When you have your own land, you can do whatever the hell you want. True or untrue?

[MichaelD]

I've been arguing with a coworker about this. I say that if you own your own land (say a few acres) that you can do whatever you want on your own land. I.E. if I wanted to build a shed, or a whole "city" of sheds I could do that. My coworker says I can't.

I don't understand why I wouldn't be able to do that; it's my land, after all. Someday, I will have my own land and I will have my own Home Theater Room, where I can watch movies at deafing sound levels, with no worry about my fatass neighboor calling the cops on me at 5:00 in the afternoon.

What say you on this topic?

 

[BDawg]

<< I will have my own land and I will have my own Home Theater Room, where I can watch movies at deafing sound levels, with no worry about my fatass neighboor calling the cops on me at 5:00 in the afternoon. >>



IMHO, your freedom extends until it encroaches on the freedom of others. If your neighbor can hear your music/movies in his property, he has every right to complain.

Solution? Be considerate. Use walls designed for more sound dampening. Buy a lot of land so your nearest neighbor is a mile away.

In short, you don't have the right to do whatever you want with your land. If you live in a neighborhood, you have no right opening a slaughterhouse on your property.

 

[isekii]

i think y9u need permits inorder to build stuff on your land..~

 

[Fausto]

It's all about the zoning laws and local code. I'm actually about to tee off on my neighbor for doing "whatever she wants" in her own yard. There's crap piled up all over the place and her asshole brother-in-law has decided to park his truck (this is one of the huge commercial ones that's as tall as her house) in between our houses. This of course thrills me when he fired the f*cker up at 6am 3 feet from our bedroom.

Ranting aside, you can only do whatever you want if it meets code, zoning, and isn't a raging annoyance to your neighbors (as in: noisy, smelly,etc....questionable taste in yard art doesn't count).

Fausto

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Your coworker is right. Ever heard of zoning laws, building permits, etc?

 

[iamwiz82]

another question, which is an offshoot of this:

What are you allowed to do on your own private road? Lets say you own 30sq acres and build an asphalt road. Could you charge people to down it? Could you set no speed limit? What are the legalities of privatization of roadways?

 

[Fausto]

<< What are you allowed to do on your own private road? Lets say you own 30sq acres and build an asphalt road. Could you charge people to down it? Could you set no speed limit? What are the legalities of privatization of roadways? >>


Um, all of the above I think. I know you can go as fast as you want and not wear a seatbelt/helmet on private roads.

Fausto

 

[Capn]

untrue,

 

[IGBT]

Hardly...all kinds of fed.state and local restrictions...and CC&R's in townhouses and condo's. The only thing guaranteed is property taxes.

 

[BDawg]

<< What are you allowed to do on your own private road? Lets say you own 30sq acres and build an asphalt road. Could you charge people to down it? Could you set no speed limit? What are the legalities of privatization of roadways? >>



I bet you could. But why would you? As you're not a race track, you'll likely be liable for all damages or loss of life.

Edit: Fell prey to the your/you're curse of Anandtech. I feel so dirty...the dirt's not coming off.

 

[911paramedic]

What are you allowed to do on your own private road? Lets say you own 30sq acres and build an asphalt road. Could you charge people to down it? Could you set no speed limit? What are the legalities of privatization of roadways?

You could, but you better have damn good homeowners insurance. The first person to hurt themselves on your property would sue your @ss off.

 

[StrangeRanger]

A lot of folks are right so far. I'm in a similar situation. I'm on a "private" road and own about 45 acres of land around my house. Every state/county/town etc though will have limits of what you can do. And permits are always required for building, installing power, cable, phone etc. Yes, you could prolly build a small shed on your property w/out anyone bothering you at all, but a "city" of them, no. You would be paying zoning fines out the arse. Then you have to consider that if you have power, cable, phone etc. out to your property that the utilities will all have rights of way for maintenance, upgrades etc. As for the private road, if it is truly private (you pay for instalation, upkeep, plowing etc etc) you probably could do what you want with it. But there are legal issues to be addressed if some schmoe gets hurt traveling down your road "looking for a place to turn around". Bottom line, while there are lots of freedoms with owning your own patch of paradise, there are a lot of loop holes. And loop holes can be deep
j

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Didn't someone post here about their father/grandfather getting issued a DUI and taken to jail while driving a tractor on his own property after it flipped over on him?

 

[MichaelD]

Interesting and informative replies, gents. Thanks much. Keep it coming!




<< Didn't someone post here about their father/grandfather getting issued a DUI and taken to jail while driving a tractor on his own property after it flipped over on him? >>



And that's just the biggest crock of crap I've ever read. That's bull! If I get drunk on my property and crash my car into my house, it's my business. It's so convenient that cops use that "private property" loophole when it suits them. I.E. getting into a wreck in a mall parking lot and they tell you "we can't issue a report b/c this is private property." Then, when you're doing somethign on your OWN private property they want to issue tickets/make arrests. What a crock.

