Complaint Review: City Of Dallas Code Compliance

I am an older disabled man.  I have conditions that cause me to lose the use of my muscles and will eventually kill me.  I must stay active in order to slow the process of it.  Prior to becoming disabled, I purchased my home as an insurance total loss with a demolition order pending on it in 1992.  I rebuilt it to the city standards that were in place at the time.  I have always worked with wood and done carpentry since my first Wood Shop class in 6th grade.  Occasionally, I rebuild or repair items for friends and family.  I have never had a problem with city code people until now.  When I first got started repairing my home, I was told by the code officer that as long as they could see progress, there would be no

problem.  They kept their word and I kept mine.  Eleven months later, the house was ready for occupancy.   I moved myself and my family into it.  Now, we have brand new code officers.   They come by and write bogus citations for things that are not there.  I was building a new set of kitchen cabinets for a disabled female friend who has an older house in serious need of repairs and a very meager fixed income.  Even though the wood that I was using to construct the cabinets was brand new, I was written a citation for litter.   The officer also had an issue with a couple of old hot water heaters that came from my neighbor and uncle.  I build BBQ smokers from discarded water heaters and have built two so

far.  I moved the water heaters into my back yard behind the privacy fence.  When the officer returned, even though the heaters had been moved and there was nothing else to complain about, they issued a citation and backdated it to the previous week.  I have still not been to court on that one.  The following month, I came home to find TWO citations posted on my front door.  One was for litter and the other was for high weeds.  I came up with an idea to place some 12-inch rulers in clamps so that they would stand vertically.  I photographed these in my yard to prove that my yard was well below the height allowance.  I found out in court that what the officer was calling litter were three sealed boxes of new

and unused cylindrical shipping tubes that were temporarily stored on my front porch.  Nothing is waste or litter.  I found out also that the officer is quite given to lying even about insignificant things.  That same officer has returned and posted another citation on my front door for litter.  I have found out that she photographed a plastic trash can that was hidden from view behind my hedges.  Neither the trash can nor anything in it is litter.  She also photographed two stacked buckets just in front of my garage.  One contains two partially used bags of weed and feed, and lawn fertilizer, and the other contains some potting soil/compost mix.  None of these items are litter.  There was a third bucket that she

photographed that contains some sheetrock working tools which also are not litter.  She also photographed my niece's hay feeder that was here for me to repair while her calves are still nursing.  It is also not litter.  I found out from my first trip to court that the court denies requests for jury hearings and the judge routinely rules against the homeowner no matter what the evidence shows.  My neighbor who recently turned 80 and is a cancer survivor is also being targeted.  Another neighbor who is a veteran AND in a wheelchair is getting flack over the paint on his house.  They are scamming elderly and disabled homeowners who have limited financial resources already.