Am I a menace to society?

So, a dude from the City dropped by my house today. One of my lovely neighbors called the city to complain that I am running an auto repair shop out of my garage.
Here's the deal. I'm not running a repair facility. I've done the odd side job and I work on my friends and family cars but not even close to what I would think of as a repair shop. Maybe 2 cars a month? Now, over the summer I did have a side job that got outta hand. It was an engine swap that turned into an entire drive train swap and some rust repair. That was at least 6 months ago though.
Here's the thing. When I do work on a car, it's in the garage with the door closed. I rarely start before lunch (and NEVER before 10 am out of respect for my neighbors and no air tools before noon) and rarely work after dinner (5:30). I don't have cars parked all over the place and there are no parts/junk in the driveway. I try try try to keep things neat, clean, quiet and respectful as possible and this pisses me off.
Anyone else have this issue? What did you do?
I'm going to go to the city and get a printout of what laws and ordinances govern this so I can see exactly what I can and cannot do. What I was thinking about doing is: writing a polite but straight forward letter to the neighbors I think could can called (each next door neighbor and the one across the street) stating that I am not running a repair shop. Maybe stating that I try to help friends, family and neighbors when I can and since I'm out of work it helps keep me busy. I want to tell the pricks that any money that is given to me feeds my three kids since I've been out of work for the better part of 19 months.

I'm pissed. If someone would have called during that engine swap from he!! I could understand that. If they called because of noise (say, air tools at midnight) or a mess (engine blocks and radiators in the driveway) I could understand that. But this seems like a busy-body call. Are they just watching cars go in the garage and come out and assume I am running a facility here?

Sorry for the rant, I'm pissed. I've tried to be an neighborly as possible. Maybe that is all over with. If noise ordinance says I can make noise till 11 pm, maybe I'll use my air hammer to shape sheet metal in my backyard till 10:59??

Take a deep breath.
Leave it be.

Sounds like nothing came of the visit, that means you are not in violation of anything. Someone has a bug up their ass, don't let it crawl up yours. Let it go.

And yes, if it makes you feel better, you are a menace to society.

I called the Code Enforcement Officer. He said it's against city ordinance to work on ANY car other than MINE. Not my mom's, not my buddies, not my wifes!

They may have called several months ago during your hell project. City governments aren't usually a model of efficiency.

id say the polite and informative letter is a great idea. put the same letter in the closest 10 or so houses mailbox and hopefully you hit paydirt. We all know some neighbors like tho shine their happy light all over everybody else, but it couldnt hurt.

When all else fails, play Van Halen's Panama as high as you can as deep into the night as legally allowed. If you have good ear plugs, they will surrender before you do

EastCoastMojo wrote: Take a deep breath. Leave it be. Sounds like nothing came of the visit, that means you are not in violation of anything. Someone has a bug up their ass, don't let it crawl up yours. Let it go. And yes, if it makes you feel better, you are a menace to society.

I want to be like ECM when I grow up. Well said!

4cylndrfury wrote: id say the polite and informative letter is a great idea. put the same letter in the closest 10 or so houses mailbox and hopefully you hit paydirt. We all know some neighbors like tho shine their happy light all over everybody else, but it couldnt hurt.

It could hurt. If the complainer is shiny and happy enough, a letter can become evidence of various things. Especially if he admits to accepting money in relation to that automotive work to "feed his kids" or not. I would let the matter drop.

I agree with ECM, sounds like you went to great lengths to be a good neighbour. Hope it works out for you.

I'd just let it slide. If the government doesn't complain, no problems.

Call in a complaint that they're all growing pot in their closets.

VanillaSky wrote: Call in a complaint that they're all growing pot in their closets.

Now that one I like!!!!

I think I'll let it slide for now, even thought I want to write the letter. If I did write the letter, I'd never admit to taking money for the work, not that I did. Not that there is anything wrong with that.....

But seriously, not being able to work on family cars? Seems pretty harsh. A few months ago I had my moms Van in the driveway. It wouldn't fit in the garage so I did work on it in the driveway (just shocks and moving wheel chair tie-downs). I did the work for her because she is on a fixed income ( and my dad is bed ridden) and cannot afford to pay someone to work on it. So, by the law I would have had to tell her to go pay a shop? Screw the city and my neighbors.

WilD wrote: It could hurt. If the complainer is shiny and happy enough, a letter can become evidence of various things. Especially if he admits to accepting money in relation to that automotive work to "feed his kids" or not. I would let the matter drop.

QFT.

