Evicted!!!

If you live wayyy out in the boonies, you can do (more or less) what you like on your own land.....

But if you live either close enuf to town, or in an area where there are building schemes, etc....then you really have no choice but to go along with what is (and what is not) allowed.

Bucking the "system" already in place for your area rarely ends up with positive results....more than likely, doing this would just make your name and address known with county officials.

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Sorry...

"At this point all I can think of is get the second trailer off the property, share the first trailer with your friends (you'd be surprised how many folks can live in a small space for awhile), aologize your backside off to the code folks, go have a heart to heart and tell them you are sorry you did not follow strict codes before you made the move, that your heart over ruled your head or something. Hope for the best."

that was the only solution I could come up with. I had to move an entire house piece by piece in 30 days, it rained 20 out of the 30. Sometimes solutions are not easy to swallow, but....when your back is against a wall, you inda have no choice.

I wish the OP well and hope things work out for the entire bunch.

hunter63, I don't feel the occupants of the holiday trailer are not being told they can't live in the trailer. They are being told they can't live in the trailer on that land. The difference between residing in the high end trailer on that land or the dumpy trailer in the trailer park is that the trailer park will have a sanitary waste dump facility on site. I don't know of any county or MD in Alberta that doesn't have very specific regulations sewage disposal/septic systems.

The best I can suggest is to either move the family to a proper trailer park nearby or have them move into the primary residence and put the trailer in an RV storage facility.

I took it from Adamtheha's above post that this would be their temporary solution for the winter. The second family has 6 children (according to the blog) so that will be a very tight squeeze in a mobile home and a LOT of cabin fever for everyone to endure but it can be done if everyone remains good friends through this ordeal.

I wish good luck to both families and hope you all can find an acceptable resolution.

.

naturelover, I was more responding to the 'throw the family out in the cold' comment and the probable explanation for the situation.

It isn't a locals vs outsiders regulation. The entire province of Alberta has pretty firm regulations in place to protect surface and subsurface water.

I understand WR. It's the same here too. I think those regulations are pretty much standard right across the country.

.

Thanks to everyone who has replied, at least, the people who are sincere. Some of you need to remember that law differs in application and form wildly from place to place, and what you think you know about law in your area, is probably quite different from how the state of things are here.
I have put many, many hours of research, and have years of experience in bylaw enforcement, so I know what I'm talking about. Debate is about facts, not general assertions, and I stand by every word I've said. Perhaps a more careful read of the facts is in order before making blanket statements like
"There are laws against using trailers as a residence", and
"You broke the rules, and you got caught".
There are no rules against using trailers. No one has apparently tried before, so it was never considered! The county would have allowed it, apparently, if we had applied for the permit before bringing them out, but I had no where to put them...what else could I have done????
We broke no rules, and have never been charged with an offense. Law is not always a black and white issue, there can be many shades of grey, such as "This statute defines trailers as a manufactured home, but this one doesn't. Which one takes precedent?" This is why judges are almost always lawyers themselves, and we have multiple layers of court appeal process. None of you is qualified to tell me that I broke any rule, when you don't even know what our rules are!
Sorry, but I don't like to be told I did something wrong when I know that I didn't, or at least the "rules" are vague and ambiguous.

Some people did ask some legit questions, I can answer those honestly.

Quote:
Did you get a permit for the first trailer you put on the property?
"Yeah, it was very easy, but it was also a permanent building"

Did you have to get a permit for the building (shed) you put up?
"No permits needed for outbuildings, so, no."

How close are your neighbors? Have you had problems with them? You mentioned they were calling and reporting you for the Llamas and such. If you are at odds with the neighbors AND the code folks.... you will have problems every step you take.
"This is the heart of our whole problem. The neighbors object to having us out here, period. I spoke with one neighbor for several hours and came to that conclusion. We were very honest, and told them everything we wanted to do, so they took that and used it against us, twisting our words in letters that they sent in secret to the county. They were very surprised to find that the county gave us a copy of those letters. They eventually apologized, but waaaay too late."


Also, did they come and tell you they had a problem with you putting a trailer out there with a permit (the first one) before you had the second one put on the property?
"No, everything went well there, except the neighbors objecting to our running off generator power, storing building material outside, having children running around, having a dryer sitting alongside my house, and not fixing fences that they broke down themselves..."

At this point all I can think of is get the second trailer off the property, share the first trailer with your friends (you'd be surprised how many folks can live in a small space for awhile), aologize your backside off to the code folks, go have a heart to heart and tell them you are sorry you did not follow strict codes before you made the move, that your heart over ruled your head or something. Hope for the best.
"This is almost exactly what we are doing, except for the apology to the county. I'll admit that we didn't do things the way THEY thought we should have, but we acted in good faith, relying on information from the development officer, and I asked for permission before doing it. They already had it in their heads to say 'no', so it didn't matter what I did!"
End Quote:

This will blow over very quickly. By next spring, we'll have the barn finished, a big garden growing, trees planted, and a county election to bring some desperately needed fresh blood out here. 99.9% of agriculture in this area is conventional, massive scale, bloated, low profit type. No one can even fathom planting an apple tree on the prairies, but they WILL grow! I fully expected some severe challenges with such a ground-breaking project, and I don't think we've even really seen how challenging it can get. Nothing that is worth doing comes without a price, and I expect some suffering. The best thing about it is, we are more determined than ever to make this work! Our familes are working together in ways that I never dreamed were possible!

