jim, maybe you should hook up that HOA to the generator all by herself!

Jim,

Rather than go with the plain vinyl, cover it up with some random lettering that looks vaguely businesslike... Chances are they "caller" won't see the difference, but the cops won't be able to write a citation. Then after the 3rd or fourth time they are called, they'll just stop coming or cite the complainer for nuisance.

(either that or if you're feeling REALLY obnoxious, try putting stick-on boobies over it :) )

A little drive through the neighborhood on my way home.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1214.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1213.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1212.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1211.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1210.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1209.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1208.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1207.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1205.jpg

This one is interesting, he has magnetic blank signs over his logo's on his doors. He is 4 houses down from me so the "complainer" must be close to us. I am going to try to talk to him.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1206.jpg

All the above pictures were taken at 5:20 before everyone was home.

Oops!! My "Violation":

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/CIMG1217.jpg

Talk to your neighbors liek everyone has said and see if they got called.

Are there any houses for sale in the vicinity of your house? Seriously. Both my neighbor and I have older campers, late 70's. They work great, but don't look the best. We usually pick them up the night before we leave on a camping trip. One time, he got a letter and fine for having it parked, and I didn't. Mine was actually there a night longer.

He called the HOA, and opend a can of really loud and stinky whoop a$$, and it turns out a realator selling the house right next to his (directly across the street from him) called it in. WQe laughed because mine was there and she didn't call me in.

Lets just say, that for the next couple of weekends, everytime she came by to show the house, we "tuned" my 2 stroke dirt bike in the garage and laughed our asses off.

Bill

I can offer some assistance. You can't find out who complained. You might be able to find out if others have gotten similar tickets. It might be a case of the local inspector cracking down on a productive neighborhood.

That being said, I am not at all sure that the tag is legit for parking a truck in your driveway with a work logo on it. I just can't see how they can justify an ordinance prohibiting signage on parked vehicles. The First Amendment protects commercial as well as political speech. The First Amendment also carries a concept known as overbreadth where a law or ordinance isn't enforcable against anyone if it is overly broad in its application to some people.

In other words, the ordinance is invalid if it would prohibit people from posting constitutionally protected signs, such as "support the troops" or "no blood for oil" (see how nonpartisan my analysis is?) if they posted in the same manner as your company logo.

I recommend contacting the city to see who prosecutes tags like this. Just call him up and ask him gently how the city can get around the First Amendement in banning vehicles with company logos in the neighborhood. When he gives you an explaination, just say, "Well that's nice, but how do you get around the overbreadth problem?" Tell me what he says and I'll tell you how to respond from there.

By the way, that's a very nice house and one kick butt lawn. You must spend your weekends manicuring it. My driveway doesn't have any trucks in it, but the neighbors would gladly trade you and your trucks for me and my brown patches, I mean lawn.

maby its the orange safety light that put them over the top :)

Orange Safety light is coming off tomarrow after work.

I am thinking I really need something snappy on the magnetics. I am really liking the idea of something not quite my business name but close and not a business at all. No law against that.

So maybe instead of:
Atlantic Land Design
Surveyor and Mappers
Phone #

I could put:

Atlantic Land is Fine
Surveyors are Mappers
123-456-7890

Or I am open to something not quite right that will tick people off but they cannot do anything about it.

Please note the Boat in the middle of the front lawn on the house above. Also note the Camper, what looks like a Dead Pickup and then another pickup with a trailer full of Pool Chemicals? all in the side yard of another house.

Some POS renter 5 houses down appears to have moved out, he used to have 3 dead cars on the side of his house and mowed his weeds with a weed wacker, why spring for a lawn mower?

MRM - Thanks for the speaking points I will make sure to use them if and when Code Enforcement calls me back.

No one seems to want to return phone calls from Code enforcement.

