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Parked Safety Inspection Violation

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remurphy88

Junior Member
Fairfax County, Virginia.

I got an Expired Safety Inspection ticket while parked on private property in my neighborhood. We have an HOA and our entire community is not on public roads. Someone has been calling the cops to have them come in and ticket my vehicle. There are by-laws that state all vehicles must be registered and operable, but nothing specifically about the safety inspection. I know that the operable part can be left open to interpretation due to the inspection, but does that give the police the right to ticket my vehicle on private property via a complaint? Must that complaint come from a board member, or will any old hick dead neighbor do?

Thanks for the advice!
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
How many homes in your development?

Anyhow, I'm fairly certain from a pervious run-in I had (I also lived 23 years in Fairfax County) that local ordinances require any car that is visible on your lot to be licensed and inspected. The only exceptions are if they are screened from view in a garage or completely surrounded by a (opaque) fence.

Almost certainly it was some neighbor that ratted you out, but there's no obligation that *ANYBODY* complain.
 
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remurphy88

Junior Member
There are probably about 70 homes on our street, and then another small street near ours with about 40 homes. We are all governed under one HOA. With my car parked in the neighborhood, it isn't visible at all from any public area. If someone complains (aka invites the police onto our private property) does the law the cop can enforce become the standard law, our HOA by-laws, some strange combination of the two, or some other weird thing? This whole thing feels very murky.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
It's not public area, it's the (perhaps) private street. The county ordinances apply everywhere in the county.
 

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