Woman evicted and house condemned for using solar power

Originally posted by Ouroborus2012
It's never about "quality of life"... She was alive so, obviously her quality of life was just fine.. It's about a little blip on the grid where somebody isn't pulling and paying their share! And we certainly can't have neighbors realizing that this person is surviving with natural power and have the whole neighborhood start doing it! And then the whole town, city etc.. Gotta keep that power grid up and keep the sheeple paying those electric bills...

Tough time to be alive right now but, we all chose to be here right now for a reason! ... soon enough!

There is the case of the nail getting truly whacked on the head! I would give you more stars if I could, here's one anyway!

Parrallel ordinance?

Check this out.

I moved into a house and called the city for electric, water sewer garbage and gas.

The garbage mandates a minimum charge depending on size of container.
Typical is 32 gallon.

They asked if I had garbage and recycle cans.
I informed them there were three recycle bins and two garbage cans in the garage.
I was told I was "all set".
My first bill had additional weekly charges of 7.60-15.20 each week.
The second can was the extra charge?
My remedy was to put out only one can, take the extra garbage along with my commercial business garbage to the dump via pickup truck.

My next bill still had these extra charges.
I confirmed that there were no additional cans left out for garbage pickup and the following morning, called billing to inquire.

I found out that, the two cans I had were "not city issued cans" therefor, each non-issued can was sugject to the extra charge.
Moreover, I was also informed...

Please read the following carefully....

"If the can lid is not securely fastened, i.e. cocked atop the can or windblown off of the can, this would cause an additional charge of one can per none secured lid"

So in my case, I was charged for two cans for each can I set out because they were not issued by the city - (This was not disclosed when I informed them of the cans already at the house).

In addition, should one or both lids not be secure, i.e. tilted, listing to one side, or blown completely off of the can, I would be charged an additional can fee.

That means I would be charged for three cans for each one 32 gallon can.

Strick that...not would be charged, but indeed was charged triple.
You get that?

I was charged TRIPLE!!!

To insure the information was carified correctly, I asked the customer service rep whom I spoke with,

"so what your telling me is that, should one of these grown men who collect garbage have to bend at the waist to adjust or pick up an unsecure can lid, For each waist-bend that these fully grown strong healthy physically fit men should have to endure, I am charges 7.60, and should the can be non-city issued, I am charged an additional 7.60.?"

The rep replied, "that is correct". As indeed was apparent and reflected on my bill.

I about sh&%t my pants. Also, the water usage...is their a leak in the main? Well, I cannot account for the almost 900 gallons of water used daily in that excessive usage claimed on the billing cycle.

I was informed however, that if I bought a toilet tank repair kit and sent the invoice to a certain address, they would reduce the water bill 50%.

I guess the 10 dollar repair kit, whether needed or not, would be worth it to half the bill.

Lastly, at my commercial property, there are two buildings. One had been vacant for over a year, and no power. The other had power but no gas.

When I called for gas service, they said a deposit was required for each building, (which are on seperate gas and electric meters).

The building which had power, I was charged $600.00 deposit, refundable in 12 months after timely payments, but if one payment was late, the 12 month deposit retainer would reset and start over.

The building without power, I was charged $55.00 deposit.

I went to pay this first invoice online, but my debit has a $400.00 daily limit.

I called to inquire if I could petition to have the deposit lowered to $400.00 total and the amused chuckling at the other end was enough to realize this inquiry was futile.

I was asked what the amount due was.
Referring to the bill, I did a quick mental math, adding the charges, and voicing my addition. This is what they heard on their end of the phone call.

"Let's see...one building...gas usage..13.xx dollars, plus other building usage of 10.xx dollars, two connect fees, and deposit....so that's 23.xx dollars gas usage and total bill of $678.xx....
I would increase my speaking volume reading the usage amount, then lowering the volume and gradually increasing it to a crescendo on the
$678.xx total.
As if a perfectly timed punchline at a comedy club, the amused chuckling would return....

I would only suggest that, should one of these services invite you to dinner, you might want to decline unless "pass the KY please" is a typical request during dinner conversation.

I feel this womans pain. It is not pleasant.

Something is wrong when a city ordinance/code can be horridly abused, favor against the consumer, as usual.

Originally posted by colloredbrothers

Originally posted by Helmkat

Originally posted by Cabaret Voltaire
The thread title is misleading. She was not evicted for using solar power.

The city has codes for housing in order to prevent slum conditions. For instance, a landlord could rent a place to you with no electricity. That is not good. So the city has these codes in place. It is about maintaining a decent dwelling that is not too hot or too cold. Plus you need to be able to refrigerate certain foods so they don't spoil.

Also think about children who might be subjected to bad conditions.

