Looking for advice on how to handle a 'code monkey' situation

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Grannyknot said:
while that sounds well within your rights & reasonable, it also sounds like a good way to get your arse kicked by a cop and then taken to jail in front of your kids.
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No. Without a warrant or an order from a judge, the police cannot enter your house unless you allow them in or they have reasonable suspicion that a crime is taking place. If refusing a verbal request to hand over a toy that may or may not be in your possession results in getting "your arse kicked by a cop and then taken to jail in front of your kids" then you'd have valid grounds for a lawsuit.

I'd imagine the convo going something like this...

[Cop knocks on door]
Me: Hello again officer, what's up?
Cop: My supervisor told me I have to confiscate the gun from earlier.
Me: You mean the toy?
Cop: That's correct.
Me: I'm not sure where it is.
Cop: Can I come inside and have a quick look around?
Me: Do you have a search warrant?
Cop: No.
Me: Then no, I can't let you in. Have a good day, officer. [Closes door]
 
I like the idea of tearing out the whole sidewalk... but I doubt that would go over big.

I would test things a bit. Get some stakes and yellow tape. Put it around the entire sidewalk on your property. A week later dig up a small section, a week after that dig up some more. Keep the tape in place and sometime next summer... finish the job.

Push the issue but also be prepared to finish it quickly when the liberals in NY go off on you.

That is how the city maintenance works. But it never is allowed for the private citizen.
 
Yet another reason why I refuse to live in town surrounded by cidiots. I'm stunned that you have to maintain the sidewalk that's on city property. I get the shoveling thing in the winter, buy replacing a whole section? That would cost thousands here. I'd lose it. Mmm... Love my country living!
 
KPSquared said:
Yet another reason why I refuse to live in town surrounded by cidiots. I'm stunned that you have to maintain the sidewalk that's on city property. I get the shoveling thing in the winter, buy replacing a whole section? That would cost thousands here. I'd lose it. Mmm... Love my country living!
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Personally, I sort of view it as maintaining my own driveway. Being in a city, I have very little to maintain on my small lot, so maintaining 80 square feet of sidewalk isn't a big deal. Although, in addition to sidewalks, people get written up pretty quickly if a gutter is falling off the house, if a window is broken, etc.

It does sting a little bit in the freedom, but ultimately I'm glad we have these rules....I think some order is required when people live close together...though it does suck when someone tells you what to do and when to do it, especially if you've been putting it off for financial reasons.
 
If it's just a few "tiles" you can easily do it yourself, or get some helpers bribed with plenty of beer once it's done. You can get these tow-behinds at the cement plants that hook up to your hitch. They hold 1-1.5 cu. yard, IIRC.

I poured a 5" thick 4'x5' slab for my heat pump, and mixed the concrete in a 3.5 cu ft mixer (HF) since I have no truck or a hitch. I could have easily done 3 of them that day once I got rolling.
 
So, if someone gets hurt on the city sidewalk in front of your house, they sue you and not the city? I'm so lost as to how this makes any sense. I don't let random people on my property because I don't want to be liable for their stupidity... But it's not like you can just put up a fence on the sidewalk and tell people to stay the hell out... Or can you?
 
Looks like I'm set with a contractor - sort of. The guy who blew me off this morning ended up rolling in about 1.5 hours late. He didn't even apologize. I'm a little uneasy about the guy, but I don't have any other options.

It's going to cost me $1,100 cash-only to get the work done. That's about $300 more than I was expecting. I think he knows I'm over a barrel. I figured my tools and materials would run me about $500 if I did it myself, so I can live with it.

He says he can get it done before my next court date on 12/15. It will be in the 40s this weekend, so he's shooting for that.

He wanted $550 up front. I told him I'll gladly give it to him when he shows up to do the work. I figure there's about a 50% chance he will actually show up, so I'm not holding my breath till it's done.

I can't wait for my next court date. I really hope they try to fine me again. Once this work is done I'm going to be a real pain-in-the-ass. :D
 
Did you at least get a written estimate/promise of work. Wouldnt hurt to have as much to show the court that you actually were trying. Still a crappy situation.
 
progmac said:
It does sting a little bit in the freedom
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right_in_the_freedom_by_rafflesia_arnoldi-d4rzw4p.png
 
freaking street level beaurocracy at its finest. the world has lost its way. hope your fines and construction costs aren't cutting into your holiday funds man. I will go ahead and parrot the 'country living' as the only way to avoid the insanity these days. of course, you're just trading one set of problems for a different lot of the same, but at least the code monkeys can all go to hell...
 