 

[iamwiz82]

what got me to question this was that i saw a guy doing a burnout in his backyard/driveway. I was not completely sure that was legal. I am talking purely from a vehicle standpoint, not a noise or pollution ticket

 

[killface]

You can, but you have to get building permits. Your town has to decide whether or not they want to issue them to you.

 

[BooneRebel]

<< what got me to question this was that i saw a guy doing a burnout in his backyard/driveway. I was not completely sure that was legal. I am talking purely from a vehicle standpoint, not a noise or pollution ticket >>



If you can't drive as you please on private land then those nice folks at Nascar have a lot of explaining to do to the authorities...

 

[amdskip]

We drag race and do burnouts coming out of our garage all the time. Neighbors don't like but the cops stop to chit chat sometimes and they are cool with it.

 

[mikebb]

<< And that's just the biggest crock of crap I've ever read. That's bull! If I get drunk on my property and crash my car into my house, it's my business. >>



And if you get drunk on your property and crash into the mailman, that's your business too, I suppose.

 

[iamwiz82]

<<

<< what got me to question this was that i saw a guy doing a burnout in his backyard/driveway. I was not completely sure that was legal. I am talking purely from a vehicle standpoint, not a noise or pollution ticket >>



If you can't drive as you please on private land then those nice folks at Nascar have a lot of explaining to do to the authorities... >>



im suuuuuuuuure NASCAR is not licensed for anything, right?

 

[Jzero]

<< Interesting and informative replies, gents. Thanks much. Keep it coming!




<< Didn't someone post here about their father/grandfather getting issued a DUI and taken to jail while driving a tractor on his own property after it flipped over on him? >>



And that's just the biggest crock of crap I've ever read. That's bull! If I get drunk on my property and crash my car into my house, it's my business. It's so convenient that cops use that "private property" loophole when it suits them. I.E. getting into a wreck in a mall parking lot and they tell you "we can't issue a report b/c this is private property." Then, when you're doing somethign on your OWN private property they want to issue tickets/make arrests. What a crock. >>


Very interesting point....we have the same problem at my college with these off-campus apartments. You need help and the cops say "That's College property. You need to call Campus Police." (At my school the Campus police are real gun-toting badge-carrying cops).
You call campus police and they say "It's off campus. Call the township cops."

Anyway, I echo what everyone else said--it's you're land and for the most part you can do what you please, but there are zoning laws and building codes and association rules (if you live in that kind of development).

There is something somewhere about a town in the western US declared it unnecessary for its citizens to have a drivers' license and they have been pulled over by state cops within the town's limits and been let off for driving without a license....

 

[docmanhattan]

<< Interesting and informative replies, gents. Thanks much. Keep it coming!




<< Didn't someone post here about their father/grandfather getting issued a DUI and taken to jail while driving a tractor on his own property after it flipped over on him? >>



And that's just the biggest crock of crap I've ever read. That's bull! If I get drunk on my property and crash my car into my house, it's my business. It's so convenient that cops use that "private property" loophole when it suits them. I.E. getting into a wreck in a mall parking lot and they tell you "we can't issue a report b/c this is private property." Then, when you're doing somethign on your OWN private property they want to issue tickets/make arrests. What a crock. >>

That does sound a bit ridiculous, but if I'm not mistaken, if it's considered illegal, it's illegal regardless of whether it's on public or private property. Otherwise people would just rampantly committ all of their illeagal activity at home and the local authorities couyld nothing about it. Which isn't to say that people dont' committ illegal acts at home, but the idea being that it would be impossible to enforce the law if it was only valid on public property.

 

[BooneRebel]

<<

<<

<< what got me to question this was that i saw a guy doing a burnout in his backyard/driveway. I was not completely sure that was legal. I am talking purely from a vehicle standpoint, not a noise or pollution ticket >>



If you can't drive as you please on private land then those nice folks at Nascar have a lot of explaining to do to the authorities... >>



im suuuuuuuuure NASCAR is not licensed for anything, right? >>

You obviously missed the sarcasm in my post. The point is that you can do 'anything you please' on your land as long as you're not breaking the laws/codes for the area. The same applies to someone living in the city but the laws are more stringent. With your own land in the county you can do much more, however, you are still constrained by limitations based on the location and zoning of the property.

 

[MichaelD]

<<

<< And that's just the biggest crock of crap I've ever read. That's bull! If I get drunk on my property and crash my car into my house, it's my business. >>



And if you get drunk on your property and crash into the mailman, that's your business too, I suppose. >>



Um, I didn't say anything about hitting and maiming/killing a person, now did I? Don't cloud the issue, please.

 

[mikebb]

<< And if you get drunk on your property and crash into the mailman, that's your business too, I suppose. >> >>





<< Um, I didn't say anything about hitting and maiming/killing a person, now did I? Don't cloud the issue, please. >>



I don't think I'm clouding the issue, the title of you thread "When you have your own land, you can do whatever the hell you want. True or untrue?" leaves a lot of room for interpretation. My point is: if traffic accidents, loud music, DUI, etc. don't count as crimes/offenses as long as they're on private property, where do you draw the line?