Definition of commercial vehicle?

You can store commercial vehicles and construction equipment. But cannot use the property for anything other than residential use.
It’s subject to interpretation, all I do is park my truck, mini and chipper. Aka store construction equipment and a commercial vehicle. But that entails “maintained a business” on my property.
 
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ATH said:
where is the contradiction in the bylaws?
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For real, I’m curious on others interpretation of the bylaws above. Am I in the wrong? The only chips on my property is for personal use, the only logs on my property are for personal firewood, and a few select logs for milling strictly for personal use or hobby.
 
My guess (probably a bad idea), they were picturing I work for somebody else (use @climbingmonkey24 example). I take the commercial vehicle home at night, but the business is not operated out of the house. So it sounds like the truck is OK parked in the garage, but business being home-based is not???

That is where it is a bit crazy...by that separation:
*If I work for a garbage company, I can bring that truck home at night as long as it is in a garage (which doesn't seem to be defined...does that include a carport?)
*However, by those rules if I wanted to run a underwater welding consulting company with my house as a home base, but I travel 293 days a year and spend the rest on the phone, that is not acceptable.

Pretty sure they'd rather the second than the first, but rules are rules!

I've also been told "homeowner covenants only matter if somebody is willing to take you to court over the violation". If that starts, just get the garage built ASAP.
 
evo said:
I should add, that currently there is 1 carpenter who works out of their home, a cabinet maker who has a shop, and now an Arborist. Our community is 9 lots our section of 7 lots are all serviced by one road that takes a y. The remainder 2 have their own.
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I'd just go with the flow. If anybody raises issues about the Section 6 and it does make it to court, you have the defense of the rules being unfairly enforced if they do not go after the others as well. If you start asking, there may be a Tupperware, Avon, or MaryKay sales person as well. Anybody sell ANYTHING on Ebay from their house? Gotta go after them too. My guess is if that starts to happen, bylaws can be changed to reflect current situations.

Sounds like the truck should be in a garage though. Plant some trees to hide it better!
 
ATH said:
I'd just go with the flow. If anybody raises issues about the Section 6 and it does make it to court, you have the defense of the rules being unfairly enforced if they do not go after the others as well. If you start asking, there may be a Tupperware, Avon, or MaryKay sales person as well. Anybody sell ANYTHING on Ebay from their house? Gotta go after them too. My guess is if that starts to happen, bylaws can be changed to reflect current situations.

Sounds like the truck should be in a garage though. Plant some trees to hide it better!
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The shop aka garage has been in the works for some time. We have only been here since February, then Covid, then shut down, toss in a few breakdowns and shit has been wild.
We can build upto 200 square ft without a permit, so I plan on getting one or two shipping containers, building eves on the outside with a wall and a pole building (just a roof) between. All kosher, simple and only semi permanent. It’s all I need but I’m not opposed to a finished garage with a upper loft, office space, workshop, blacksmithing corner, welding corner, tree biz corner.
 
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evo said:
The shop aka garage has been in the works for some time. We have only been here since February, then Covid, then shut down, toss in a few breakdowns and shit has been wild.
We can build upto 200 square ft without a permit, so I plan on getting one or two shipping containers, building eves on the outside with a wall and a pole building (just a roof) between. All kosher, simple and only semi permanent. It’s all I need but I’m not opposed to a finished garage with a upper loft, office space, workshop, blacksmithing corner, welding corner, tree biz corner.
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Just to add, you literally have to be right up to the base of my driveway to even see the truck or any equipment. None of this has even been presented as a issue. The only complaint is “increased traffic”.

The person we bought the house from was a retired 70 year old widow. She drove a wheel chock of a car, and only really left once or twice a week. While I’d love to be able to be a homebody, we are a family with two kids, and shit todo.

There would be the same amount of traffic from us if I had my equipment elsewhere. So the argument seems weak at best.
 
Seems to me the law, as it is written, is clear: your business cannot be there. But your equipment can be, so a suggestion if you don’t already do it: get a PO Box for the business, so your business mail goes somewhere else. That just fixed the “business is at home” issue, as now you just happen to be storing your equipment at home, not working there. Or at least that seems to make my township happy, as I can’t have a business with more than two employees at my home without a variance, but I can park all the trucks I want in my backyard, and use my driveway (parking lot-sized) as a parking area for employees who come and pick up the trucks.
 
Reach said:
Seems to me the law, as it is written, is clear: your business cannot be there. But your equipment can be, so a suggestion if you don’t already do it: get a PO Box for the business, so your business mail goes somewhere else. That just fixed the “business is at home” issue, as now you just happen to be storing your equipment at home, not working there. Or at least that seems to make my township happy, as I can’t have a business with more than two employees at my home without a variance, but I can park all the trucks I want in my backyard, and use my driveway (parking lot-sized) as a parking area for employees who come and pick up the trucks.
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The P.O. Box thing has been done since day one.
 
evo said:
The P.O. Box thing has been done since day one.
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That’s good. It’s always a good idea in my opinion, keeps customers from showing up at the front door in the middle of Friday night dinner to “talk about a little work.”

Hopefully you can reason with these people, and come to a reasonable agreement. Cheap/free tree work in exchange for their silence may help. Free driveway plowing in the winter helps me too, as I live on a shared private drive too, and I realize my fleet puts more wear on the lane than everyone else combined - except maybe the kid next door who seems to come and go at least a dozen times a day.
 
