Family says county kicked them off their own land for living in RV
Many families are coming up with creative ways to make ends meet during this pandemic. But one man’s plan highlights a growing community issue: who is the true master of your land? Channel 2 anchor Sophia Choi started investigating, and learned the answer may come from a judge.
Choi spent weeks looking into this after hearing from Tim Leslie of Polk County. His plan was to buy land and live off it, after losing his job due to the pandemic.
He bought the land, but the county says he can’t live there.
Leslie has chickens, goats, a vegetable garden and plenty of space to roam around in the fresh air.
“We plan on building a forever home here and, you know, growing old and giving it to our kids,” Tim Leslie said.
Leslie says that’s because the county forced them to move after slapping them with a citation for living in their recreational vehicle on their own property.
“This is a question about property rights,” said attorney Ari Bargil with the Institute for Justice. “Mr. Leslie owns the property on which he situated his camper. And as a result, he has the right to live there, as long as he’s not harming anybody through his use.”
Leslie says he checked the county codes before buying the land. He showed Choi the section that allows for “single-family dwellings” in an agricultural district, under which his property is designated. Under the county’s definition for “dwellings” it specifically includes “manufactured homes, mobile homes, industrialized buildings, and recreational vehicles.”
Leslie showed Choi the citation. The violation is listed as “living in campers/RV.”
Leslie hoped to save money by living off his land. Instead, he says it’s costing him money and livestock.
Because he is unable to stay overnight, he’s losing animals to coyotes, despite making daily, hourlong round trips from the RV park.
Having lived in rural parts of the country, it’s not strange to see someone buy land and live in a mobile home on it during the construction of a more permanent home.
I don’t know why Polk County is picking on this guy.
He already has a lawyer, but if he starts a GoFundMe for a used Komatsu, I’ll kick in a couple of bucks.
The law permits you to live in a recreational vehicle on land in an agricultural district.
The law forbids you to live in a recreational vehicle.
The law is an ass.
Around here they just two options, the first is that you have to have an occupancy permit to live in a permanent dwelling. The requirements for that include running water, septic or government sewage, and electrical connection.
We had friends building of grid home. In order to get the occupancy permit they had to have electric to the curb, even though they didn’t run it to the house. And they had a septic system put in, but used composting and gray water recycling instead. Yes, they put in a well.
The other rule was that an RV that stayed in one place with somebody living in it was a permanent building and needed a occupancy permit. We had a person living on our property in an RV. I put in two pads on either side of a power stand.
Every 6 months we moved the trailer from one pad to the other. Made sure we had pictures and witnesses. Pain in the rump.
Reminds me of an article I read the other day on Loose Rounds, from the Rutherford Institute. The initial focus is on when the police can enter your home but it touches on things like this as well.
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/home_invasions_all_the_ways_the_government_can_lay_siege_to_your_property
For the life of me I don’t understand how this is anyone’s business but the resident.
Are they a nuisance to others around them? Are they blowing up meth labs on the regular? Are they selling the land or property and the buyer wants it inspected? If the answer is no then how are they harming anyone.
There has got to be more to this story about why they’re going after this guy like this.
It never ceases to amaze me how some places just want to control everything even if it makes no sense to do so.
Small towns have their share of would-be god-kings too, and it seems many of them wind up on city or county councils.
And then there are the laws apparently in place because one time, one person did something bad, so naturally everything that even halfway rhymes with that thing, must be forbidden regardless of circumstance or reason.
This is a default out west. In fact my ex boyfriend was living in a conex when he passed on.
Well, one doesn’t _really_ own one’s land. Try not paying town taxes or fees and you’ll find out soon enough.
Rural areas in the gulf south don’t suffer from this assholery.