Quail_Antwerp: Words from the Barnyard...

[rty007]

Well... if anyone came to me, REFUSING to give me his I.D. I have a temper when it comes to that kind of thing... so I would have probably smacked him on the head, and kicked the piece of crap out of my property. I do not know what are the regulations. But if someone refused to give me his I.D. I would have just told him to "talk to the hand". Couse it is one thing when a desk-jockey is running errands and in the rush he forgets to show you his I.D. at the very start. I mean I get it, I am just a Human being to, I also forget and make mistakes. But when You DH asked him for the I.D. and he plain flat refused, without giving a reason I would just tell him to get the *ell out of my property... couse you see lad, I am pretty handy with that axe stuck in the trunk right there next to the pile of wood

 

[Javamama]

Aly I would think your Amish friends would know about zoning and permits and such in your area since they (usually) do alot of building. I would ask them.
And legit people from the county would readily show proper ID. I would call your county office and check into it.

 

[FarmerChick]

He gave you the name of the department he was from---then call that number and talk to the head person in charge.

and find out what the heck is going on

but you probably do have to have all kinds of inspections cause no one can just put up a home on even your own property without permits and inspections for occupancy etc....hope you did follow some of the rules lol

 

[TanksHill]

Unfortunately Aly it sounds like a normal county inspector. Yours just sound a bit new to the job and a tad anal.

You probably need to take the initiative here and go to the County Office. Find out what the requirements were/ are and negotiate a settlement. Maybe if you prove it was Amish installed they will pass the piers and footings. Then get an extension for the gravel.

I am so sorry you guys have these problems. Red tape sucks.

 

[AL]

I put in a mobile home last December. I had to have:
- septic tank drained and inspected by a company, then certified by the county (when the tank was originally installed the county environmental came out and did a "perc test" to find my water table depth etc)
- electrical inspection for power pole and breaker box
- plumbing for all water lines and depth of the lines from the septic tank

I also had to have a dirt pad put down for the trailer to be set on, and the trailer people couldn't put the skirting on until the piers had been inspected for distance, placement, etc


Crazy stuff, but yeah, it is required - at least here. As far as the guy not giving ID etc, I would definitely call the department and give his name, snoop things out. If he is legitimate file a formal complaint. Be sure to say as a female it made you nervous

 

[lalaland]

hate to say it, but I would bet you had a legitimate building/code/zone inspector from your township, town, city or county visiting you.

In my neck of the woods, the local guy is pretty much hated for enforcing the codes - because the code requirements do add time and expense to any project, and because having code enforcement is pretty recent and people are used to the idea that they can put up any kind of structure anywhere - which isn't true these days in most places.

He might not have wanted to show you his drivers license because then you would know where he lived, and he might not have any id from his employer - the township I live in, for example, doesn't issue ids to the 2 employees (the code inspector and the guy who grades the roads).

I agree totally with the idea that you should contact the dept - probably on the card he gave you - it might be his cell phone number that he wrote down - in our little township, they don't spend money on business cards - and find out what you have to do, and then do it. If you feel really nervous, just call the county and find out who is in charge of building codes for your address, and they will send you to the correct governmental unit (town, city, etc).

good luck! sorry this was a surprise to you.

 

[keljonma]

In Ohio, an inspector can be from the county office

OR he can be a private inspector just trying to make a buck.

Check out the office information on the card he gave E to find out if he is county or a private home inspector.

Good luck!


by the way - great to see pics of you, Becca and Javamama!! And your new birds as well... !

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Well, I can't make any phone calls or get more information until Monday.

We were stunned because we had county employees who were working with us to get the trailer moved, set up, and the water hooked up.

We did talk to the Amish neighbors - there is NO building codes in this area. We can build what ever we want - but they did tell us the only things they have had to have checked is their septics and ours was already OK'ed by the county.

This guy wasn't even from our county. He said he was from Athens Ohio. Which is about 3-4 hours away from us.

Our neighbor IS having his trailer inspected because he's trying to get his HUD approved so he can rent it out as a HUD home. We're NOT looking to rent ours out.

Mostly we're confused because we were replacing an existing trailer, not bringing one in on empty land.

The Auditors office wants to come out and re-appraise for tax purposes, so we've been expecting them to come out. No one at the court house or the local health department has said anything to us about needing our home inspected for occupancy. The guy who moved our trailer had all the permits to do that, so we know that was legal.

This guy showed up the day after Thanksgiving - and none of our local county offices were even open the day after Thanksgiving.

One last thing, he was driving a Lincoln Towne Car with no front license plate - which is a requirement in Ohio - and he was an older gentlemen. I know that our local goverment vehicles have both front and back plates on their cars.

Last night on the news - which I found interesting given the timing - there was a small story about fake investigators going to homes in PA and scamming people out of money for "home inspections".

For now, we're just going to ignore it and make a few phone calls when the county offices open on Monday. There's been multiple county employees to our home in the last few months (one being a detective even) and no one has said anything to us about building codes, permits for pulling the trailer in, etc. Nope, they were all just focused on getting our water hooked up.

Oh, I almost forgot - and free, I handled those papers, because I read every page - and there's about ten of them. Everything I read said for "housing allotment, mobile home lots, subdivisions, and modular home retailers". We aren't in any of those. There's no house allotments, no mobile home lots, or subdivisions where we live. I think it's just zoned as residential/agriculture - but I'll be double checking that, too.

The layout map they gave us for the layout of our trailer was the layout if we were in a mobile home park or renting a lot. I don't have a lot, I have acerage! lol

I'll let ya'll know how it turns out. I'm just going to trust God in this - I mean, He's brought us through everything else up until now I don't think He'll fail us in this.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Aly, that sounds rather interesting, about the bit on the news re scamming. I bet that is excactly what that guy was about. It just sounds too fishy.
I would check around, because if the guy is scamming, he needs to be caught and brought to justice.

 

[tamlynn]

Very suspicious. I hope you get some answers soon.