Anyone had to fight "non-op" vehicle on property citation?

I came home from work today to find a city letter warning me to move my "non-operative/non-registered" vehicle from sight "beyond my property" or I will be cited on Sep. 1. Shit, Google earth shows the damn thing no matter where it is, so beyond sight is more than a little vague...

The vehicle in question is a '34 Ford phaeton (frame and body, anyway) and it's in the corner of my 4-car driveway nearest my house.

I had always heard that here in AZ, as long as the vehicle was on an "improved" surface, it could be in just about any state of disrepair. I even know of a guy in Paradise Valley (notoriosuly tight-assed, for those unfamiliar) who had an old mining truck in his yard as lawn art, got cited and simply poured a slab under it and was immediately cleared...

Anyway, anyone else had to deal with automotive zoning BS? More importantly, anyone fought the law and WON?

 

Buy current plates/tabs for it. Kinda short notice, Sept. 1? Thats crappy, maybe ask for an extension and a copy of the city zoning ordinance.

 

Never had much luck with goons in Arizona. Damn HOA was on my ass all the time. that is why I got outta there. But a couple of weeks ago the city inspector told me to move my CJ5 unregistered, inoperative vehicle because it was visible. Well I put it in my "county" property 12 feet away and they can't do a damn thing about it. Bureaucrats, gotta love them, NOT.

 

My Father had the city after him about too many cars and trucks, he got a ticket.
He drove around and took photos of all kinds of junk that was on city property,
he even found a city truck w/o an engine with a tree growing in it.
The judge looked at the photos and threw out the charges.

 

Zoning and dick head neighbors suck!!!

 

i moved my truck into the garage for 10 days then moved it back into the drive way.

 

i got a ticket for my 49 olds because it wasn't tagged $181.00 and ten days to move it out of sight or off the property

 

That's kinda the funny part... no HOA here. My house was built in '67, and is one of the nicer ones in the neighborhood. If someone's complaining, I can't imagine I'm near the top of anyone's list... I could take you to two fairly certain meth labs and a coyote drop house within 4 blocks... sheesh.

 

I my home town the city does the same for cars with out a tag. Doesn't matter what the car looks like or if it is missing parts, just gotta keep a current tag on it. In other words pay taxes on it.

 

Move it around back, and cover it. If you want to get fancy, put a fence around it.

If it is in the line of sight from the street, they can call you on it.
If they cannot see it behind your house, its as good as gone.

And you will tell them that it is gone..

Dont sweat over flights and google earth. Its not admissable in court.
we still have some rights as US citizens.. For now.

Call the inspector or the office # and ask them what this is about, and as long as thats the only inop you have, tell them its already gone.

They are happy and no more problem.


And I havent had to fight the law, I educated myself on it and am in full compliance.
I show them the code whenever they decide to stop by.

 

Would a car cover make it be "out of site"?

Some one recently stop by and want to buy your old car? Or, who did you piss off? I got one of those notices once, I made a lawyer mad, that was his responce. I moved some stuff around, cleaned up a little and never heard anything about it again.

Should you deside you need to take pictures to help your cause, be sure those pictures are of city vehicals on city property, not some poor guy down the street. Gene

 

I would set it in IN the yard plant some pricklepear around it and call it "yard art" then it a free speach issue....this worked for me in Milwaukie oregon,and part of the reason that when I moved home to Tucson I bought a acre outa town and nobody gives myself or any of my neighbors shit about our stuff

 

i know this above post may seems like a good plan buy do not cry" why me "and point to someone else..

don't do there job and get someone else in a jam thats not the"HAMB WAY"
call the city and see what it all means ..
take the needed steps pull a daily out of the garage so this will fit in ,, hang from the rafters or cover it ,build a play house over it .. move it to friends garage or hidden lot . whatever

they do not see a cool rod they see a eyesore ,junk untagged car ,, a blight to thre naybors ..

if your a law adiding city property owner they will work with you
they give ya 2 weeks is there way of forcing the issue with bad folks ..
they watch for this thing next is they will want to see what you do in your garage ....
nip it nip it now

possibly the city workers are rodders looking for ol tin themselves!


