If you have one or more unlicensed, inoperable motor vehicle stored outside on your property, it’s time to move them indoors. If you don’t, you could receive thousands of dollars in fines and even jail time.
Effective Oct. 3, New York State has adopted the 2015 International Property Maintenance Code, which states in chapter 3, general requirements section 302.8: “Except as provided for in other regulations, no inoperative or unlicensed motor vehicle shall be parked, kept or stored on any premises, and no vehicle shall at any time be in a state of major disassembly, disrepair, or in the process of being stripped or dismantled. Painting of vehicles is prohibited unless conducted inside an approved spay booth.”
There is an exception that states that “a vehicle of any type is permitted to undergo major overhaul, including body work, provided that such work is performed inside a structure or similarly enclosed area designed and approved for such purposes.”
In other words, auto mechanics that are approved by the local municipality would be exempt as long as the vehicles were there for service work and not a repository for junk cars, according to Roger Cook, codes enforcement officer for the towns of Cazenovia, Nelson and Fenner. How this applies to farmers and farm vehicles, “can be tricky,” Cook said. “Motor vehicles are all this law refers to.”
New York state’s previous property maintenance code allowed residents to have at least one unlicensed or inoperable motor vehicle on their property, but the new International Property Maintenance Code does not have such an allowance.
The ramifications for violating the new law could be severe, with a maximum penalty of up to $1,000 a day from the day a person is cited or 15 days in jail, or both, Cook said.
Cook said the enforcement process for the new law starts when either he sees an offending vehicle or receives a complaint about an offending vehicle and he sends a notice of violation to the property owner. The owner has 30 days within which to remove the offending vehicle. If the vehicle is not moved, then Cook will send a notice of violation and the property owner must appear in court. If the vehicle owner removes the vehicle within 30 days there are no fines or penalties.
“I don’t see it as a big deal,” Cook said. “There’s certainly more than one or two [offending cars within the greater Cazenovia area], but not hundreds either.”
Cook said he put a public service notice in the local Pennysaver to inform residents of the new law, and he hopes that as the public gets educated about it there will be few issues. “We need compliance, but we’ll try to be friendly about it,” he said. “When we see them we’ll let people know they are in violation and give them a little time to take of business.”
Cook said he felt it important for residents to understand that this is a state law, and not one that was enacted by local municipal boards.
The 2015 International Property Maintenance Code is an update from the 2012 edition that is based on the 1998 first edition. The code was created by a development committee appointed by the International Code Council that consisted of representatives of the three statutory members of the ICC at that time, including Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc., International Conference of Building officials and Southern Building Code Congress International. The code is “founded on principles intended to establish provisions consistent with the scope of a property maintenance code that adequately protects public health, safety and welfare,” according to the code’s preface.
The complete 2015 International Property Maintenance Code can be viewed online at codes.iccsafe.org.