Anyway, sorry if I offended anyone, I really didn't mean to, but don't come and tell me "how it is", and expect me to bow my head and admit you're right. Ask me questions, do a little research, because there may be important information that you don't know.

__________________
Go Big or Go Home!!
1 Tim 3:2-3 "Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out. Convince, Rebuke, Exhort with all long-suffering and teaching."

Sorry, I guess I should add that I'm aware that I'm not right about everything, I know that trailers don't have a "septic system", but they have holding tanks that can be pumped into a septic system. I will freely admit that I had a lot of information wrong when we first went into this, but it went waaaaaaaay out of control!
Neighbors...make friends with them....they can really hurt you if they want to....

__________________
Go Big or Go Home!!
1 Tim 3:2-3 "Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out. Convince, Rebuke, Exhort with all long-suffering and teaching."

Then tho, a septic system is generally designed for the number of devices & bedrooms you have in your house. So if you should end up dumping out that holding tank into your septic tank, it would degrade your septic system to the point of not working properly.

This is how govt thinks - of what typically will happen. Perhaps you had some other plan, or your septic is huge, or any of 100 other possibilities. Doesn't matter - the govt thinks about what _generally_ happens, and tries to prevent the obvious bad.

Now, seems like you have all the people in one dwelling & all using the same septic anyhow, so what's the difference?

Well, the only difference is the govt didn't think you could cram that many people into one small dwelling, so they didn't pass rules on that.

And that might be the only difference.

But one way is right, and the other way is not.

That is the game.

You seem to be missing the game?


I know it seems like some people were attacking you a bit in this thread.

But I don't think that was the case?

The problem for us all, is that you know the _whole_ story.

We only know the small portions you choose to tell us.

As you fill in the story, then we learn different, more, and worthwhile info about all this.

It is not what you first told us. So you can't really be upset with us for doing the best we could with what you told us?


You said of late:

"There are no rules against using trailers. No one has apparently tried before, so it was never considered! The county would have allowed it, apparently, if we had applied for the permit before bringing them out, but I had no where to put them...what else could I have done????"

The govt & rule makers don't really care. It's not about what you could or couldn't do. It's about following the rules. I'm not saying if that is right or wrong - I'm saying that is how it is.


It seems you are a rule pusher. you are a bit confrontational in this thread - things need to go my way, with my views.... That's not a bad thing, not a complaint against you in any way at all.

You don't sit to well with your neighbors, and you seem to enjoy that a bit.

You want to prove to the rest of the community that their way of doing things is wrong, your new way will be better.

And so on. I think a lot of people replying pick up on that from you.

Again, _nothing_ wrong with that, not a negative comment!

Just how it seems - you kinda like the struggle a bit.

So it's kinda hard to help you out tho, as - you have it your way, and nothing else is really gonna do.


A lot of the stuff that you are dismissing in this thread is really good advice or observation - it might not fit your personality, but you probably shouldn't dismiss those people any more than they should assume all the details they do. Fair enough?


I'm left with one puzzle. You don't know what to do with these people, it sounds as tho they would be left to live in snowbanks with no options & destitute. But - somehow - a $50,000 travel trailer was no problem to aquire.

There can be many plausable explinations of that but - it makes me think there is yet more to this story than we are being told. Something else is going on.

You don't owe me any explinations, and I really have enjoyed this thread. You've showed yourself, without biting anyone's head off or stomping away. I thank you for that, and hope we all can learn a little. It sounds like you have a handle on things working out, and hope that things go well for all involved.

--->Paul

I realize you're in law enforcement but I'm wondering if you've done something to protect your title. If these people are going to be working with you to enhance the property, if you were to have a falling out or disagreement, they could register a builder's lein against your title. I believe this could be resolved by having a contract in place that spells out clearly.

Paul, governments can have limitations on the number of occupants in a home, such as "SINGLE family dwelling", no more than X people per bedroom, and so on.

You picked up on the same thing that I did, that this is an adversarial situation. It becomes even more apparent as the further information becomes available. Particularly:
"No, everything went well there, except the neighbors objecting to our running off generator power, storing building material outside, having children running around, having a dryer sitting alongside my house, and not fixing fences that they broke down themselves..."

Looking at it from the point of view of adamtheha, or from the neighbors, I can see how each consider the other to be bad neighbors. That doesn't bode well. The immediate problems may be resolved, but there will be more in the future unless attitudes start changing.

I know - I just didn't want to go there. Another can of worms.

I'm kinda pushing things as it is, and I'm trying to be understanding & not push buttons - I really enjoy this thread & the situations it brings up, and I very much appreciate adamtheha returning to this thread & adding to it.

It is difficult to ask about & advise about such things without seeming to be a real brick head & just dumping on the person - when they are living the situation, and we can only see the very small portion that they share.

I think most of us want to help & want to know more & are well meaning. But it is easy for us all to kinda pile up & end up saying 'well what _were_ you thinking?' over & over and over - well meaning or not, doesn't help adamtheha feel any better!

Here in surrounding towns, those occupancy laws only seem to apply to homeowner houses. Rentals of a certain ethnic type don't seem to have to abide by those rules. So if one wanted to argue the rules, one could.... Oh never mind.

--->Paul

Based on these comments I can see how the neighbors could be attempting to prevent a "bunch of Hill Billies" taking over the neighborhood.

That so?