I'm looking for a new house this Spring. This situation may influence where I look.

The contractor showed up today. He didn't have a business card. I had to ask for a receipt, which he proceeded to write on a blank piece of paper with just his first name. I had to ask him to add his last name, company name, address, and phone number at the top. He asked if he could just put his phone number.

I'm a little worried, but the work he did seemed pretty good, and he seemed like a nce enough guy. I think he was doing this as a side job without his company's knowledge. He was using their equipment. Under normal circumstances I would have never dealt with this guy. Too many red flags.

Hopefully this satisfies the beaurocrats. :D
 
Glad to hear your sidewalk got fixed. Seems kinda shady, but if it got done then hopefully the code monkey will leave you alone!
 
Good luck with the repair setting correctly. I had an issue with my local twp while in NJ. They were a giant PITA about aesthetics. There were other concrete sidewalk pads that were pushed up by old tree roots by 3-5 inches, and all they were concerned with were my cracks. I did exactly what the other posters stated: I took pictures of my cracks and of my neighbors (they were a few blocks away)...I ended up having my case repealed and dropped.
 
b-boy said:
I'm looking for a new house this Spring. This situation may influence where I look.

The contractor showed up today. He didn't have a business card. I had to ask for a receipt, which he proceeded to write on a blank piece of paper with just his first name. I had to ask him to add his last name, company name, address, and phone number at the top. He asked if he could just put his phone number.

I'm a little worried, but the work he did seemed pretty good, and he seemed like a nce enough guy. I think he was doing this as a side job without his company's knowledge. He was using their equipment. Under normal circumstances I would have never dealt with this guy. Too many red flags.

Hopefully this satisfies the beaurocrats. :D
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Shady is an understatement. I hope he saved you some mullah going off the books. I don't know what your temps are there, during the night, but did he pack it in plastic and put some cover on it? Was it a freeze-proof mix?
 
KPSquared said:
So, if someone gets hurt on the city sidewalk in front of your house, they sue you and not the city? I'm so lost as to how this makes any sense. I don't let random people on my property because I don't want to be liable for their stupidity... But it's not like you can just put up a fence on the sidewalk and tell people to stay the hell out... Or can you?
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No the city gets the lawsuit, city settles for $xxx.00 and the city sends you the bill plus their "Lawyer" fees due in 30 days.
Hopefully you have homeowners insurance so you can just hand the whole thing over for the insurance to tell the city to go pound sand. :D

@b-boy sorry to hear your pain, yes it sounds like the "contractor" is doing side work under the radar. Just write down the company name and number if something goes wrong. Double check for any permits needed, that's the last thing you want to have the city tag you for. Then have to dig it up and start over. Hopefully the judge will be happy to tell the city to leave you alone.
 
So I went to court today. What a colossal waste of everyone's time. There were about 30 people there. The majority of them were there for the same complaint as me.

I spoke to one guy who lives on a corner lot. He was tagged with 17 sidewalk sections that either needed replacement or repair. I think he said he had 9 repairs, and 8 replacements. He was looking at having to spend about $4K to get all the work done. He had an ex-inspector friend with him to argue that most of the sidewalk sections did not violate city code. I'm not sure how his case came out, but when I left the courtroom he didn't look very happy.

There was another guy who was probably in his 70s. He basically told the judge that he's on a fixed income and can't afford to make repairs. I felt really bad for him. He wasn't in great health, and I'm guessing being dragged into court for this didn't help much.

First I was put put in front of the DA, along with the 'weasley-looking' inspector. I pleaded my case to the them. They didn't care about my pictures of similar problems on adjacent propertys. They weren't too sympathetic with my inability to find a contractor to do the job either. I asked how my propery got targeted. All they would say was that there was a complaint.

The inspector wanted to give me another $100 fine because I'd missed a second deadline. I argued that I'd already paid a fine and was not going to pay another one. The DA was OK with that. He recommended dismissing the case pending approval of the completed concrete work.

