What is the name of your state? Michigan
Ok, I don't know if I mentioned this here before, but here's the situation.
The city where I live sent me a letter saying that I had to replace a portion of my sidewalk at my own expense, or their contractor will come in and replace it at my expense.
I called them and the conversation went something like this:
I don't want the sidewalk replaced, I think it's plenty safe, I'm not going to fix it, and do not come onto my property to fix it yourself because I am not going to pay for it.
They said "too bad", we're going to do it, city ordinance says so.
I say "I don't care what city ordinance says, you have no authority to come onto my property, 'fix' something, then charge me for it simply because somebody says so."
"Sir, we sent you a letter..."
"Ma'am, I don't care that you sent me a letter. Let's say I send my neighbor a letter saying 'man, your yard is freaking ugly, you need to plant some flowers and bushes in your yard, if you don't, I'm going to do it myself and send you the bill'. Can I then collect on that bill?"
"Sir, that would be a little bit ridiculous..."
"Exactly ma'am... that's my point"
"Sir, city ordinance says we can do this..."
"Ma'am, again, I don't care what it says, if city ordinance says that everyone in the city needs to have a pink roof, does that mean that the city can send everyone letters saying 'replace your roof with pink shingles or we'll have someone come onto your property and do the work, and we'll send you the bill', does that mean that we have to obey it?"
"You're going to have to talk to someone else {click, transfers me to another person, I get his voicemail}"
I'm telling them that I'm not going to pay it, and if they want to fix their sidewalk, they can fix it themselves. If it's my sidewalk, then I should be able to jackhammer that sucker up and get rid of it, because I don't have the time or extra money to shovel it, or maintain it, and don't want the liability of having someone on the sidewalk in case they fall.
And so, what I'm curious about is first:
Ok, I don't know if I mentioned this here before, but here's the situation.
The city where I live sent me a letter saying that I had to replace a portion of my sidewalk at my own expense, or their contractor will come in and replace it at my expense.
I called them and the conversation went something like this:
I don't want the sidewalk replaced, I think it's plenty safe, I'm not going to fix it, and do not come onto my property to fix it yourself because I am not going to pay for it.
They said "too bad", we're going to do it, city ordinance says so.
I say "I don't care what city ordinance says, you have no authority to come onto my property, 'fix' something, then charge me for it simply because somebody says so."
"Sir, we sent you a letter..."
"Ma'am, I don't care that you sent me a letter. Let's say I send my neighbor a letter saying 'man, your yard is freaking ugly, you need to plant some flowers and bushes in your yard, if you don't, I'm going to do it myself and send you the bill'. Can I then collect on that bill?"
"Sir, that would be a little bit ridiculous..."
"Exactly ma'am... that's my point"
"Sir, city ordinance says we can do this..."
"Ma'am, again, I don't care what it says, if city ordinance says that everyone in the city needs to have a pink roof, does that mean that the city can send everyone letters saying 'replace your roof with pink shingles or we'll have someone come onto your property and do the work, and we'll send you the bill', does that mean that we have to obey it?"
"You're going to have to talk to someone else {click, transfers me to another person, I get his voicemail}"
I'm telling them that I'm not going to pay it, and if they want to fix their sidewalk, they can fix it themselves. If it's my sidewalk, then I should be able to jackhammer that sucker up and get rid of it, because I don't have the time or extra money to shovel it, or maintain it, and don't want the liability of having someone on the sidewalk in case they fall.
And so, what I'm curious about is first:
- What type of lawyer (besides brave) do I need to take this case?
- What sort of action is this? Is this a case against the city? They aren't charging me with anything so I'm presuming I'm going to be the plaintiff.
- Since they did this to a couple dozen houses on our street (and plenty more on other streets), can this be a class-action suit against the city?
- Does anyone know of any legal groups (probably a libertarian group) that has lawyers that fight against this specifically, and might have a fund behind them to subsidize their fees?