If she did things according to code, then she could have solar power all she wants.

And living in a convertible Mazda Miata? What is that about? Is she mental? The photo makes her look bitter. Why wasn't she in her house?

And taking away her house will suddenly make things much better for her kid, riiiight I understand, and suddenly no spoiled food cause she aint got more then she can walk around with!

yes yes I understand suddenly all problems gone, no food no kid, no house to take care of.

man your a genius

Not sure what you are trying to say here, are you trying to say I have no empathy for the womans situation? if so you would be wrong. These types of stories put us all on notice, roll the dice and it could be you or I. Are you trying to say that her communities laws are unjust, unfair and ironic? Well I won't argue with that either because every law has some or all of those qualities. That being said it might behoove you to check your own local ordinances and become involved because I would bet the laws that govern your community are not that different...

She violated the building codes by installing panels insufficient for the needs of her house.

It's not about the energy companies - she can live very happily, and legally, off the grid if she's willing to do it properly. Heck, she can even sell energy back to the power companies, making them pay her for the privilege.

This is not a conspiracy, but civilisation, and some strange woman being strange and ignorant of the law.

Originally posted by davesidious
She violated the building codes by installing panels insufficient for the needs of her house.

It's not about the energy companies - she can live very happily, and legally, off the grid if she's willing to do it properly. Heck, she can even sell energy back to the power companies, making them pay her for the privilege.

This is not a conspiracy, but civilisation, and some strange woman being strange and ignorant of the law.

Indeed and what many people are failing to see here is that the Electric company -did not- throw her out of her house. They do not have that power. It was her local goverment following laws. Thats it. Point fingers at the laws of community if you like but railing at the power companies in this case is pointless.

I fail to see the problem here other than the woman's stupidity. Run your solar cells and batteries to your heart's content, but, leave your power hooked up. They only bill you for what you use, if you don't use any, then no bill. From what I read, it says that you must have the capability to run a refridgerator, heat and cool the house, it doesn't say that you have to do it. As far as the power company is concerned, this law should work both ways. They shouldn't be allowed to disconnect service, they should be required to provide power that meets those standards as well.

Originally posted by davesidious
She violated the building codes by installing panels insufficient for the needs of her house.

It's not about the energy companies - she can live very happily, and legally, off the grid if she's willing to do it properly. Heck, she can even sell energy back to the power companies, making them pay her for the privilege.

This is not a conspiracy, but civilisation, and some strange woman being strange and ignorant of the law.

The problem that I have with the situation is now she is living in her car! Who did their ordinance help here? Now she is generating her heat and electricity with gasoline via a Mazda Miata! I'll bet she doesn't have room for a fridge in her car, she got evicted for violating ordinances, one of which is that she has to have enough electricity to operate a refrigerator. I wonder if there is an ordinance requiring a person to actually own a refrigerator? Or do they just cover the electric companies concerns????

reply to post by dawnstar


Hey dawnstar, it sounds like you are down here in virginia now? I also escaped from NY, I hated it there. The electric rates were insane. Right now I'm in Richmond.

What I don;t get it they kick this lady out of her house because she doesn't have enough power to provide a certain "standard of living". making her homeless is going to do what ? Give her a better standard of living? PULEEEEEZE!

These corporations running our government have no heart at all. Bitch of it is we can never beat them at their own game. THEY MAKE ALL THE RULES

Originally posted by blair56
so...whats the big deal? She didn't have enough electricity to live there. Get a job, make out a budget, don't eat at mcdonalds, and pay your bills. There is nothing wrong with this at all, and you ppl complaining are ignorant. I've worked in real estate and kicked out many ppl for not having there utilites turned on and i would have done the same thing to this lady. And her complaining about not being given a notice in an adequate amount of time is ridiculous. YOU DON'T HAVE YOU ELECTRICITY ON. its pretty common sense of whats going to happen

landlords many times will require tennants to keep the electricity on....
this is mainly to protect their interest, the real estate.....after all, it gets kind of costly replacing busted pipes after they freeze!
this lady didn't have a landlord, she had a mortgage! and, I have never heard of a mortgate holder evicting someone out of the home because they didn't have electricity. may happen, but I have never heard of it.

as far as get a job?? I have a job!! there's no way my job would provide me with a roof over my head, food for my stomach, healthcare for my ailments, ect, along with a $500 electric bill. and believe me, we don't keep this house that warm, I usually have three layers of clothing on to keep me warm!
and, well, ya know what....
people don't need to be visiting macdonalds one night a week find themselves not being able to pay their bills! I mean, I only bring home a little over a thousand a month, and rent for under $500 is kind of hard to come by, then there's that $500 monthly electric bill...so well, there's also car, insurance for car, healthcare bills that need to be paid, not to mention at least some bread and peanut butter to keep me running!

