Code enforcement nightmare

[Birdhouse]

Hey all

How do you do it?
America the land where we are free to get screwed by code enforcement

I've been living in the bus behind some podunk cabins in Oscoda MI since April. Has been great until a couple weeks ago. The tenant in the adjacent property died. Owner came to clean it out and found me. Seemed real friendly. Oh living in a bus! Well do what you you gotta do right?

2 days later my landlord gets told that i may be on his property
Not that it makes any difference
Says he is real easy to work with Lololz

Now has stuck code enforcement monkey on my back. Apparently you can't have an rv occupied or otherwise on a podunk wooded lot that's considered commercial property. How in the flaming Jesus do campgrounds exist then?

They are all closed here in winter except one with a bogus requirement that your rv be less than 12 years old or something insane. Despite having a line of scabby single wide trailers on the property.... if I had a shiny fresh paint job I could probably slip in no problem

My boss has a perfect place to stuff it behind a barn in a perfectly secluded area... but will have no part of it. Just declared that I make bad decisions and will continue to make a headache until I get rid of it.....

He's always such a sweetheart.

The guy I bought it from insists that I can beat code enforcement, as he previously did, with the same bus. He wasn't living in it though. Not that it should matter!

How do any of you do this without a perpetual nightmare?



.... thanks

[john61ct]

Always be ready to move to a more friendly (or oblivious ) location.

You are wise to not own the land, can't move that

[Birdhouse]

Ughf.
I just wrote a lovely essay about the situation as it unfolded and the website said I wasn't logged in and ate it.

I'm over it.

Just know that I think I'm OK. Just had to get the license plate renewed

[Birdhouse]

Yup oblivious regularly passes for friendly. Until someone catches wind. Code enforcement actually hasn't been an issue until now. And even now it was hardly a thing.

Turns out, this situation may not be as bad as it sounded. My landlord did a horrible job of reading and reporting.

Made zero mention of the fact that the Actual code enforcement citation was in regards to a junk / unlicensed vehicle ordinance. Literally the corrective action read get the vehicle licensed and operable or remove it. And only that.

Well it is perfectly operational. As of a few days ago,, all of the lights even work.. oh.. the horn is still disconnected.. oh no!! and as of today fully legal. I may well shortly put the squash on the insurance as it's stationary,, but it wasn't a big deal. Registration is 200 a year, little steep but not horrible

Meanwhile landlord read a highlighted line in a bunch of filler material involving not storing on commercial property and decided it meant I had to go.
Considering the citation spoke nothing of it, I'm Considering it an FYI just in case you ever wondered thing.
In the event someone does ever try to force that one I will probably fight it.

Landlord accidentally harshed on my Christmas pretty hard. I verified today he doesn't want me to leave.... lol.

The jerkoff that owns the adjacent property, not so much. Will probably continue to be an absolute menace of a nuisance. He already called the police and reported a Tied Out And Unsheltered Dog.....
Cops came out and found the dog sleeping on the couch and the cord laying in the yard. She has a dog door and can pull the cord inside and sleep on the couch in her blanket or go yell at the neighbor as needed. Furnace runs all day and as much food and water as she could possibly want.
Bogus neighbor. A real Karen

Well a couple of people on the We Are Oscoda Facebook page offered to help. Will keep them in mind

[Birdhouse]

Oh! Holy cripes
It actually loitered in cyber purgatory for 20 mins while I read some of the sticky threads then magically reappeared with the back button!

Weeeeet!
Now yall know the story

[dzl_]

Originally Posted by Birdhouse

Ughf.
I just wrote a lovely essay about the situation as it unfolded and the website said I wasn't logged in and ate it.

This is the least user friendly forum software I've encountered since the dark ages of the internet. I can't count the number of times the same thing has happened to me, and I can't count the number of times I see people run into the same issue. I wonder how hard it would be to migrate to something a little more modern.


Somehow I feel like the forum software eats the comments that take the most time to compose.. Maybe its an anti-rant/anti-meandering-wall-of-text extension to the forum software


I'm sorry for your troubles (with the forum, but much more so with your living situation). I think its probably much easier to exist out west (inter-mountain west) and Western Canada. The NE is just too damn crowded for the most part, and in the south and midwest my experience has been people are very kind/warm and friendly 1 on 1 / to your face--good people in that respect--but not so accepting of alternative lifestyles and not so warm/friendly/accepting when its not face to face or when they generalize (of course <-- that is a generalization in itself, and just my anecdotal experience)

[Birdhouse]

D@mn thing just loves to tell me I'm not logged in then glitch hard

Ughf. Yeah I've faced some adversity already. Including getting badly beaten in the face for no apparent reason by an idiot I thought was my friend..... resulting from telling him I found a new rear crown to replace the one that my previous owner destroyed for me when removing from his yard in the ice, rammed a tree across the road...

There's definitely some cranky turd people up here. I think the weather keeps them frigid. Its awesome to see how few people wanna cough up to help when we live in a very rural area.

