I recently bought a new house a year ago in a nice neighbourhood and have complied with all the laws like cars with out tags ,cars parked on lawns and so on but wastaken aback yesterday when I received a warning to cease operating a repairs shop to the Fiero in my garage. This made me real angry so I called up the code enforcement this morning to inquire what was I doing to get a warning , only to be told the car cannot stay in the garage if it looks like it is being worked on !!!!.

My neighbour across the street was the informer as the complaint originated from his address and I saw the compliance car there earlier this week, so what they are technically saying is if I open my garage door and they pass by I will be fined $ 500 for running an illegal repair shop.I have until the 22nd of May to correct this to correct this or face a fine ........ ha ha we will see there is goin to be a court battle looming soon .

Ah yes - the code compliance Nazi's! We have them here in El Paso too! But they can not dictate to us what we do inside the garage. I can't change a tire in the driveway but I can completely rebuild a Fiero in the garage. I have one neighbor that is always complaining so the code Nazi continuously circles my house. I try to "push" the issue by working right at the edge of my garage door and make as much noise as I can after 9:00 at night. I even put up one of those portable garages in my driveway so I can extend my work area out into the driveway when I need more room. It drives them nuts but I am in compliance with the law.

What really bothers me is that everyone of my neighbors comes to me when thier car is broke, when they are locked out of thier house, when thier water heater goes, when thier swamp cooler won't work. The one that complains all the time is the biggest - non mechanical guy - I have ever met. I can't tell you how many times I have saved his butt with water leaks, stranded cars, etc. Once I found out that he was the one complaining, I shut off the gravy train for him. Now he has to pay professionals to come fix all his crap. Talk about "biting the hand that feeds you" - How stupid can a person be?

When they start telling me what I can and can't do inside my own house, that's when I'll start stacking up the sand bags and building walls.

Viva La Revolution!

[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 05-20-2010).]

You must be living under an HOA Nazi organization. I do some work on my cars in the garage or on the pad in back of my garage. I never have heard a peep from anyone. but Miami has lots of old farts who want to run others lives. You'll need to air condition the garage so that you can work inside.

quote Originally posted by Boogaloo: I recently bought a new house a year ago in a nice neighbourhood and have complied with all the laws like cars with out tags ,cars parked on lawns and so on but wastaken aback yesterday when I received a warning to cease operating a repairs shop to the Fiero in my garage. This made me real angry so I called up the code enforcement this morning to inquire what was I doing to get a warning , only to be told the car cannot stay in the garage if it looks like it is being worked on !!!!. My neighbour across the street was the informer as the complaint originated from his address and I saw the compliance car there earlier this week, so what they are technically saying is if I open my garage door and they pass by I will be fined $ 500 for running an illegal repair shop.I have until the 22nd of May to correct this to correct this or face a fine ........ ha ha we will see there is goin to be a court battle looming soon .

That notice is illegal. If you see them coming just close your garage door. They cant make you open it and do a search of your residence without a warrant. If they push the issue, call the police and have them removed from your property and start a restraining order against the person that is trying to get in your garage for the illegal search.
What a JOKE. You are not running an commercial shop in your garage and they cant possibly prove it if you were.

Keep voting for the Dems and you will not even have a car to fix. The way to stop it is vote them out and vote Republican strait out. Otherwise you will lose any rights we have left. Period!

I don't see how the code enforcement Nazis can control what you do inside your own house...as long as you are not breaking any laws and running illegal businesses. I would fight that tooth and nail.

As for the HOA in the first place, that is one reason I want to move out of a sub-division. I would love to be a red neck and just park all my cars on the front lawn.

quote Originally posted by F355spider: Keep voting for the Dems and you will not even have a car to fix. The way to stop it is vote them out and vote Republican strait out. Otherwise you will lose any rights we have left. Period!

So not the issue being discussed. And Republican does not equal conservative.

I am lucky... no one in my neigborhood cares what the other is doing... sure they gossip and complain ... but no one reports anyone.

[This message has been edited by carbon (edited 05-20-2010).]

quote Originally posted by F355spider: Keep voting for the Dems and you will not even have a car to fix. The way to stop it is vote them out and vote Republican strait out. Otherwise you will lose any rights we have left. Period!

