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Rikard's avatar

I would say this is not surprising in the least: there's only one real crime when you look at things from the state's angle, and that is challenging the state's authority. You'd think my western neighbours would remember that.

What you do is, you feign compliance in public and do whatever you please on the sly. Checking up on everyone is too expensive and impossible, that's why only people making a show of it are hit like this.

Never take the state to court: then you have to prove they did wrong, which, since they make the law, they never did. Force them to take you to court, never admit anything, never give them information unless you have to and if so only exactly and literally what they asked for, and then only if they went on record doing so:

"Do you know what the time is?"

Wrong answer: "Yes, it's 14:30"

Right answer: "Yes" (if true, otherwise "No").

Real example: when we installed the iron stoe in the bedroom, we could have gone the route of asking the council authority on the process. That'd have meant they "inspecting" every thing. This is done by you sending in photos to a county clerk (who is neither a mason nor a chimney-sweep or a fire tech) and paying a 2 500:- stamping fee. Then it takes weeks and if he finds fault, you have to fix those by hiring a licensed handyman, and then it's new photos, a note from the handyman and a new fee.

What to do is what we did: call a local mason, tell him we've got a stove of X model we want connected to the chimney, could he drop by and have a look and give an assessment and suggested cost? Sure he can.

Suggestion: run a metal hose inside the chimney-pipe. Installation, all included, 13 000:-, 15% deductible. Then call the chimney sweep to have him do a fire hazard inspection as part of the annual sweeping (500:- extra fee). Then he and the mason update their files which goes to county automatically once per year, while we update the insurance company referencing the paperwork.

Both methods are legal. But one makes the state's rep a passive recipient of facts - the other gives them power to interfere.

Sorry, but that's how you hae to do things: figure out how to dodge involving authorities for every single little thing. Grandstanding just gets you run over.

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