Class Warfare Enforcement Of Local Building Codes? Being Rich Or Poor Could Be The Ultimate Criteria For Quiet Enjoyment

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You might have to recall a year old article from Urban Milwaukee when they discovered that the large mansion built on billionaire Diane Hendricks sprawling property in Afton did not appear on county property tax rolls. Upon further investigation, they also found that there were either none or few building permits issued for the improvements and also no follow-up code inspections or assessor reviews.

OK, no big deal we were told on social media because Hendricks contributes greatly to the community, she deserves the benefit of the doubt and the quiet enjoyment of her property. I can agree with that providing everyone who avoids acquiring permits or code inspections deserve quiet enjoyment of their property as well. Pretty simple libertarian property ownership concept if I must say.

But that's not how a Janesville resident is being treated by authorities and in fact, appears to be punished for wanting to acquire the necessary permits. Apparently, the city wants to make this guy homeless over code violations. Got that? Code violations.

But the most glaring difference in my view is his relative lack of wealth compared to Hendricks.

According to a video presented by Talking Racine, a Janesville resident, Ty Bollerud, (home) appears to be targeted by Janesville city officials for code violations that he is not allowed to gain permits for, or repair.

In the video, the city is also accused of developing a strategy to confiscate private property through code enforcement and artificially dropping the assessment value on the targeted home so it falls into the 50% rule - that if it costs more than 50% of the assessed value for the owner to repair the structure, the city has the right to take ownership and raze it ...or something like that.

To be as honest as always, I'm not certain I'm getting the whole story presented here, whether this is a rental property or whether Bollerud owes the city for lack of payment, etc. Nevertheless, I tip my hat to Talking Racine for attempting to put the story into a context that enables viewers to judge for ourselves.

Watch it:

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