Next I had to go in front of the judge. She yelled at the inspector because he'd somehow screwed up the court date and paperwork (That made me happy!). Apparently I wasn't supposed to be there till Jan 15th. She took the DA's recommendation and dismissed my charges pending approval by the inspector.

Thanks god this is over. Now to get back to my life. I'm $1200 poorer, but at least I have brank-spankin new sidewalks to walk on. Can't think of anything I'd rather spend my money on. Yippee! :D

Thanks for all the advice!
 
Its amazing that a couple squares of concrete are over twelve hundred bucks. That is a real problem. That's a lot of money to most people. It's a nearly impossible amount of money for some people.
 
Personally, I think I got screwed on the price. Unfortunately, beggars can't be choosers. I had one contractor willing to do the work, so I had to pay what he wanted.
 
progmac said:
Its amazing that a couple squares of concrete are over twelve hundred bucks. That is a real problem. That's a lot of money to most people. It's a nearly impossible amount of money for some people.
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The timeliness is also questionable. Winter is not a good time to pour concrete that will last unless certain precautions are used.

Time to vote in new government.
 
IslandLizard said:
The timeliness is also questionable. Winter is not a good time to pour concrete that will last unless certain precautions are used.

Time to vote in new government.
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Good point, winter is a suspect time to go about this. Fortunately, it has been fairly mild.

As for government, I want my government to make sure the sidewalks are in good repair. Nobody else will. It's a necessary function. I just can't believe how expensive it was.
 
I'm guessing the discharge of firearms is illegal in city limits. You don't tell a 'merican he can't have his guns... You're likely to get shot.
 
KPSquared said:
I'm guessing the discharge of firearms is illegal in city limits. You don't tell a 'merican he can't have his guns... You're likely to get shot.
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It's this. You can keep and bear arms, but you can't fire them off in the city limits with impunity. Most communities state what FPS the firearm has to have before it's considered a firearm. BB guns often shoot below that threshold.

When I was a kid (here it comes!) I shot my BB guns all over the yard. I shot whatever looked like an interesting target.

I'd like to say we all grew up just fine, but my friend got shot by another friend with a gas charged pistol and very nearly lost his eye!
 
Am I the only one who would go to every city building (Town hall, police department, fire department, library, etc) and look for cracks, intentionally trip, report every crack while constantly complaining about phantom pain from all the trips and falls I took walking past these city funded locations?
 
sboyajian said:
Am I the only one who would go to every city building (Town hall, police department, fire department, library, etc) and look for cracks, intentionally trip, report every crack while constantly complaining about phantom pain from all the trips and falls I took walking past these city funded locations?
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One of the guys in court was talking about this exact situation. Someone else had done this after they got fined. They called in every crack they saw. Apparently there is an online app to do this. It's called a 311 call. The inspector is required to check each one out. The guy wanted to make the inspector as miserable as possible.
 
b-boy said:
One of the guys in court was talking about this exact situation. Someone else had done this after they got fined. They called in every crack they saw. Apparently there is an online app to do this. It's called a 311 call. The inspector is required to check each one out. The guy wanted to make the inspector as miserable as possible.
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Classic! :)

Just something to consider.. if it's just a standard crack that you think you could fill, might consider this: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9LHZu1dXok[/ame]

I can't imagine paying $1100 to fix a crack that isn't even the worst one in the area. This seems like it can fill a fairly wide area.
 
b-boy said:
One of the guys in court was talking about this exact situation. Someone else had done this after they got fined. They called in every crack they saw. Apparently there is an online app to do this. It's called a 311 call. The inspector is required to check each one out. The guy wanted to make the inspector as miserable as possible.
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Do you live in Kenmore?
 
sboyajian said:
Classic! :)

Just something to consider.. if it's just a standard crack that you think you could fill, might consider this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9LHZu1dXok

I can't imagine paying $1100 to fix a crack that isn't even the worst one in the area. This seems like it can fill a fairly wide area.
Click to expand...

The pads had to be replaced, not repaired. The inspector wrote up the complaint that way.
 
b-boy said:
Amherst, but I've heard horror stories about the inspectors in Kenmore. I had a friend who lived there. He was constantly harassed by the inspectors there.

His son once received a citation from the police for playing in the street. :D
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That sucks my friend, Amherst can be a pain.
 

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