100% correct and it does have to do with this post as they are the flaming Liberals who make these insane illegal laws witout consulting with the voters. Rick B

As I understand the current situation there are places here in the good ole USA where the authorities CAN tell you what you can and can't do inside your own home. I'm thinking of a no smoking ordinance that states that if your home is within a certain distance of your neighbors, and your neighbor complains of smelling cigarette smoke you have to quit smoking in your home or move. I believe this ordinance is in some suburb in Kallefornia.

City living, been there done that. hehe, this is why I live in the country now. The squirrels and deer don't give a crap what I do to my Fieros.

quote Originally posted by SuperchargedV6: 100% correct and it does have to do with this post as they are the flaming Liberals who make these insane illegal laws witout consulting with the voters. Rick B

Oh, I totally agree with the sentiment, but blindly voting Republican is not going to help. That is all.

Vote with your feet. Move out of town and take your tax dollars with you.

I'm soooo glad I live in the middle of nowhere!

actually in Cuba you can work on your car anywhere

quote Originally posted by carbon: Oh, I totally agree with the sentiment, but blindly voting Republican is not going to help. That is all.

Exactly. If you're voting for a party and not the person on the ballot, you have no idea what you're talking about. But when our choices are bad and worse, there isn't much to get out of it either way.

quote Originally posted by BlackThunderGT: actually in Cuba you can work on your car anywhere

And with the age of the cars in Cuba sometimes you have to (work on your car anywhere)

Dick

quote Originally posted by David DeVoe: As I understand the current situation there are places here in the good ole USA where the authorities CAN tell you what you can and can't do inside your own home. I'm thinking of a no smoking ordinance that states that if your home is within a certain distance of your neighbors, and your neighbor complains of smelling cigarette smoke you have to quit smoking in your home or move. I believe this ordinance is in some suburb in Kallefornia.

Oh... but that law is to stop the EVIL smokers.... (sarcasm)..... The problem is that everytime you give a little, people will take more and more away from you. What you do on your property... and inside your home is your business. If you live in an HOA, you are screwed. Move out or change the HOA agreement.

J.

Lucky for me. our HOA is rather lax, as long as I have a fence around the back yard I can pretty much do what i want back there.

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****************************************

Found a Red 84 4speed, Waiting to get a house so I can re-home it
There are Two kinds of Fiero's : Notchies and Donors!

quote Originally posted by carbon: Oh, I totally agree with the sentiment, but blindly voting Republican is not going to help. That is all.

We agree to disagree. If you look at who is voting off our rights and freedom it is not the Republicans. Times have changed and the parties have also. I will take my chances with Republicans over the Dems any day.

wow people useing the word Nazi not even knowing what it means...good going. oh and as for voteing republican...the Third Reich was a Christian Republican party.

As for democrats...weren't the republicans in office when muscle cars were killed by the epa USING a muscle car.

Anyway...thats what you get for living in a gated community. it royally sucks but they're all like that. Is it cool? no but it's there right to dictate what you do if its so stated in the contract. the only fault is with you deciding to live in that form of a community. Again i'm not saying its right but it is legally correct. That is why they're called planned communitys after all. Aka places where its against the code to dry your clothes from a clothes line, keep cars outside, etc etc.

quote Originally posted by F355spider: We agree to disagree. If you look at who is voting off our rights and freedom it is not the Republicans. Times have changed and the parties have also. I will take my chances with Republicans over the Dems any day.

the patriot act was pushed by republicans

they also took away habeous corpus

we took our chances with republicans and what did it get us

economic disaster, an illegal immoral war and enviromental disaster

I could go on but I feel this should be discussed in OT

The Dems liked the Republican ideas so much that they have taken over them to make sure they persist.

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 05-20-2010).]

Okay, I am not going to get into the whole political debate here, there are more simple answers to your problem.

You obviously live in a community which has created a set of rules (for the better of the community... IE: propety values). I don't agree with them, but then again, I rent... so I am free to move whenever I feel I am being pressured by my surroundings.

You will not win in a court case... sad as it is, you will not. I live in the same type of community. The only thing I have going for me is that I am very personable and have befriended EVERY neighbor... thus, they are very intrigued with my projects and want to know what I did each day.

My only suggestion is to do one of two (three - i will get to that last) things. 1. CLOSE your garage door and keep it closed while your car is under any sort of construction. 2. Get to know your code enforcement officer and ask him/her what you can do to appease the laws... be nice and courteous, and see what information they can give you.

