Using Bus as Home When Titled as Car

[Oscar1]

ha! I wouldnt attempt to raise it as a political issue..



a friend of mine did make a good pooint though earlier whch is that the township or nearby city would be expected to provide emergency services to people on that land.. which is true if your half baked hippie tent caight fire and you dialed 911 they provide ambulance and fire service so wanting some tax revenue does make some sense..



nevertheless i'll still take it in the USA any day over the frozen tundra of the country up north.. nbot that ohio isnt also worthlessly dreary and frozen.. LOL

Haha frozen tundra of the north! At least we can still collect rainwater without a permit (for now). Yep the man just keeps squeezing that tit a little bit harder every day.
Cheers
Oscar

 

[peteg59]

There are places in Appalachia, namely Ky and WV, where folks live remotely in places without running water or septic.
Many use creek water and have outhouses, and somehow they get by.

Not any way I'd choose to live but if you can handle the inconveniences associated with living that close to the land, it might work?

 

[john61ct-SKO]

Outsiders are seldom welcomed in those kind of communities.

You probably would not enjoy living there, incredible dysfunction and desperation, poverty and addiction to the worst substances.

And I doubt the local authorities would cut a newcomer the same slack the locals get, they know you're not as likely to shoot at them for setting foot on their property

 

[Kubla]

Christopher, call a commercial real estate agent and tell them what you want, they will find it, and save a corner for me

 

[john61ct-SKO]

Lots of commercially zoned land, you're not allowed to live on

 

[Bigmikeclark]

interesting about titling as a car.. I went to get the plates for my red bus a few weeks ago (ohio).. and the lady at the DMV asked (why is this a bus when it has only seating for 11?).. my reply was that it is an International and titled as a type BU.. then she looked at the weright class and saw it as 17,500 and asked if i took seats oiut? (nope its a shorty).. she then re-set the registration from commercial bus to 'Passenger VAN' and issued me new plates.. this goes back to what my original bluebird shorty LONG ago was registered as...



as for land.. I have been looking at land here in central ohio to put up a big pole building to use as my bus restoration and storage.. its really interesting to find how many plots of land require a residence be built or have permanent plumbing.. ie a septic system and well.. my original plan was to build my shop first and then some time down the road build a house.. and i didnt want a septic system / well as then id have to heat the place all the time to maintain the water.. im not sure what the aversion to non-residences is but it seems to be there.. are they afraid of people buying land and just using it to pile junk? arethey looking for the tax-$$ of having fully improved structures on site?

Highland county, Ohio has no building department, you can live in whatever you want. The county would only be involved for septic purposes.
Washington Twp, (Clermont county) has no zoning, so no restrictions. Anything you build, however, does have to meet county building code.

 

[cadillackid]

Highland county, Ohio has no building department, you can live in whatever you want. The county would only be involved for septic purposes.
Washington Twp, (Clermont county) has no zoning, so no restrictions. Anything you build, however, does have to meet county building code.

and i would want whatever I build to meet the code for what it is.. if nothing else than for insurance and resale purposes.. not to mention the obvious safety factors in making a building correctly to code..



whether I want to build a house or not is going to depend alot on how starlink and any competitor that pops up does.. FAST INTERNET is must for anyplace i Live.. althought for just a shop as long as I have some cellular service for voice / data id be OK..

 

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Hi all. Supposing I bought a Skoolie (already finished) that weighed less than what would require a CDL, did not have air brakes and titled it as a passenger vehicle. Then bought a piece of land where it is legal to sleep in your car and lived out of it to avoid the “living out of an RV laws” in some states. Has anyone done this or are there problems with this idea? Thanks.

Every municipality is different regarding what and how you can live In on your own land. Check with your local code enforcement for your area. In Luna County you may acquire a permit to live 256 days out of the year on your property in an RV. Or you can do what Ruth and i have been doing for years. Just love in your bus and tell the code enforcement people to go away if the ever come. They came in 2011 and told us we needed a permit. We told them they were trespassing and they never came back. A lot of folks live year round in rvs on private property. In other places with Gestapo codes and code enforcement it might be a real sticky wicket.

 

[john61ct-SKO]

Highland county, Ohio


Washington Twp

Everyone **please** dig up more examples and post them here!

Relevant to the current "tiny house" and "vanlife" movements too. . .

True Freedom in Amerika!