I've stated this before on these forums, and I will again now. Society is partially to blame for the high cost of living, and thus the high cost of the social safety net, because of their high expectations.

it's society that want your yard perfect and immaculate, nicely shaved, it's society that wants you child watch only by a babysitter with specialized training in medications, cpr, ect. homes that look nice, oh, and ya, here's a good one, according to ny dss, if you have more than three children together, you should never, ever, have those three children alone in any room of your house! so, well, I guess if you have three children, and they each want to be in a different area of the home....(or you are human and occasionally need to have privacy in a bathroom)....the taxpayer should start funding for you to have a couple more set of eyes staring at you kids!

then the conservatives will point out that hey, we have it so good, look at those poor people in third world countries, living on a few bucks a day!! those poor people have chickens running out of the grass huts...grass huts that don't have electricity by the way!! I doubt if this lady's city codes would have tolerated the chickens either!!

society needs to make up their mind, either they are willing to accept the blight of proverty that comes with these low paying jobs we have in this country (low, compared to the cost of living here), or well....they've got to accept that not having this blight costs money, and either accept that the social safety net has a purpose that is beneficial to them, or accept the idea that these lower paid earners need more money!

like I said, we had an icestorm up in ny one year, and it took weeks for them to get the electricity back online. and yes, many of us up there opted to tough it out instead of renting hotels or motels. we survived, and it stayed below freezing for most of that time!! gee, did the gov't knock on the electic companies door threatening negative consequences if they didn't get their act together with 48 hours? heck no, we have utility trucks from all over the place up their running around trying to get the grid back online!

big banks screw up and make a mess of not only their business, but the entire economy and we're susposed all flock around and bail them out!!

well, america isn't made up of big corporations, it's made up of individuals, and far too often, when the individual gets themselves into a jam, there is no flocking to help, but rather senseless ranting about big macs, cellphones, suv's ect.....even if the person is hungry, walking around town with resumes in hand that have a neighbor's phone number on it as a contact number!

Originally posted by JIMC5499
As far as the power company is concerned, this law should work both ways. They shouldn't be allowed to disconnect service, they should be required to provide power that meets those standards as well.

You've got that one right, I think another poster mentioned about fines for the companies when they are downed by weather conditions and cannot get it running in An appropriate time frame. But, of course we all know that the law is tipped in their favor, not the citizen's.

Originally posted by Dramey
whether over solar power or not, its definitely about greed, even with children involved, id rather a child be in a house without power then on the streets

Oh dear first of the day.I think you will find its THAN.
id rather a child be in a house without power THAN on the streets.

reply to post by butcherguy


Then that's more of a failure of the rest of the system, where a person can be put in that situation. I'll never understand that about the US - "The land of the free (to live in your car when you get evicted)". They only half-heartedly tried to ensure her safety, with the building codes. I guess they didn't think what happens when people fail to meet them. Codes like those have to exist, for the safety of tenants, otherwise landlords could screw them over and cut off power, for example.

Originally posted by earthdude
If she had no money to buy power, how did she buy solar panels? One could cover their entire roof with solar panels and this would not be enough to run a regular sized refrigerator. Avondale seems to have some tough covenants.

Hahahaha! Absolutely brilliant! This is the funniest most retarded post I've seen in weeks. Thank you so much for making my day! An entire roof not enough to run a fridge! hahahahahahaha! Your'e brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Whatever will you come up with next? A full tank of gas is not enough to power a car radio for half an hour?

FYI check out how much sun falls on Germany, how much of their electricity is powered by solar panels and then look at how much of each roof requires solar panels.

Your post whether intentionally idiotic or not is resplendent with what makes the masses so easy to be controlled.

Thank you again. Is there an opposite to the 'ignore' button? Can I subscribe to your posts? I want to see everything you write from now on because I'm sure I'll be able to quit my anti-depressants within days.

[edit on 28-1-2010 by spookfish]

Originally posted by davesidious
She violated the building codes by installing panels insufficient for the needs of her house.

It's not about the energy companies - she can live very happily, and legally, off the grid if she's willing to do it properly. Heck, she can even sell energy back to the power companies, making them pay her for the privilege.

This is not a conspiracy, but civilisation, and some strange woman being strange and ignorant of the law.

While I most assuredly agree with you that this woman was and probably remains ignorant of the law, it is not because she, as you advise "live very happily, and legally, off the grid...", it is because she didn't know better to challenge the proper jurisdiction of these so called building codes you apparently approve of. Civilization is not measured and praised by historians for the number of building codes that exist, but is praised for its civility and ability to establish justice, provide for the common defense, ensure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare. None of which building codes do in any measurable way.