Lololz generalization about generalization
I love it

[john61ct]

Fire up a local editor with autosave and undo if you're going to write more than a couple minutes.

Nothing in a web editor window is safe, nature of the beast

[dzl_]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Fire up a local editor with autosave and undo if you're going to write more than a couple minutes.

Nothing in a web editor window is safe, nature of the beast

True, but other forum software is substantially more reliable and capable of autosaving comments on the fly pretty reliably with no user effort/input. Xenforo based forums (Expedition Portal, Sprinter Source, DIYsolarforum for examples) are very modern and user friendly as far as forums go.

[EastCoastCB]

I've never had any issues but I only use this site on my desktop.

[Booyah45828]

Sorry you had problems, especially around the holidays. Code can get weird quick. Laws, and unfortunately lawyers, have been around for centuries. No telling what kind of crap they can dig up and misconstrue to fit their motive.

As far as campgrounds and commercial property is concerned, they're largely one in the same, except for the fact that campgrounds will typically be licensed to operate, and usually inspected, by the state. That little nuance makes all the difference between being allowed to reside in an RV on there and not.

The reason most campgrounds close in the winter is because they don't want the hassle of stuff freezing. The ones that don't close need to make it worth their while to stay open, so they limit occupancy to those with newer units in an attempt to eliminate the riff raff.

If I was in your shoes, and so long as the property owner is okay with you, I'd stay put. Be non-confrontational with the authorities. They'd have to go through a lot of hoops to get you legally evicted, and if that happens, your bus can move and isn't derelict, go elsewhere for a day or two. Chronologize your interactions with the neighbor, video it if you have to, but do not do anything to them. If this would go to court, you need to paint them as the menace, and not you. So remember that. A lot of stuff decided in court is done based off the opinion of the judge, don't do something that would skew it against you.

[Birdhouse]

Good points

Let him be the menace.
Definitely.
He really is too.

Un sheltered dog.... the crap he comes up with.

My property owner is great.
When I moved in, he said he didn't give a sh!t who doesn't like it. Seems to be holding true to that.

Heh misconstrue to fit motives. Ain't it true

[Birdhouse]

I normally write long things in Gmail. Lot safer

[kazetsukai]

Originally Posted by Birdhouse

How do any of you do this without a perpetual nightmare?

This country has forgotten what freedom means, and what it means to be free, giving all that up in exchange for power over their neighbor, and access to their neighbor's resources. That power is what has us so polarized, and constantly at each others throats. Until we learn to live and let live again, and give up attempting to control our neighbor and access to their wallets, everything will get worse. What you describe is merely a small symptom of this problem.

Now, as for the solution: Live somewhere you actually own what you own. No HOAs, no zoning. "Unrestricted" property without cumbersome covenants. You could buy a small plot of land somewhere to develop and park on, that's what we're doing for a home base. I understand everyone has their own circumstances, but if you're going to live in a bus I think you really should strongly consider a home base of sorts that you own, have sole control over, can park on indefinitely, and return to if you do a lot of travel. Relying on others indefinitely is not a winning strategy.

This is not easy. It takes time, money and effort.

[peteg59]

Unfortunately, even if you own the land you park on, local ordinances can become big issues in the eyes of a rogue code enforcer.

Some areas of the country are better than others as far as "live and let live" on your land.

It pays in dividends to research carefully before signing on any title app for real estate.

[Birdhouse]

Amen to that.

It's ridiculous

Well, at the moment I'm still relying on others but may have found a place if I can get hold of the guy. Was supposed to be standing in his yard right about now. Allegedly has no code enforcement where he is at.

Hopefully it will be lovely

[Birdhouse]

Seriously
My biggest fear is buying something only to find out I'm screwed off of my own land

[Mekanic]

Originally Posted by kazetsukai

This country has forgotten what freedom means, and what it means to be free, giving all that up in exchange for power over their neighbor, …..

Now, as for the solution: Live somewhere you actually own what you own. No HOAs, no zoning. "Unrestricted" property without cumbersome covenants. You could buy a small plot of land somewhere to develop and park on, that's what we're doing for a home base. ……

I agree 1000%.
I live in a rural area. I am from a town of 3500 people in southern Ohio. It of course has its own repressive ordinances.
Learn to read legal laws and see the big easy loop holes. In my old town one man had a hog in his backyard. “ emotional support animal” label made it ok

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

I've never had any issues but I only use this site on my desktop.

I have, this forum software sucks.. I have the source code to it.. I know how badly its written...

[jbeech]

Updated registration and all is OK? Good for you. Very glad it all worked out. Really sorry for the stress. Bet the relief was equally huge.

Unfriendly archaic website? Hmmm, but it's free and perfectly usable. No complaints. Honestly, I find it charming and comfortable because I'm used to how it works. In that vein, I'd hate for them to change it (meaning me having to learn something new). Seriously, I have enough on my plate so I'd rather they leave my interaction with this website alone. Can't afford to piss away the time learning how to post all over again - not when what we have works good enough!
--
My 2¢