 

[Bluesky-SKO]

Hi all. Supposing I bought a Skoolie (already finished) that weighed less than what would require a CDL, did not have air brakes and titled it as a passenger vehicle. Then bought a piece of land where it is legal to sleep in your car and lived out of it to avoid the “living out of an RV laws” in some states. Has anyone done this or are there problems with this idea? Thanks.

I have done this. When I was 19 I lived in a van, usually parked under a bridge in Seattle. I had access to a bathroom in a nearby business. I was there for one summer. One day I was awoken by the police looking for a fugitive that had been staying in a camper under the bridge too. I couldn’t help them, and I left immediately. Years later, I traded the van for a bus that had been converted to RV. I lived in an RV park for several years. One day I decided to go to college. A friend had recently inherited a ranch near the school in central Texas. He let me park the bus on the back 40. I parked just off the road, but behind a hedge. 600 feet from his garage, I laid down cheap tubing for water. Dug a makeshift septic tank. I used the bus to transport a pole, and planted the pole for a power drop. I joined the local electric co-op and had a wire connected. Cheap rent for Two years. The electric co-op wasn’t happy when I asked them to remove their wire from my pole. I purchased a ¼ acre lot in a Colonia near Austin, put up the power pole, and connected I think with a construction drop. I came home one evening to find the power disconnected. I raised **** about it and they sent someone out that night to re-connect. I dug an outhouse, no fun during Mosquito season. I also transported water from a friends house in town. I could fill up a Fifteen gallon container, that was about all I could unload myself. I would then wheel it over to a 55 gallon drum on a stand. I used the RV pump to move the water from the small container to the resevoir, and gravity to supply the bus. I lived there for several years. Put up a fence, built a workshop, and acquired several old vehicles. I helped dig trenches to install a local sewage system. Water would be next as well as paved roads. I moved out of state. Part of my fence got knocked down when the road was graded, and I received a letter from the county to clear the lot, of pay big fines. I took a few days cleaning up, and sold it to the neighbor.
I am currently living near Seattle in King county. I have been looking for land, and found that you can not live in an RV on your land in King county, you can not live in an RV in someones driveway(Legally). Just north in Snohomish county, you can live in an RV for half the year. I have found property for sale with existing water, septic, and power. Maybe a mobile home was there once. This is the only option for living in a bus on your own land with utilities, and it’s still not legal. Curb appeal goes a long way, so putting in a fence or a hedge would be a good idea. No illegal activities, or wild parties to attract the law might buy some time there. I found one lot for sale this year that I like, but no utilities. 1 ¼ acre for $60k asking. I signed up with an agent and put in an offer. There were 20 offers, but the listing agent said it could not be titled, so it went off market. I continued to research and found that Two brothers purchased 2 ½ acres in 1979 and split the lot. Plans for a well, septic system, a house and garage were approved. There is a small stream running through the one lot. The garage was built, and the house was being built over several years whenever the owner was not at sea fishing. I have heard that some people don’t want their property values to go down. I suspect those people are realestate agents and speculators and not homeowners eager to pay higher taxes. Someone complained to the county, and forced him to remove the house. He fought to keep the garage, and continued to live there with two campers and a TeePee. The land went back on the market, now $120k asking. Twice it has changed status to pending, and each time the buyer backed out. The place is trashed out as far as the county is concerned. There is a $20k lien, The lot would need to be cleared and put back to it’s natural state as much as possible, including removal of the garage. An Environmental consultant would be needed to determine this. Possibly a Critical Area Alteration Exception including Ecological and Geological reviews +$10k. Perk test for septic, and if septic is approved, maybe the garage could stay, if not, the lot could not be used for anything. You would be lucky to camp there since it’s already under the microscope of the county. This guy got away with living here for several decades, so it can be done. Now his grand daughter wants to sell it, but not so easy so there is the cost of that legacy.
There are several Camping Clubs in Washington state, basically mobile home parks, but more of a nature setting. You can live there for 6 months for about $1k, get two lots and live year round, switching to the second lot halfway through the year. You have to deal with their codes and policies/politics. Don’t get noticed, you’re o.k. but once you’re under the microscope, probably time to move on.

 

[john61ct-SKO]

With the huge increases in "nearly homeless" coming, I think more and more such restrictions, and stricter enforcement will as well

especially in and around those 20 or so cities where most if the well-paying jobs are increasingly concentrated.