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Help settle a debate between a co-worker and I regarding the rights of the town to come in an inspect a part of your property that is NOT in plain view and is NOT causing an immediate safety risk to someone.
For instance, a neighbor makes an erroneous report that you have an illegal apartment. The town sends you a letter stating that this complaint has been launched and they demand to inspect. You reply that you are not engaged in the illegal activity and have never been. In fact, you have a relative who is out of work staying with you.
If you have not granted permission for the town to enter the premises and inspect, can you be fined?
His opinion is that they can fine you for failing to comply and place a lien on your property.
My opinion is that the only way they can fine you for a violation is to inspect it and short of obtaining a court warrant to enter, they can't do so without your permission.
All of this assumes the violation can't be seen from the outside.
WE AWAIT YOUR RESPONSES TO SETTLE OUR DISPUTE!!!!!
However, they then have the right to obtain a court order forcing you to let them in. Refusing them entry after that would cause penalties to come into play.
So it depends on how determined they are to view what's inside your property.
Mr. X might own the home, but ultimately as a taxpayer, Mr. X has to pay taxes upon his property and any improvements to it. Mr. X can deny the inspector entry and start off a legal process to gain entry, but if Mr. X is not engaging in any non-conforming use or activity, why not let the inspector in and exonerate himself?
Perhaps you are right, but if I was accused of murder and brought down to the station, rest assured I would not be answering 1 single question regardless of how innocent I was if I didn't have to.. Also, while one might not be guilty of the accused offense, they may very well have be found to have violated other little codes one was not even aware of.
It is an interesting question but I think we can conclude most people are not aware or certain of what their rights are, and don't make an informed decision when it comes to these matters.
Mr. X might own the home, but ultimately as a taxpayer, Mr. X has to pay taxes upon his property and any improvements to it. Mr. X can deny the inspector entry and start off a legal process to gain entry, but if Mr. X is not engaging in any non-conforming use or activity, why not let the inspector in and exonerate himself?
Some people won't because:
1. They are just STUBBORN and consider it an invasion of privacy
2. They have some other type of unauthorized improvements they don't want the inspector to see and possibly raise issues about
3. They are conducting some type of criminal activity in the house they don't want the inspector (or anyone connected with the government) to see
Then the next question would be, how would Mr. X go about finding out what potential unknown code violations he has and how to rectify them before allowing the inspector to come in to prove he's doing nothing in violation of code.
If Mr. X receives notice from the Town, he will have to comply with their request, but that doesn't mean he has to open the door and let them in the next day. If it were me I would end up complying, but I would make sure I had all my ducks in a row, first.
I didn't take into consideration the number of duplicitous people out there.
Don't mind me ... I watched Paula Zahn's show last night on the Amityville gym murder (RIP Alex Algeri) ... saw some real characters on there LOL ... and my imagination runs wild sometimes ...
When our neighbor complained that we had a tenant we did not get a notice. The building inspector just showed up one day.
Tge neighbor was wrong. We didn't have a tenant but did have a finished basement that the previous owners did.
It cost us a few thousand dollars to correct their mistakes.
The neighbor had seen my employees movey furniture into my basement and jumped to conclusions.
You are better off to let them in on the first go
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