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My neighbor has for several years been over the top with outdoor Christmas lights. On year three when he purchased a ton of new lights and decorations he actually blew his house main fuse (60 amp) when he had them all on and his wife turned on the electric cloths dryer! He has since upgraded to 200 amp service. Worse than the Chevy Chase movie!

Rentals... (shudder)...
We are now down to just one in a tiny village a county away (about 15 miles).
We have 17 acres of timber there that we have had for about 53 years and the house (was a store for many many years) we bought about 30 years ago. A several years later we added a concrete block former automotive garage next to the house. It's 43' x 30'. The house and the garage both need a good bit of work. Tiny rural towns around Central Indiana are not a good rental house market these days. You can't get decent rent (or renters) out of a house that is just "decent". Too many run down houses in most of these little burgs.
I can't begin to recall how many times in the last 30 years I have had to do a minor remodel on this house after tossing a bad renter.
I normally only ask 2 things from renters. Don't tear up my house and pay the rent. Most have not been very good at either...
With the last couple the guy was not too bad and was a fanatic at paying his rent on time so I kind of catered to him a bit. Trouble was that he got into a bit of drug trouble and spent about 6 months in jail. I found out later he had the rent put back but she didn't pay it. She even stood and told me that she didn't understand why he was so fussy about paying on time and that she didn't think it mattered that much. I disagreed... When he got out he caught up right away. I talked to the drug task force asking if I should make them move out for the protection of my property. They told me that they knew the situation and if I could keep him there it would make their job easier since they knew where he was. If I kicked them out they would maybe have to track him down again. They had lived there maybe 4or 5 years so I let them stay. Then one day he got pulled over and had been smoking pot in his car which of course was a probation violation and they locked him up again. He was in the middle of divorcing her and she (and some of her family were tearing stuff up and selling everything of his that was loose. I quickly evicted her and the house sat empty a couple of years. I'm just getting started on it now. He came and asked if I would let him come back but I told him no.
That county is a poor county due to a weak tax base and last I knew it doesn't even have an electrical inspector nor a full time building inspector. In my county they want you to get a permit to install a ceiling fan. In the other county I can do wiring legally without a license. A few years ago I had to install a new breaker box due to some arcing (kind of an oddball box) and when I checked all I had to do was contact the power company. They came in and pulled the meter and left. I installed the new bigger box and called them again. The power company sent "the" employee who served as their only inspection. He came in and looked at my work at the box, complemented me on it, and re-installed the meter. He didn't look at anything else in the house. I showed him the old box and where it had been arcing and he asked me if he could have it. He explained that he keeps a stash of old breaker box parts so that if someone needed parts or breakers for the old and odd boxes he had parts to give them. Very nice guy and very interested in being helpful. We chatted a while about wiring stuff in general. No fee, nothing.
On the last remodel on that house I asked a good friend there about local permits for such things. He said that he wanted to add a small room on the back of his house so he would ask the county about it and let me know. When I saw him he said they told him that "as long as he could do the project for "about" a thousand dollars or less (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) just go ahead and do it". No inspections etc. Now septic changes are different. I'll need to double check to see if that is still the case.
If you are as frugal as I am you can do a pretty big project for $1,000. Or a series of small projects.
I'm not changing the foot-print of the house, no septic changes or even bathroom plumbing for that matter. Mostly replacing drywall, insulation, cabinets, finish floors and a lot of trim work. A half zillion small repairs. I had already replaced 1/2 of the roof and I need to replace the other half.
My current plan is to do an extra nice remodel and find someone to rent the house for a year with the option to buy the house or even all of it on contract. Several possibilities.
One good thing, in Indiana it is easier to evict a contract buyer than it is a renter.


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ChrisNeilan wrote:My neighbor has for several years been over the top with outdoor Christmas lights. On year three when he purchased a ton of new lights and decorations he actually blew his house main fuse (60 amp) when he had them all on and his wife turned on the electric cloths dryer! He has since upgraded to 200 amp service. Worse than the Chevy Chase movie!

He needs to switch to LED's.

I have herd some real horror stories about renting, actually from renters as well as land lords , one thing I never understood was if the place is yours then how can be prohibited from removing some one like that on the spot, as far as the cops go , its what we pay them to do JMO they are on their own They don't pay for the service . on a side note I have lived here over 1/2 a century , several years ago there were 2 homes removed from the neighborhood ,,, torn down,,, one of the neighbors bought a vacant lot and was told down town there was no street address for the lot ??? they told him to contact lawyer to apply for one ? this is a very corrupt and greedy town . I delivered news papers as a kid and there is a address I still remember the number lol.

Hobbyman2 wrote:I have herd some real horror stories about renting, actually from renters as well as land lords , one thing I never understood was if the place is yours then how can be prohibited from removing some one like that on the spot, as far as the cops go , its what we pay them to do JMO they are on their own They don't pay for the service . on a side note I have lived here over 1/2 a century , several years ago there were 2 homes removed from the neighborhood ,,, torn down,,, one of the neighbors bought a vacant lot and was told down town there was no street address for the lot ??? they told him to contact lawyer to apply for one ? this is a very corrupt and greedy town . I delivered news papers as a kid and there is a address I still remember the number lol.

I agree with everything except about the police. They don't make the law and can only enforce the laws the politicians deem fit to pass.

True , but they are asking you to become a accessory,, and for what ? if these drug addicted people find out you are working with the cops its your stuff that is destroyed not your politicians ? or they tell their buddies you dont care if they do drugs on your property your still in a bad way . either way its still your property not a politician's. jmo

Hobbyman2 wrote:True , but they are asking you to become a accessory,, and for what ? if these drug addicted people find out you are working with the cops its your stuff that is destroyed not your politicians ? or they tell their buddies you dont care if they do drugs on your property your still in a bad way . either way its still your property not a politician's. jmo

I don't quite understand the logic.
Are you saying that the police should do just what they think is right or what you think is right and not worry about what the law says. I don't know the law where you live but believe that if there was a visible violation of the law the police would be happy to take action to the extent that the law allows.
On occasion when the police do exceed their authority (what the law allows) they end up losing their jobs and sometimes go to jail.

I guess I dont understand ? if you are prompted to allow laws to be broken on your property by a law enforcement officer with out some sort of documentation doesnt that make you liable? as well as responsible for any thing that happens / drug over dose or related issues /to some one on your property ? our law says if you dont shovel your side walk in the winter and some one falls its on you ,even if a cop tells you you dont need to do it . how is this any different . If a cop tells you you can run a red light and you do and it kills some one its your word against his ? for all you know the cop might be dirty ?

Too much hypothetical conjecture flying around here!

JPG wrote:Too much hypothetical conjecture flying around here!

Which is part of the problem today.