3. Move from a community based area and live out in the country where you don't have to deal with this sort of pompous crap. Admit it though, you stated you BOUGHT a house... thus making you a homeowner in the same community... how would you feel if your property value got shot to crap because your neighbor started bending the rules and put three cars up on cinder blocks in their front yard next to the 12 washers and dryers they were using as planter boxes for potatoes?

Sometimes the rules SUCK, but sometimes you have to live within the limits of the rules (bending them a bit), but keeping just within the boundries of the words that make the rules.

I think if you look hard enough at the rules you live under, there will be an amicable resolution to your problem with little to no harm done to you.

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Phil
Always trying to create something new!
'88 SE
'86 GT
'87 GT Extreme body mod and 2.8L Turbo Propane powered (in the garage and getting closer to being completed)

This sh*t they pull absoluteley sucks. I had a honda that was a couple years out of inspection and regestration. It wasent ugly or anything i just dident drive it. and one day i get a notice saying i have X amouint of months to remove it or im going to get fined. So i put it in the garage. than they couldent say a damn thing about it. So i than end up selling it. Now i have a parts fiero in my driveway that my home owners acc is going on about but, The car is regestered so i kindley told them where to shove it.

Bit of advice. See if you cant lope hole it. My local law says that if the car is covered they legaly cant lift the cover to tell if the plate it regestred or not thus they cant ticket you for it.. also you could look at regestering your fiero than theres not a damn thing they could do about it. Also take it to corurt. I dont know about your state but PA has a law set for right to fix meaning your legaly allowed to work on your own car on your property where ever you deem necicessary as long as its fixed in a certan time frame if your fixing it outside. if its inside you can take as long as you want. It sounds like your municipality is trying to take advantage of you.

quote Originally posted by Hockaday: wow people useing the word Nazi not even knowing what it means...good going. oh and as for voteing republican...the Third Reich was a Christian Republican party.

This is not a political or religious thread BUT I cant let this kind of STUPIDITY go unchecked. The turd reich were BIGETED MURDERERS, unlike anything that Jesus stood for or taught. ANYONE can say they are something or stand for something but let there actions speak louder than there words.

That is all I have to say about that.

All i know is i hate home owners acc's

As soon as we moved in the 1st thing they said to us was we needed to take down the fence in our back yard. My father told them were they could shove that idea. See myself and a few other households in my neighborhood have fenced in back yards. A Few others because they have a pool and building code states if you have an inground pool it must be fenced in. Our fence is there because we have a huge park in our back yard that soccer and lacross games are held on daily. The people around here are so arrogent that they park up on the grass and without that fence they would park right on my back lawn. Also because of thoes nazi's i cant put up a shed. I cant do my own pool, no concrete pad in my back yard to work on my cars.. nothing.

That suks big time, but it's getting almost that bad here too.

My wife sez: "Dammit Don, you've got 60 acres and a barn to do that crap in--do you have to work on the tractor in the front yard?"

Me:
Yep--It's close to the house and that's where the cold beer is.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-21-2010).]

quote Originally posted by maryjane: Me: Yep--It's close to the house and that's where the cold beer is.

Good response.....I like it

Why dont you google war on cuba propaghanda and you may find there is no dfifference after all.

I have to weigh in on this one on two fronts. First, when you bought the house at some point prior to closing you received a copy of HOA rules, thus with the completion of the sale you agreed to live by them. Second, as a home owner you can work to change them. This is what I did. I even ran for a seat on the board and now have advance insight to any proposed changes and issues.

I have no use for either political party. They are absolutely corrupt. I am extremely fiscal conservative. I'm pretty socially liberal. I don't care what other people do in their personal lives and if I'm not hurting someone else, I want as much freedom as possible. I do realize that some rules and laws are neccessary, but they should be held to a minumun. The only reason I've posted this is because people who think republicans or democrats are going to fix anything are out of touch. Both partys are bought and owned by big money. I will never have big money so I'm out.

Agree with Dratt 100%. Political parties set you against each other, in the meantime they are sitting pretty on your tax dollars and telling you to blame the people who voted for the other guy. Both of the major parties have lunch together and pay for it with your money. Eff that.

quote Originally posted by Old Lar: You must be living under an HOA Nazi organization. I do some work on my cars in the garage or on the pad in back of my garage. I never have heard a peep from anyone. but Miami has lots of old farts who want to run others lives. You'll need to air condition the garage so that you can work inside.

We have a city ordinance that you cant have any non running or non plated/insured vehicles on your property at all, even hidden from the public. In theory, even the garage.