Your neighbor has already gone out of his way to make trouble for you, while you've been going out of your way to be respectful. This isn't a guy that will respond to a neighborly wave and a pan of brownies. He is what they call a shiny happy person, to use the parlance. He will take that letter and march down to City Hall and place it on the desk of Code Enforcement. It is damning evidence.

Lay low. No letters, no more calls to code enforcement, no more stops at city hall for papers. You're making your presence known, and that's the last thing you want right now. Keep quiet on your cars for as long as you can; six months, at least.

The operating principle is: out of sight, out of mind.

And at this point, if anybody has any more questions about your work: deny, deny, deny. All they've got is one guy who says a lot of cars come in and out. Stand in front of the mirror and perfect your friendly/innocent blank stare.

Call in a favor with a friend, and see if you can use his garage, if you have pressing work you can't afford to stop.

When you get back to it at your homestead, take pains to keep it under wraps.

Remember that if Code Enforcement comes down on you, it'll raise flags with your insurance agencies and a whole host of other related issues. What you're doing may cause more problems than it solves, unless you're really careful.

But what you're doing isn't wrong, especially the way you're doing it. It's not like you're selling smack to 10th graders - though there is good money to be had in that market. But it is technically illegal. If you want to keep doing it, you've got to keep that in mind, and operate accordingly.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Someone has a bug up their ass, don't let it crawl up yours. Let it go.

This is good advice. Always use a fresh, clean bug. Never share bugs because the bug that crawls up your ass shares ass with with everyone the other person has had bugs with and so on.

DrBoost wrote: I called the Code Enforcement Officer. He said it's against city ordinance to work on ANY car other than MINE. Not my mom's, not my buddies, not my wifes!

Double U Tee Eff?

Seriously, is that in your town or a national thing?

Every vehicle you worked on was being inspected for purchase. Easy as that.
Our church got hit by code enforcement about a sign. After 3 months the officer finally pointed to a vague section of code that didn't really apply. They wanted to fine us for being out of conformance for three months but were unable to tell us how to rectify the situation. Good money in fines I hear.
You might be able to pull the city codes online to verify that statement too. My faith in the veracity of claims made by government officials is pretty low.

Or offer to do some work on neighbors car, maybe the offending one. Can't complain about you working on their car.

You have plenty of your own cars... have fun with them.

I know you live in my area and it sounds like you live in Richardson. I had issues with them several times over working on my own cars & painting the house.

I moved.

Oh, and to answer your question about whether you are a menace to society.........................yes, but it has nothing to do with working on cars.

this is where you need to be evil and somehow find a way to drain his battery. When he comes over for a jump you tell him "sorry, according to the law I am not allowed to work on anybody's cars but my own."

DrBoost wrote: I called the Code Enforcement Officer. He said it's against city ordinance to work on ANY car other than MINE. Not my mom's, not my buddies, not my wifes!

That doesn't sound right. I'd ignore things for now but if he comes back I would want to see that in writing.

If you take a fifty five gallon barrel and constantly burn while having a grate on it with a couple of potaotes <<< your now cooking == Legally >> in foil you can smoke out the rat cheese eating narc .

I had a similar situation with a shiny happy neighbor. I received a notice of violation fro the zonong officer for having my race car trailer parked in my driveway. The letter stated it was a violation of front yard set back. When I checked on the wording of the ordinance, driveways were specifically excluded. In other words, it was perfectly legal to park the trailer in my driveway. The advice to check the exact wording of the ordinance is good advice. When I spoke to the town attorney about this contradiction, they backed down and I never heard about it again. Knowledge is your friend!

carguy123 wrote: I know you live in my area and it sounds like you live in Richardson. I had issues with them several times over working on my own cars & painting the house.

I live in Fenton.

carguy123 wrote: I moved.

I wish I could. It's funny, when we moved here I wanted a place in the country, my wife didn't. She has the Vagina so she won (she has the testicles is appears as well huh?). Now we both want a place in the country because we want to "farmstead" or whatever they are calling it.

carguy123 wrote: Oh, and to answer your question about whether you are a menace to society.........................yes, but it has nothing to do with working on cars.

That hurts man, hurts deep.
Oh and Don49, you are correct. I need to go see in print what has been legally established.

I had a neighbor put a copy of the "home owner restrictions" in my mailbox circling the part about having a trailer in the driveway. However, they didn't apply. It was a new neighborhood and once all houses were built, the restrictions no longer applied (it was 5 years later when they put the papers in my mailbox). I just ignored it. However, I also sold the trailer a few months later, so they were probably happy anyway.