I have held many yard sales in my lifetime and I've enjoyed visiting many that have been held by others. I really enjoy the excitement in the scavenger hunt because you never know what treasure you might come across. The rules have sure changed over the years, when it comes to garage and yard sales.
In many jurisdictions, you simply no longer have the freedom to start selling your belongings on your own property, whenever you would like to.
Nowadays,
yard sales come with very strict city code enforcement and there are aggressive misdemeanor fines that you can get slapped with if you haven't conducted your sale in the right way.
You can't just take a few old items you have around the house and start selling them on your property to others who might be interested. First, you will need to obtain the appropriate permission slip before you can start selling your own property on your own property.
The rules surrounding yard sales vary depending on where you live, but it's clear that over the years an increasing number of jurisdictions have been cracking down on those who have been trying to hold yard sales but without going through the proper regulatory permission hoops first.
During a recent city council meeting in Arlington, Texas, officials there have proposed moving in this direction and severely restricting the freedom and liberty of citizens to hold their own sale.
Neighborhood complaints have been cited as the most pressing reason for the seemingly needed restriction on liberty. Other concerns have been allegations like multiple yard sales lowering the quality of life for others and that such actions would devalue property for other owners. Officials have proposed a new ordinance that would require families living in Arlington to first seek to obtain permission before holding any sale.
They would also be banned from having more than 2 sales every year.
In the past, we would commonly post dozens of signs around the neighborhood in order to direct traffic to the right area and be able to locate the yard sale. But if the new ordinance passes in Arlington things are going to change, citizens will only be able to put up one sign and that sign will need to be on their own yard.
If the ordinance passes, one option that the citizens might have in order to get around the 1 sign rule would be to seek out and arrange a voluntary transaction with other property owners in the area, to see if they could place their yard sale sign on their property so as to gain more exposure and have more signs present in the neighborhood. But even that might be a little bit too much freedom.
Should we really be making criminals out of people who are simply trying to sell their own property on their own property?
Civil liberty experts argue that the restriction on how many signs can be placed, is a direct violation to their First Amendment rights. As well, the ordinance itself is seen as a punishment toward people for simply using their own property in a way that some others don't deem to be fit. Similar regulations to those being proposed in Arlington, have already been passed in areas like Orange Park, Florida, and those changes have reaped lawsuits in return for their seeming violation of basic civil liberties.
If Arlington goes ahead with the changes, anyone caught in violation of the law would see a fine around $500 and they could be hit with that fine for every day that they hold any sale that isn't in compliance with the rules. Many citizens in the area have already expressed their discontent with the proposed changes and several have flooded into Arlington City Hall to show how they feel.
The proposal was allegedly introduced by the Municipal Policy committee and there should be no surprise that the early draft of the proposal has angered many residents and isn't sitting well.
The proposal needs to undergo revision before it gets formally presented to the City Council.
Pics:
JustDuckyErrands via justduckyerrands.com/mastering-the-yard-sale/
365etobicoke via 365etobicoke.com/etobicoke-garage-sales-3/
Giphy and imgflip.com
Oliver Twist via imgflip
Sources:
http://ij.org/arlington-messes-yard-sales/
https://arlingtonvoice.com/arlington/politics/2017/07/10/arlington-citizens-reject-proposed-garage-sale-rules-town-hall
https://arlingtonvoice.com/arlington/politics/2017/07/06/proposed-rules-would-require-permits-garage-sales-arlington
https://www.thespruce.com/dos-and-donts-for-yard-sale-shoppers-1313708
http://www.arlington-tx.gov/cdp/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/05/Ordinance-UDC.pdf
http://ij.org/action-post/california-town-yard-sale-police/
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