hey we find old tin all over the country just sittin derilict ,,
think man think

make the move

best of luck i'm rootin hard for your team

 

like i said above they are watching your place cuz its on the route... a crack in the armor of seemingly innocent people gets the real bad folks prosecuted real fast small infractions just open the door for a visit or a stronger citation
next will be the cable guy looking around
then the power company peekin in
then your garbage is searched

they all talk to each other all the time
check with city today
nip it nip it now

 

I'd vote for moving it to the back or side yard and building a neat (orderly) "garden shed" around it. Just keep the foot print small enough that you don't need a permit.

With the end of the season sales starting up you might even find a deal on a shed kit from one of the home improvement box stores. out of site out of mind. A couple of hundred bucks might save a lot of grief later.

 

o ya
try standing it on the bumper... lean it on.the house
put religous a stautue " like henry ford" in it and call it a shrine add vines and flowers,candles ... good luck

 

I already called the police number that was given on the letter, and they just told me to call zoning tomorrow when they're open, so I'm on it. Even the police operator was taken aback... he was also familiar with the improved surface deal, and could only guess that I had a pissed-off neighbor trying to sell their house?

I can move it to a back driveway, but it's not easy as I only have a walkway-access gate and would have to haul it around the block, and down the alley to get it there... and even then I'm not sure it's sufficiently "out of sight" as I've got chain-link gates and the cruisers make regular patrols down my alley... hopefully checking for taggers, burglars, scrap theives... you know, REAL criminals!

 

Well Tinman you in Phoenix it's self or one of the 'burbs? Rules vary town to town. Realators are famious for turning in people ,got houses for sale on your block? I went 'round with zoning in Phoenix years ago about me having a antique semi-tractor in my driveway. They didn't even know their own regs, upshot was "I'm going to look at the driveway" stuck it in the back yard and they were happy.

 

My experience with the code compliance police has been less than good. The one's I've had to deal with, when you ask them a question, the answer would be "I don't know if you can do that". So my recommendation would be to check with your zoning guys and ask them if there are any zoning restrictions and then with the compliance code people for what the codes are.

Where I live, my property is almost 19K sq ft, I can have up to 8 cars on it; but they have to run. If they don't run they have to be in a garage. They won't let you hid it behind a fence or cover it up.

Good luck, I've had my share of those guys.

It might not be a neighbor, it could be a realtor that turned you in, I've heard of them doing that to clean up the neighborhood.

 

Had that problem here. Vehicle was even operable! They kept tagging it (53 Ford) saying it hadn't moved! So in the dead of winter, I built a 7 foot fence around it. They can't climb into or onto your property for anything. That would be "trespassing"!!! They (the policemen) claimed it was an eyesore and needed to be towed away to a "city owned" auctionhouse. Coincidence?? This is Indiana...I, as well as my car, are from Texas. In this town, NOTHING needs inspection or emissions!!!! There are cars driving around without windshields!!! After the fence was built (which is about 4 years ago) a cop never...I repeat NEVER!!!...patrolled this neighborhood! The last time I had to call those who "protect and serve" was when I saw some kids playing with four gas cans and a lighter!!! Five mintues later the fire department shows up. Three men get off the firetruck. They take the cans and put them on the porch and drive away. NO ONE SPOKE TO THE KIDS PARENTS! The last time I complained about the shoddy job the authorities do, the chief....THE CHIEF said, "Well, that's what you get living in this neighborhood! At least you don't live here!

 

Yep, I'm in Phoenix proper... where every block has houses for sale, but I'm in a cul-du-sac and know all of my neighbors. They're cool as hell with me being a car guy... hadn't considered the agent deal though.

If I had a garage, it'd be in it getting built right now. My carport was converted to a game room in the mid-70's and I'm pretty comitted to it, so I'm stuck with front and rear driveways for now.

 

Yep I'm off 59th & Thomas and about half the houses in the block west of me are vacant.

