ton of stuff, including my last good 521 transmission, and scheduled an inspection.

 

The health inspector took a look and said i couldn't have any car parts stored in truck beds (I had a couple front suspensions in the back of one truck, which are gone now, a rear axle, and a few fenders and bumpers in another), nor parts covered by "blue tarps". She also said I couldn't have the rolls of concertina wire (basically military-grade barbed wire) on the ground. She said the tire stack was OK since it was tidy, but said I needed to "cover" the stuff in the truck beds. She set a reinspection for the second Wed in January, 8AM.

 

I did that, but when the second Wednesday in Jan rolled around she never showed up. When I finally gave up and went to work I found a message on my voicemail from her assistant cancelling the inspection because she was sick.

 

I never did hear back until last week, when I found her business card stuck in the doorframe of my house. Then Friday I got another violation notice in the mail- once again, it says that I needed to rectify the specific violation, but all it says is "accumulation of solid waste". Nothing "specific". There's no garbage. I haven't drug home any more cars or any car parts. Hardly anything has moved except the concrete blocks I had to set out to tie my carport to after it blew off into the hedge and up on the neighbor's roof (quite a windstorm). What's worse is just 5 doors down there IS a house with copious garbage strewn throughout the yard, in piles (shopping carts, broken doghouses piled 5 high, rotting yard waste bags spilling their contents into the street, a couch, etc). 3 blocks away someone has a half-dozen stoves and refrigerators piled on front of the house, tires off the rim, busted toys, etc. These folks have done nothing to clean up... I doubt they have violation notices.

 

The worst part is whoever is making these complaints monthly is too cowardly to come talk to me personally. I don't know who it is. Could be the neighbors, could be the meter reader. Doesn't seem to matter.

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The worst part is whoever is making these complaints monthly is too cowardly to come talk to me personally. I don't know who it is.

even though I DO! :fu:

he still hasnt answered the door the few times ive gone by.

 

he should be scared now :blink:

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This happened to my brother in law in Indiana. He had a body shop. HAd years of cars and parts piled around. Someone called the inspectors on his neighbors because the idiots started a trash collection buisness and were burning trash in a big pit with out any permissions and the cloud of toxic smoke drifted into the nice neighborhood behind the treeline. So he was collateral damage.

 

However just like you charlie, he is glad it happened, he had been wanting to clean up the property for years and never had the right motivation!

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This happened to my brother in law in Indiana. He had a body shop. HAd years of cars and parts piled around. Someone called the inspectors on his neighbors because the idiots started a trash collection buisness and were burning trash in a big pit with out any permissions and the cloud of toxic smoke drifted into the nice neighborhood behind the treeline. So he was collateran damage.

 

However just like you charlie, he is glad it happened, he had been wanting to clean up the property for years and never had the right motivation!

 

just like ,me! the neighbor's fault but turned out ok in the end. i drove my

b210 to work today!

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you can usually tell who calls the inspectors out on you.

 

just wait to see if any houses go up for sale on your block or look around to see if there are some already. chances are that someone thought the look of your house was bringing down the value of theirs (and it probably was :lol:)

 

but it works out ok because you now have a clean and tidy workspace and the annoying neighbor is gone :D

 

 

btw, if you wanna see how bad your yard is, take a look at it on google maps and zoom in as much as possible. what i thought wasnt too many cars looked like a junkyard from space...

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I find this kind of shit just wrong. looks like were all in trouble. My neighbor has cars sitting but at least he plays musical cars once in a while for fun. Then I have new scenery. I hate the politics of this, telling me what I can and cant do with my stuff. Angry Face:mad:

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