I live in a little town on the outskirts of Orlando called Casselberry. About 10 years ago our homeowners association tried to get me to move my boat out of my driveway but we have no subdivision bylaws against it. What we do have is a city commissioner who is also active in the homeowners association. A few months after my run in with the HOA the city of Casselberry just happened to pass an ordinance saying no boats in front of the house. Code enforcement came knocking and said I needed to move my boat. I informed them that I have a side entry garage and my boat in the driveway was behind the front of the house.
A year or so later another ordinance was passed saying the boat had to be behind the front of the main living area of the house. Code enforcement came knocking again, this time I had to move it to the side of my house to conform. But that was not enough, last year they passed a law that the boat has to be screened by a fence that blocks the boat from view up to 8' (where do you buy an 8' fence?). The new ordinance went into effect Feb 1 of this year. On Feb 4 I was cited, however the code enforcement officer cited the old ordinance number. I sent him a registered letter requesting clairification and got no answer. A couple of weeks ago I got a 2nd notice with a notice to appear before the code enforcement board. I was pi$$ed. The code enforcement officer not only cited the old ordinance again but included in his registered letter a copy of the old ordinance.
What really pi$$ed me off was he was too chicken to knock on the door or even leave the notices on the door, instead he mailed them. Now what confirms that these ordinances are aimed at me is that 4 days after the new ordinance goes into effect I am cited while there are dozens of uncited boats around Casselberry.
So tonight I showed up at the code enforcement hearing well prepaired to do battle. What was really fun was after I pointed out all the inconsistancies I said I was perfectly willing to move my boat tomorrow and put up a fence if someone could show me in the ordinance I received in the certified letter where it said I had to have my boat screened from view. The board asked the code enforcement officer to show me. He started thumbing through the ordinance and you could tell he was having problems finding anything. Then one of the guys on the board who I happened to know said "Here I found it" and started reading. I was laughing to myself because he was reading from the same out of date ordinance that had been sent to me. LOL When he finished reading he had a dumbfounded look on his face and I asked, "Now Dave was there anything in that ordinance that said I had to have my boat screened from view?" Just then the lady who was in charge of the board said they needed to take a brief recess while they got their act together LOL.
They came back with the new ordinance, some bogus paperwork they claimed I was sent and proceeded on. I noticed the paperwork they came back with was not even signed, it had obviously just been printed off the computer. I let them dig a little deeper hole before I asked if they were sure I was sent that paperwork and if they got it out of the case file. After she answered yes I asked (in front of God and everybody) then why is this paperwork unsigned? After a brief discussion the woman in charge of the board announced that they would have to continue the hearing at next months meeting to give them a chance to get it together. LMAO
I know in the long run I am not going to win this case but I sure made some people look silly tonight.
BTW one reason I did this is because I too work in local Government, not for the municipality I live in but I am a building inspector for a neighboring county. I too deal with reading and enforcing codes and in our county if we cite someone we cite the right code and on the occations where we do make a mistake we do not try to cover it up.
A year or so later another ordinance was passed saying the boat had to be behind the front of the main living area of the house. Code enforcement came knocking again, this time I had to move it to the side of my house to conform. But that was not enough, last year they passed a law that the boat has to be screened by a fence that blocks the boat from view up to 8' (where do you buy an 8' fence?). The new ordinance went into effect Feb 1 of this year. On Feb 4 I was cited, however the code enforcement officer cited the old ordinance number. I sent him a registered letter requesting clairification and got no answer. A couple of weeks ago I got a 2nd notice with a notice to appear before the code enforcement board. I was pi$$ed. The code enforcement officer not only cited the old ordinance again but included in his registered letter a copy of the old ordinance.
What really pi$$ed me off was he was too chicken to knock on the door or even leave the notices on the door, instead he mailed them. Now what confirms that these ordinances are aimed at me is that 4 days after the new ordinance goes into effect I am cited while there are dozens of uncited boats around Casselberry.
So tonight I showed up at the code enforcement hearing well prepaired to do battle. What was really fun was after I pointed out all the inconsistancies I said I was perfectly willing to move my boat tomorrow and put up a fence if someone could show me in the ordinance I received in the certified letter where it said I had to have my boat screened from view. The board asked the code enforcement officer to show me. He started thumbing through the ordinance and you could tell he was having problems finding anything. Then one of the guys on the board who I happened to know said "Here I found it" and started reading. I was laughing to myself because he was reading from the same out of date ordinance that had been sent to me. LOL When he finished reading he had a dumbfounded look on his face and I asked, "Now Dave was there anything in that ordinance that said I had to have my boat screened from view?" Just then the lady who was in charge of the board said they needed to take a brief recess while they got their act together LOL.
They came back with the new ordinance, some bogus paperwork they claimed I was sent and proceeded on. I noticed the paperwork they came back with was not even signed, it had obviously just been printed off the computer. I let them dig a little deeper hole before I asked if they were sure I was sent that paperwork and if they got it out of the case file. After she answered yes I asked (in front of God and everybody) then why is this paperwork unsigned? After a brief discussion the woman in charge of the board announced that they would have to continue the hearing at next months meeting to give them a chance to get it together. LMAO
I know in the long run I am not going to win this case but I sure made some people look silly tonight.
BTW one reason I did this is because I too work in local Government, not for the municipality I live in but I am a building inspector for a neighboring county. I too deal with reading and enforcing codes and in our county if we cite someone we cite the right code and on the occations where we do make a mistake we do not try to cover it up.