 

With zoning laws you have to go find the code books and read up on it. If you can quote the laws better than the zoning people, you can usually come out ahead. Because the zoning people will lie to you. I was told an open car trailer is a commercial vehicle and can't be parked in my residential neighborhood, but if you read the law it says only commercial vehicles over 7500 lbs can't be parked there. Which means I can put about 6000 lbs on the trailer and still have it.

Usually if someone complains the burden of proof is on you to show you are in fact in compliance, too.

 

rustynewyorker is right. Here the rule is if someone complains, you are at fault and must "fix" the situation. Also, here, anything visible from the sidewalk is in violation and subject to be towed! Even on private property. If an automobile hasn't moved in three days, it is in violation and is subject to be removed from the property.

 

I had that happen to me too! I called the officer and he was cool. All I had to do was put a cover over the car. They need a warrant to remove a car cover to see if it has current tags/inspection so there is no way for them to tell if the car is operational or not. Just call the officer that left the notice. Hopefully he will be as cool as the one in my area.

 

Yeah, but be careful..they might site you for having your fence too high! its usually 6' or sometimes 5'-6" as the limit.

 

I got a complaint that my hauler didn't have current plates and my pile of body parts was getting bigger. Then somebody graffittied my shed.

 

I fought the law on this one and they kicked my ass.

Was mailed an official "warning" to get rid of my inoperable '62 Buick wagon, which operated quite nicely, thank you. They were kind enough to include some very nice photos of my car too! Tagged, but no current registration. Ignored it because I knew what the laws were concerning cars and property. I found out I was wrong.

Got another letter requesting my smiling face in court. Called the "code enforcement" clowns and they PROMPTLY came to see me in a city car.

I politely explained what the law was and they no-so-politely told me I was way wrong. My understanding was from 20+ years ago that said that the car could not "protrude" past the furthest point of the front of the house. This really was the law, but I guess shit changes after 20 years. Who knew?

I explained I would be more than happy to move my fully operational but not currently registered classic vehicle to the back of my house, out of site. Not good enough, as apparently their little rent-a-cop plastic badges give them the authority to go literally ANYWHERE they want in the county. WTF you say? So did I.

They claimed that trespassing laws had no bearing on code enforcement officers, and that they would be inspecting my yard within 72 hours to verify the car was either gone or currently registered. I ever so kindly told them that they would NOT be trespassing in my back yard, as it was fenced. Yeah, not a good thing to say to two old farts who flunked the police academy and are still pissed about it. I invite them to leave my property.

I didn't re-register it because it was sold and I had the deposit. I was waiting for the transport company to come and get it, so why the hell would I drop $55 to register it again? Here's why...

So I show up in court a few weeks later to challenge this whole deal. The judge states that I was given one notice, one citation, and one order to appear. Whoa, wait a second, no I wasn't. We battled back and forth on this for a few minutes.

The judge turns to the two clowns who came to my house and asked what THEY thought he should do with my $1100 fine... yes, ELEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!

They had happened to stop by my house that very morning so they could see if the car was still there, an apparent setup for court? Fortunately for me the transporter had picked it up just the night before!

I went back and forth with the judge for a while explaining in my best courtroom professional type way that these two clowns had no authority to rule on my case. I should mention that they wanted the judge to tack on an additional $350 fine.

The judge finally ruled and stuck me with half of the $1100 fine, $550 for you mathematically impaired.

Lesson learned. I now hide my non-operational cars better. I also watch for the "code enforcement" assholes much more closely.

 

If the "officer" had left his name I would have called him right away. I much prefer to deal with individuals as opposed to an endless phone transfer to state employee after state employee... I'd really rather talk with the complaintant, but people are such pussies anymore, they'd rather call in the man than ring the doorbell and talk things over.

They've got the statutes quoted on their form letter, and they just circle the applicable violations, so i would guess i know as much as they do when it comes to the verbage of the law? Perhaps not...

This whole thing's just got me pissed, and I hope to be in a better mood tomorrow when I call the good folks downtown.

 

Looks like me picking up a bar of soap in the shower...