AZ woman's home condemned: Solar, batteries insufficient

[coyotes_geek]

Well, I once lived in a house for 3 years with no heater, no a/c and a wood/charcoal fired hot water heater. No safety problems that I ran into. Sure, it's a bit inconvenient, but I made it fine.

Of course this was in another country where there were very few heaters or air conditioners, but believe me, people managed without them.

Of course my electric bill was like 5-10 bucks a month. Not like the average of 300 - 600 or so a month I have now.

I'm not disputing that people can survive without heaters and air conditioning. I'm saying that communities have the right to enact and enforce building codes as they deem appropriate for public safety.

[doobs]

What difference does it make? Private property is private property, is it not?

Please tell me you understand the difference. If a high-rise in downtown LA collapses during an earthquake, lives will be lost. Not just those inside the building . . . but also many of those people walking on the street beneath the building, or working inside a neighboring building that the high-rise collapses on, etc.

Any regulation on use of property is intrusive, so it must be justified on some grounds. I think everyone agrees that the earthquake retrofitting is justified for a high-rise in downtown LA. But the regulations at issue here, not so much. Why make such a weak comparison?

[Blake]

Housing enforcement codes are definitely necessary for rentals to make sure that owners at least meet minimum housing standards.

If it's not affecting the people around them, I'm not so sure about how far they should go when enforcing an owner occupied property in this regard. I don't see why someone should be forced to have electricity if they don't want it.

[coyotes_geek]

Please tell me you understand the difference. If a high-rise in downtown LA collapses during an earthquake, lives will be lost. Not just those inside the building . . . but also many of those people walking on the street beneath the building, or working inside a neighboring building that the high-rise collapses on, etc.

Any regulation on use of property is intrusive, so it must be justified on some grounds. I think everyone agrees that the earthquake retrofitting is justified for a high-rise in downtown LA. But the regulations at issue here, not so much. Why make such a weak comparison?

I don't think it's a weak comparison. I think it's a good illustration to my point that private property rights don't get to trump everything else. Clearly the elected officials in Avondale AZ thinks that their code is justified, or else they wouldn't have made it a code in the first place. We're all free to disagree with that justification, but it's not up to us. It's Avondale's call to make.

[ElNono]

Notice that 'safety' had nothing to do with the original complain...

Case do ents cite a complaint from a neighbor in October. The unidentified woman complained about the property's appearance and said she believed there was no electricity powering the home.

Just some neighbor having an opinion on the house looks...

[Winehole23]

In this case it very much appears "safety" is a bureaucratic rationalization for turning an elderly, unemployed lady out of her own house at the behest of her head neighbor (and any others who might have been more worried about their property values than they were about their neighbor.)

C'est la (adjectival) guerre.

[Blake]

Luckily for her it was just the city and not an HOA coming after her.

[jacobdrj]

What is the weather like in AZ?... I live in south east MI, we go anywhere from -14 F to 100 F (at 95% humidity)... I have never had a 'need' for AC, but it certainly was nice, but heating of some kind in the winter is a 100% must. As far as a fridge, it is important for fresh foods in the summer, but in the winter, you can store a lot of less risky foods outside if you run out of freezer space...