That town ordinance about not repairing your own fence on a Sunday nearly cost me $150

I live out in Boulder County, Colorado, and last month my fence blew down in a storm on a Saturday night. Sunday morning I started fixing it with a hammer and some nails, and my neighbor told me there's a local law against making noise or doing construction before noon on Sundays. I shrugged it off, kept working, and got a warning from a sheriff's deputy about violating a county nuisance law. Has anyone else ever run into a dumb local rule like this that just makes zero sense in an emergency?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaelchen7d ago

That "storm emergency qualifies for an exception" bit is good to know, thanks for sharing that @patb12. I'd be pretty ticked too if a storm knocked my fence down and then a noise rule tried to fine me for fixing it.

ryan_ellis12d ago

Man, that's rough. I had a similar thing happen with a town rule about not storing lumber in your side yard more than 48 hours, got a warning while I was rebuilding a shed. Maybe it's just me but I ended up calling the county office and they said a storm emergency qualifies for an exception, worth a shot if it happens again.

patb1212d ago

The 48-hour lumber rule got me too, @ryan_ellis, but with my shed rebuild it was 72 hours and I still got a warning. I ended up calling the county planning office the next day, and they said the same thing about storm emergencies applying. They also told me to email the code enforcement officer a photo of the storm damage before I started the work, which helped a lot. It's worth keeping that email handy if it happens again, because they seemed a lot more flexible once I showed the proof. I'd say try that route next time, it saved me a headache and a fine.