It depends where you are I think. Some people run their businesses out of their home. It’s something you would have to discuss with the town you live in, or whatever department they require you to go through regarding business licenses and operations, etc.
 
Reading the two regulations it sounds like the first applies to running a business out of the home. Here you can run a business from home as long as customers are not coming there as a storefront. I believe this reads similarly.

The second is pretty obvious and I think you have it figured out. They don't want commercial vehicles out in the open. It sounds like they dont want anything fun out in the open like campers either.
 
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When a storm hits, and they need your services, they will friendly-up.

When storms hit, sometimes it could be hard to get out of the driveway...another time where working very close to home is a Win.



If your stuff is parked elsewhere, it's easiest to work next to your parking area. Something for the neighbors to consider, either before or after they're blocked in.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
It depends where you are I think. Some people run their businesses out of their home. It’s something you would have to discuss with the town you live in, or whatever department they require you to go through regarding business licenses and operations, etc.
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JaredDTS said:
Reading the two regulations it sounds like the first applies to running a business out of the home. Here you can run a business from home as long as customers are not coming there as a storefront. I believe this reads similarly.

The second is pretty obvious and I think you have it figured out. They don't want commercial vehicles out in the open. It sounds like they dont want anything fun out in the open like campers either.
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We don’t live in a city, so the only business licenses which matter in this case is through the state.

One neighbor had a camper trailer parked right off the road for many years until a tree fell on it recently.
 
southsoundtree said:
When a storm hits, and they need your services, they will friendly-up.

When storms hit, sometimes it could be hard to get out of the driveway...another time where working very close to home is a Win.



If your stuff is parked elsewhere, it's easiest to work next to your parking area. Something for the neighbors to consider, either before or after they're blocked in.
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I’m trying to be a good neighbor. Free chips, free chipping of brush (if reasonable and piled with easy access), blown off the road under the bigleaf maples, scraped the potholes with the mini (existing before I moved in), offered reduced prices in tree work.

These guys are just nuts. First introduction was them thinking I was doing site clearing on a lot, and they mentioned that the easement is exclusive only to my house. Which it is not.
 
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UPDATE:
The situation of the easement and my work vehicles have progressed and worsened, I have also learned some very disturbing information about my neighbors (live on a f-en island so its not hard). Everyone we have spoken to in our community about this issue and who we are dealing with has replied "OH my gawd, It's THOSE people you are dealing with!" They have a reputation for doing exactly what they are doing to me, lots of bullying, easement and property line infringement, harassment charges, restraining orders and more.
We had a community road maintenance meeting, they demanded that it has to be in person and were unwilling to communicate via email. Arrived very late, and then obviously came with an agenda. They coopted the entire meeting, and steered it as quickly as possible to 'their driveway' which in reality is our easement. They made all kinds of accusations all of which were untrue, they came with a 'loaded gun' type mentality and soon as we contradicted the validity of these crazy claims.
We hired a lawyer for a consultation, he is a very grounded nice guy. Perhaps too nice... But he reviewed the CCR's and easements. He is in agreement that we are not blatantly in violation of any of them nor abusing our easement. However, he did mention that the fact that the employee's come here to retrieve equipment is a grey area which if this detail had to be argued out in court it would be very expensive for either party to win and that it can go either way in his opinion. He did mention that our CCR's might be considered abandoned and no longer valid.
Already rumors are coming back around to me, that our trucks leave the shop at 6:30 and all sorts of lies of what my business is doing.. Mysterious deliveries, giant moving trucks, and all sorts of non sense. All or most of which I can prove that my 'companies' work schedule never starts before 8 am (time sheets, and the like)..
This situation is getting very stressful but I wanted to give ya'll a update.
 
evo said:
UPDATE:
The situation of the easement and my work vehicles have progressed and worsened, I have also learned some very disturbing information about my neighbors (live on a f-en island so its not hard). Everyone we have spoken to in our community about this issue and who we are dealing with has replied "OH my gawd, It's THOSE people you are dealing with!" They have a reputation for doing exactly what they are doing to me, lots of bullying, easement and property line infringement, harassment charges, restraining orders and more.
We had a community road maintenance meeting, they demanded that it has to be in person and were unwilling to communicate via email. Arrived very late, and then obviously came with an agenda. They coopted the entire meeting, and steered it as quickly as possible to 'their driveway' which in reality is our easement. They made all kinds of accusations all of which were untrue, they came with a 'loaded gun' type mentality and soon as we contradicted the validity of these crazy claims.
We hired a lawyer for a consultation, he is a very grounded nice guy. Perhaps too nice... But he reviewed the CCR's and easements. He is in agreement that we are not blatantly in violation of any of them nor abusing our easement. However, he did mention that the fact that the employee's come here to retrieve equipment is a grey area which if this detail had to be argued out in court it would be very expensive for either party to win and that it can go either way in his opinion. He did mention that our CCR's might be considered abandoned and no longer valid.
Already rumors are coming back around to me, that our trucks leave the shop at 6:30 and all sorts of lies of what my business is doing.. Mysterious deliveries, giant moving trucks, and all sorts of non sense. All or most of which I can prove that my 'companies' work schedule never starts before 8 am (time sheets, and the like)..
This situation is getting very stressful but I wanted to give ya'll a update.
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Absolutely terrible
Hope the best for you
 
Sound like miserable people who want to bring everyone down with them. These types exist everywhere unfortunately.

Even if you 'win' they waste a whole bunch of time from people who have better things to do.
 
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