Code enforcement is crazy in this area, its another thing that has contributed to killing the growing in this area. I don't know about jensen beach but when the code enforcement division was spun off in PSL they also lost their funding, which means that they have to write tickets to make sure they get a paycheck, i know i wouldn't like cops doing the same thing. I had friend drop a car off at my house when i was outta town, i got a date to appear, and fined while having no idea. I was extremely pissed when i had to pay 1400 bucks when i sold my house. Its even worse in the commercial areas.

some old lady kept calling the neighbourhood cops when i parked in the dead end area near the appartement block, a good 50 meters from the real parking area, i did that to work on my car, flatter ground and keeps me from running up and down all the time if a need a tool...

all of the suddon ,cop came (can't see that area from the street, so i know the cops were called in) and tells me to move my car , i tell em i'm not parking long term, i'm just fiddling with my car, no joy , i gotta move

i wasn't bothering anyone , most neigbours know me , i'm a carnut, but it's not like i spend my sunday morning reving my engine, and playing music full whack, yet cop kept "magically" appearing everytime i happened to park in that (hidden from the street) spot for anything longer then 15 minutes...

found the solution , if these cops felt like bugging me over a lame ass anonymous complaint, i figure i'll return the favour, i for one CAN see the main road from my floor, i can spot the cops a good 500 meters away, and i can run down in 10 secs flat, drive off and park it BEFORE they even drive up my street...

so after driving up to our place for nothing about 4 times, they've given up on it now... probably told the anonymous cow to knock it off and leave them alone to doze in their office after a donut binge.

mission accomplished

Thats a good story Stijn.

I have run into a snag. I am waiting for my CPA to call me back.

I switched the insurance over to personal from commercial, thusly saving me over $800 a year. :D

I have to sell the truck to me. Thats right I have to sell it from my company to me and pay taxes on the sale. Sonce I am responsible for my income tax and my business income tax I am thinking I should be able to sell the truck for $1. I am making sure.

I ordered the lettering today. This is going to be fun, I also cannot get a return call from code enforcement so I sent them a letter explaining how I feel I am being singled out and using MRM's post about First Amendment violations.

This should get fun over the next month.

Jim,

This is off the topic, but I did this same deal about 5 years ago and I had to justify fair market value and effect the sale at that price. Hopefully your CPA feels differently than mine did.

Is this the same code enforcement agency that blew you $hit about your rental property?

No, different town. This is a HOA related deal. I have not had a chance to talk to my neighbor a few doors down but I am pretty sure I know who the complainer is.

HOA types are loosers to the 10th degree. They have no life, usually retired or diabled and sitting home waiting for checks, and spend their time looking for problems around them. Never happy.

Go back and look at the pictures, which house do you want to live next to?

There are bigger problems in this neighborhood than commercial vehicles in the drive.

Wait until you see my magnetics, every time I think of it, it makes me laugh.

Big Ed - Your probably right, I will have to pay market value, but, lets look at it this way as well, I have to sell it fast or be in violation where I can be fined $1000 a day.

So now what price do I put on it? I mean I have to sell it like yesterday, I cannot hold out for a fair market price because my situation, which is documented, dictates I fix this problem in 10 days.

I think a few grand below market will sell it fast.

Bureaucrats and old people with no life. What next? Sorry to see you dealing with yet another hassle. Combine the two and I don't know how you remain sane in dealing with people like this. I'm thinking the burning dog crap in a paper bag trick might be warranted for yoru neighbor.

BTW, thanks for the insight on the Audi a ways back, picked up an '04 A6 quattro for the wife day after Thanksgiving. She's very happy. Which means I'm very happy.

I was going to take the lettering off and look into selling the truck but now I want to screw with whoever the complainer is for a while and keep the truck its a nice truck and I like driving it anyway.


I do not know why I do not snap either. I had to move the p-car right after getting home with it. I enjoyed give the engine some really nice revs while I was moving it around. I might do that more often its no louder than a Harley so it should not be a problem.

Whats been really pisses me off lately is neighbors walking their dogs and letting them crap on my front lawn and leaving it. I have not caught one yet but I feel lawn sign coming on as well.

What I did was go to every online resource I could find for used car values (NADA, Edmunds, KBB, and a bunch more). Rated the truck as fair condition (it's a work truck, right? I'm very critical :D ) and took the lowest value I could find. CPA said that was a-OK, as long as I had documented how I received the value it was good.

In your case, if you must make the transfer under duress, using the same logic I would say wholesale pricing would apply. Obviously, get your professional's opinion on this...I'm not a CPA and I don't even play one on TV!

What about dealship trade-in value?