That said, i have not had any complaints as i don't run a 'shop' out in the driveway.. Tho i do work on the cars sometimes, and wont use air tools out there due to the noise.

Wow.... My head hurts!

quote Originally posted by Boogaloo: running an illegal repair shop

Placing all the political comments on the thread, your problem is more of a simple one that really everyone forgets, I personally think is ridiculous, and that I myself do anyway since I work on my Fieros and other cars in my garage.

What it has to do with is that most every single code enforcement in the country slaps these codes in areas because by all technicalities you live in a residential zoned home, working on your vehicles in what is technically a "vehicle storage facility" (a.k.a. = home garage). AND - here's the big kicker - most all home garages are not technically equipped (i.e. = built) to specifications that a actual "repair shop" or "service shop" is required. Installing a lift in your home garage is simply adding storage space. Technically by code you cannot work on a vehicle on a lift equipped on your house, because it is supposed to be used for storage. Also, most all home garages lack proper fluid disposal areas and drain feeding pits (saying you have closed containers technically by code still doesn't cut it). As it's very difficult to have these facilities, unless you built the home yourself or told your contractor to install said facilities, it's virtually impossible to fight against code in these situations because you simply cannot win. I'm going to tell you now that you'll find out it's pretty much pointless to try and take it to court for any reason, because simply what it boils down to is if you work on your vehicle in your garage THAT YOU EITHER OWN OR PAY RENT FOR, you're breaking code. Period. It sadly has nothing to do with the fact that you own the property, which believe me I personally believe is ridiculous anyway since if I own the deed to the land I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to do in my own home. I work on my cars in my garage all the time. I know the code policies. I think they're absolutely ridiculous. I personally haven't had any problems yet. I hope I don't have any problems.

quote Originally posted by LAMBO: hehe, this is why I live in the country now. The squirrels and deer don't give a crap what I do to my Fieros.

BINGO ! ! ! !

quote Originally posted by White Spyder: ... Second, as a home owner you can work to change them. This is what I did. I even ran for a seat on the board and now have advance insight to any proposed changes and issues.

This is definitely good advice. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! Many people ask me how I can do my engine swaps where I live. At least I have no neighbors in front and live in a corner. Also I do 99% of work inside garage so visually is not a big eye sore but still you can see the stuff with the garage open. I help any neighbor that come to me. Not many but some come as they think I know or have the tools. But the key item I did was to take a seat on the board. That way if someone complains I will be one of the first ones to know and get it directly rather than a letter. Also many board members may have some rules they break themselves or more like bend the rule so they can do some stuff. That is key knowledge to your advantage in case your turn arrives. But yes, the best is to live out of HOAs and have a 4 car garage with lift and all that. Oh well... Next home.

quote Originally posted by Alex4mula: But yes, the best is to live out of HOAs and have a 4 car garage with lift and all that. Oh well... Next home.

This is exactly why my requirements when shopping for a home were:

No HOA
Garage

Anything beyond that is just luxury. I would have been happy with a 1 bedroom apartment sitting atop a 2 car garage, for a home. But I've got a nice big yard, and a big house, so plenty of room to build a bigger garage in the back too.

quote Originally posted by LAMBO: City living, been there done that. hehe, this is why I live in the country now. The squirrels and deer don't give a crap what I do to my Fieros.

The squirrrels may not give a crap about fieros, but they like to crap on them. I feel an imprompu squirrel hunting season comming....

I know that in palm beach county i am told where not to work on cars at home but i do . it seems nuts to me folks say they want help the guy who hasnt much but then turn around and make rules & laws that make you spend money that you dont have .

quote Originally posted by Rickady88GT: This is not a political or religious thread BUT I cant let this kind of STUPIDITY go unchecked. The turd reich were BIGETED MURDERERS, unlike anything that Jesus stood for or taught. ANYONE can say they are something or stand for something but let there actions speak louder than there words. That is all I have to say about that.

That's exactly what I was thinking...

If I were you, I'd strike up a deal with your neighbor. Start conversation, and ask him how his car troubles have been ("Hey I saw you had a leak the other weekend, did you get that fixed?"), then throw in "Yeah, I could've helped you out but somebody is calling me out on those danged HOA rules. I'm afraid I can't do anything to my car anymore!"... eventually work in a deal that if he doesn't tell on you anymore, you'll start helping him out again. Or move... I guess that would work too