What does establish justice, what does ensure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare are valid laws that protect the rights of individuals. What rights are protected by building codes that go beyond the scope of protecting renters or people who work in buildings? This was her private property, and quite frankly how stupid or strange she may be is none of our business. The only reason this woman has become our business is because the City of Avondale acted criminally and abrogated and derogated her rights. Even strange and stupid people have rights, that's the way rights work. They either work for all of us, or none of us at all.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


I agree, we lived by nine mile (the nuke plant was susposed to make the electricity cheaper) and the costs still killed us! What got us the most was the insane taxes though!! I like it here in Roanoke, the mountains protect us from alot of the bad weather, the taxes, up till now, have been reasonable (compared to NY), and well, the climate is so much better, hate shoveling everyday to get my car out and running!
but, I swear to God, never, in all the years I have lived in NY, has our electricity reached even $400/mo...this $500 bull crap is rediculous!! and it only did half the heating, the oil furnace did the major part of it!
the state assembly or whatever it's called down here should slap a proactive interest fee of 10% for when they have to pay all that money back to us!
god, the federal gov't seems to like to force us to take loans out (the tax rebate, and obama's tax cut), and the electric company is into forcing us to loan them money!

but, oh ya....
these are the best of the best, the genuises of our nation that are running things!!
my mom had another name for them....educated fools!

and, ya, I bet it was a few of those educated fools down in arizona who thought it would be a good idea to throw people on the street because they failed to keep up their standard of living !! makes perfect sense, doesn't it, oh, you poor soul, you have no electricity!! here let us help you out, there, now you are out on the street, you never have to worry about that electric bill again!! ahh...yes, we feel so good about ourselves, we've helped another poor, misled soul!!!

Once upon a time I was faced with a similar situation. What I did to solve the problem, was to sue the city in which I lived in. I asked the Court to enjoin in the condemnation/demolition of my home and to delay the scheduled demolition until such time as my home could be remodeled to be in accordance with the standards set by the City. That way the City was forced to deal with the County Judge instead of harassing me.

In that case BTW, I was already suing one of the local big shots and his lawyer (who had connections w/ the City) thought they could distract me from my suit while I scrambled to save my home. And his trick DID work for about 3 hours. That is how long it took me to gin up a Petition against the City, file it with the Court and then serve the City manager with a copy of the Petition.

The poor woman whose home was condemned by the City for having the "alleged" insufficient solar panels could have done the same thing...

And so can any of you guys if the same thing ever happens to one of you.

reply to post by imd12c4funn


That's a hell of a tale. You handled the situation so much better than I could have. If that had happened to me there's no doubt in my mind that i would have seen the inside of a jail cell.

Originally posted by blair56
so...whats the big deal? She didn't have enough electricity to live there. Get a job, make out a budget, don't eat at mcdonalds, and pay your bills. There is nothing wrong with this at all, and you ppl complaining are ignorant. I've worked in real estate and kicked out many ppl for not having there utilites turned on and i would have done the same thing to this lady. And her complaining about not being given a notice in an adequate amount of time is ridiculous. YOU DON'T HAVE YOU ELECTRICITY ON. its pretty common sense of whats going to happen

If it wasn't so obvious that you are uneducated I would have guessed that you have come from inherited wealth. It appears that real life and the real world have passed you by and you have remained untouched by it. I feel sorry for you whether you really believe in your statement or are just goading people. either way it's just sad.

reply to post by Dramey


I thought our British councils (local authorities) came out with some ridiculous ideas now and then, but the US 'authorities' are really upping the ante in the stupid stakes!

So...let's assume she tells them where to go and she is evicted..then what?

She's going to be homeless..so logically, they would be CAUSING everything to come to pass that they would be evicting her for!!!

How many homeless people are able to run a fridge, heat and cool a home, and provide electricity for everyday life to the extent they say is demanded?

This is SO stupid! It's almost the same as closing science classes because they think they are 'too white', as they have done recently in a US state.

In the UK, if you don't pay your electricity bill, the company disconnects you, and you're on your own until you pay up. The only utility that cannot be forcefully removed is water and sewerage.

So, if you don't pay for your electricity, gas, or whatever, do they evict you? What if you own the house?

Surely, if you wanted to recreate life from the Victorian era, no electricity or so on, that is your right as an individual isn't it? To choose whatever way of life you want.

Blimey, these officials need putting against a wall so common sense can prevail.

Originally posted by JIMC5499 From what I read, it says that you must have the capability to run a refridgerator, heat and cool the house, it doesn't say that you have to do it.

This is what I think makes this a Dumb@ss ordinance. What is the point to it? is the point to make sure that a house has a refrigerator? The point is to make sure that everyone that doesn't have the money for a major league alternative electrical system is hooked to the GRID.