Court upholds $573,000 penalty against East Sacramento homeowner who worked on cars in his yard

[edinmass]

39 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

Agreed. These wounds are 100% self-inflicted.

 

It sounds like the city is willing to work with him and probably won't go to the wall to collect 100% of the fine if he starts acting rational and makes some effort to remediate the situation. All he has to do is reach out and cooperate with them.

Degree of difficulty: he's a sovereign citizen kook.

 

Usually city and town employees are lazy and hide behind their desk. Not all....that would be unfair.......just 98 percent. By the the time the city is after you, you have been asking for it for years. Once they actually have to do real work and deal with you.......it's not going away. 

 

[Gunsmoke]

Thank you Peter for trying your best to herd the cats on this seemingly straightforward "non-car-related" issue (would it be on here if it was boats, furniture, construction debris, etc). Maybe we need a cat bylaw on here!! If it gets to page 2 might be time to euthanize!

[MotiveLensPhoto]

On 5/31/2022 at 11:07 AM, 1912Staver said:

Well, I view it a little differently. A few twisted soul's might go as far as to say I am a bit of a  " hoarder ". God I hate that word. Wife works in Community Mental Health and Addictions, and has done many home visits on " Real " hoarders. She 100 % agrees my collection is a bit out of hand, but not even close to the threshold of hoarder.

 

One man's well stocked inventory of car parts is another's hoard, I guess. My neighbor runs an "antique" shop and their house is more a warehouse. Fortunately, they are moving so I hope the days of stacks of what looks like garbage in the driveway all day, everyday is soon to be a memory, I guess.

[1912Staver]

This illustrates my point exactly. People loose sight of the fact that hoarding is a mental illness that has a clearly defined meaning and exact parameters for diagnosis by a Mental Health Professional.  The way I see this label thrown around on this forum is about as real world and appropriate as Ralph Kramden observing some behavior exhibited by Ed Norton and declaring " Norton, you are a mental case ".

 

  My advice is to leave the DSM - 5 to the Doc's.

 A collector is a collector until properly evaluated by a Mental Health professional.

Edited June 1, 2022 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[Borough Essex]

I have five vintage cars on my small suburban allotment: two drivers and three projects. My neighbours love them. Be a good neighbour and you can do whatever you like. This gentleman obviously wasn't a good neighbour.

 

[Rusty Heaps]

A few years ago the codes official tagged two of my project cars in my driveway. When I purchased the cars the codes stated that they were exempt from the inoperable motor vehicle clause if they were antique vehicles for collector purpose. Sometime along the way county officials changed the code by eliminating the phrase. After that any vehicle was at risk unless in a structure  with four walls and a roof. Fortunately it doesn’t specify the structure must be a permanent one. I hope that they don’t realize that one could use a cheap canvas garage and be within code , please don’t tell them! I fought to make the cars mobile and managed to keep them. Unfortunately since then I have seen antique vehicles disappearing from yards, usually just singles. I’m a firm believer that project vehicles and the hobby should be protected regardless of whether one can afford a garage. Saying one can only restore antique autos if garaged is essentially saying only those with enough money to afford the garage can restore old cars. That’s elitist! I believe that one could fight the constitutionality of the code due to restrictions imposed on the pursuit of happiness guaranteed by the constitution. I’m not saying the offender who accrued such a fine was right, he should have made attempts to appease officials or contest their actions. Thanks for letting me vent. Let us all be vigilant when codes restrict our hobby! 

Edited June 6, 2022 by Rusty Heaps (see edit history)

[Paul Dobbin]

On 5/31/2022 at 5:44 PM, 30DodgePanel said:

Seven years ago, was when they first noticed and cited him, but it doesn't say when they started compounding the fines exactly. The daily fee is currently $250 per day so my guess is they've charged him for the last 2,292 days = $573k 

  You must be a math whiz, very Good!

[Guest]

 A friend of mine was cited for having several unregistered cars (but drivable) on his property,

 The legal notice that he received contained the VIV's of each car.

 My friend then complained (to the right people) that the city inspector trespassed onto the property to get the VIN's and photographs.

 The inspector was told that he broke the law and the case was dropped.

 

 Ps, In my area, the car must be visible from the street or neighbors properties.

 A blue tarp over the car makes it legally "not visible.

 

 Personably, I would see the car than the blue tarp!

[ted sweet]

here im allowed one unregistered vehicle  thats outside

Edited December 12, 2022 by ted sweet (see edit history)

[leomara]

This thoroughly convinces me that if you own anything of value such as real estate town bureaucrats will be more inclined to levy fines against you so they can collect MONEY rather than pursue, capture and prosecute criminals which costs them MONEY and gains them nothing.  It's a sad state of affairs.

[MotiveLensPhoto]

4 hours ago, leomara said:

This thoroughly convinces me that if you own anything of value such as real estate town bureaucrats will be more inclined to levy fines against you so they can collect MONEY rather than pursue, capture and prosecute criminals which costs them MONEY and gains them nothing.  It's a sad state of affairs.

The best example of that is the red light/speed camera. Get a fine in the mail that is enough to be worthwhile for the authority but not high enough for the average citizen to take a day off work to challenge it. It's cheaper to just write a check and grumble about it.

 

If you're poor it can be a significant hardship, but if you're rich it's just a fee for doing the thing. Those fines should be based on your income/value of the vehicle as opposed to a flat fee. ((steps off soapbox))

 

On the other hand there is this: https://sacramentocityexpress.com/2022/04/19/city-corrects-misleading-article-on-code-enforcement-from-the-sacramento-bee/

 

And other hoarder shows I've seen I would be upset if that was my neighbor. The junk leads to insect and rodent infestations, pollution of groundwater, and decreases the value of the surrounding homes.

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Golden73 (see edit history)

[dship]

In my town, only one unregistered car is allowed on your property, and it must be garaged at all times, not out in the open. 

[leomara]

This story thoroughly fascinates me due to my own experiences with town regulations and their enforcement.  We had a home next door to ours which was abandoned by it's owners.  It became the responsibility of the lien holders.  It was an eyesore with an unmown lawn and vermin infestation.  I had to annoy the town constantly to have them force the lienholders to do a minimal amount of maintenance on the property.  There was actually a reluctance by town officials to make the lienholders do anything and of course they could certainly have fined them.  This went on for years until the home was finally sold.  Please tell me why I would have been fined in an instant if I was to have a parts car on my property while the lienholders of this previously derelict property remained totally unscathed?