Did you know that you agree to abide by all codes in a county simply by choosing to live within it? Sure, you may have moved way out into the country to avoid city rules. You may have avoided being a member of a homeowners’ association (HOA), but you can’t escape rules and regulations entirely. After all, county regulation enforcement can be costly.
County codes may be inconsequential when compared to vital law enforcement issues, but they are still annoying. There are codes for all sorts of things. This can become a problem, especially if you have noisy neighbors who want you to live by their rules.
Provided below are a handful of creative ways of avoiding hefty penalties for failing to remain compliant within your county’s codes.
1. Avoid Driveway Issues
Maybe you have more vehicles than your driveway can hold. It’s just not large enough to contain all of your work vehicles or your guests’ cars. While you could park on your grass or even the dirt of your yard, many county government regulations consider parking on natural materials to be unsuitable.
While the most common means of remaining compliant are to add onto your driveway or lay out a dense layer of gravel, it takes time to properly lay down a second driveway or driveway extension. We suggest a different solution in the form of composite construction mats. These reusable mats are easy to lift, allowing you to move them as you need to. They are also easy to set because they lock together. These access mats are intended to keep vehicles off natural terrain without causing significant damage.
This method also keeps the dust down and preserves the topsoil beneath the mats. So it really is a minor inconvenience, and no noisy neighbor can report you for some random code violation.
2. Fortify your Mailbox
Did you know that failing to have a proper mailbox is actually a code violation? Regardless of the material your mailbox is mounted on, it becomes meaningless if some jerk kids decide to get into their car and take a baseball bat to the neighborhood’s mail boxes. If your mailbox is regularly demolished by meddling kids, you have two options.
- Invest a good chunk of time and money into setting your mailbox within a pillar of brick and mortar, possibly reinforcing it with some rebar.
- Mount your mailbox to a steel pillar, dig out a small hole that is at least 8″ deep, and then fill the hole with cement while keeping the pillar set firmly in the center.
While both options should significantly increase the durability of your mailbox, the brick and mortar approach takes significantly more time.
3. Prevent Grassy Grievances
Not everyone cares about society’s idea of a proper yard. Whether you are doing it for environmental reasons or simply because you are busy, grass may grow to the point that it can become a serious problem.
Code violations may apply. The county’s reasoning, of course, is that overgrown grass is an excellent habitat for all sorts of unpleasant creatures like snakes and rats. Your neighbors may be angry at how it affects home values.
Nevertheless, you may not want to spend your Saturday mowing nor do you want to pay someone to do it. The lateral approach to the issue of an overgrown yard is to invest in goats.
A single goat needs to consume 2-4 pounds of grass, an amount equivalent to 3-4% of its total body weight, each day. If you are in the county, rather than a city, chances are that you are entirely within your rights to have goats. A movable fence will help your goats keep the whole yard down to a reasonable height.
4. Clean Up Clutter
If you have a cluttered yard, you could get more than the side-eye from your neighbors. It could cause you to get a citation. There’s a simple answer for this. You can either build a shed or rent a storage unit.
No one should tell you what to keep or collect, but you also don’t want to pay a fine because others don’t understand your values. It’s easy to avoid just by finding a place to keep what others view as clutter.
Preventing fines is much easier than paying them. Keeping noisy neighbors out of your business is an extra benefit that I highly recommend.
Good article!