Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
The amazing part is....you kept a permit from 14 years ago....  |
My little burg required a one time monitored alarm permit when I bought my house. Years later, I had a couple of false alarms, as I neglected to lock my front door, and the wind blew it open. So I get a nastygram from the city, you have to apply for and pay for an annual alarm permit.
So I trotted down and brought my over decade ago alarm permit, showing no expiration date. "Well, we changed the city code regarding alarm permits since then, and we don't have your original alarm permit application."
Hey, that's nice! Since ex post facto laws are explicitly unconstitutional, i.e., you can't change the agreement after the fact, whatever code change you made doesn't have anything to do with me, but thanks for your inquiry.
They felt they had the right to demand I pay for a new permit anyway. I told them to go ahead and sue me if they think I owe them money, but if they sue, I'm countersuing for injury due to frivolous lawsuit, my attorney's fees, and other damages. Well, they didn't sue, but I did get invoices from the city every few months, for a year or two, and then I got a demand letter from a collection agency. I followed the required rebuttal process, sent a copy of my alarm permit with a note explaining that the city was trying to collect in error.
And that was it, never heard from anyone about it again. I think they wanted $ 15 or 20.