Taxes in NJ seem to double ever two or three years lately.
Most don't have big buildings because they add to the taxable value of the property.
They even tax you for the square footage of paved spaces.
I have a house thats single floor, with an unfinished basement and 5ft tall attic, the house measures 24x28ft, my tax bill says my house is 1,408 sq ft of living area with $60,000 worth of 'Improvements' which counts the shed, asphalt driveway, landscaping, and screened in side porch. I only paid $53k for the place 8 years ago. It was assessed then at $72k, and is now assessed at $155k despite most similar neighbor's houses selling for under $80k.
The city has an ordinance saying that no vehicle may be parked on unpaved surfaces. So keeping a boat or trailer in the back yard or behind the garage will get you a warning or fine.
Take the boat off the trailer lay it on the lawn your just fine. They limit sheds to no more than 8x8ft, but you can park a 40ft shipping container with no issues. But don't let your grass get more than 5.5" tall or they post a big warning on the door. They actually higher senior citizens to go around and look for violations to fine people over. They spend tax dollars looking for ways to raise money via fines. We don't have an HOA, this is the city that causes these issues.
I got a warning the other day because there's excessive grown near my house. I have a bed of mint and Ivy that grows on the north side of the house because nothing else will grown there in the shade. Lately its overrun a bit with wild strawberries. Its behind a 6ft fence on two sides and my house on the other. To see it you have to look over the fence or stand on a ladder. Yet they somehow found a way to get a pic of it and send me a warning about the need to have 'grass not weeds'.
They have issues with everything where I live but I don't pay them much mind, they generally find bigger things to complain about soon enough elsewhere and go away.
Last year they're thing as complaining about bees swarming my garden being a hazard to anyone who may wander that way. The way I see it is if they wander over my 6ft fence into my garden, they have a much bigger issue than bees to contend with. The fence was put there because my garden kept getting raided when I was at work. I found I was never getting any ripe tomatoes, and when one was close, it would disappear by the time I got home.
A game camera showed some woman who 'baby sat' a neighbors kids would walk the kids down the street during the day, then go down the neighbors driveway and use their pickup truck to get over the fence to load a bag of tomatoes or what ever she felt like taking. The best pics were her reaction to the foot deep pile of wet manure I dumped at the base of the fence. When that didn't stop her I hooked a cattle fence charger to the tomato cages. That seemed do the trick. When I showed the pics and video to the local police they told me I wasn't the only one to have the same problem with garden thefts lately. One neighbor planted a row of new trees and plants around his house and someone came in while he was at work and dug up four trees, two banana plants, and two fig trees. All on camera. The woman was on foot pushing a baby stroller pulling a plastic wagon that she loaded up with the trees she stole.
With food costs going nuts, gardens need to be secured I guess.
I keep my boats stacked when not in use or for sale. Right now I've got the two I just picked up turned upside down behind my shed chained together. The trailer that was under the 14ft boat is too big and heavy, so it'll get sold, and I've got a small, older trailer that'll work just fine. So in reality the 14ft boat isn't going to take up any more space than the trailer already did.
I'm just still super shocked that so many boats that used to be in such high demand go unsold all of a sudden. ITs not like this isn't a populated area, this town has over 70K people and the county over 150k or so. Its not farm land, its mostly suburbia built in the 40's and 50's.
My street has 80 homes, 71 of them have small boats but only one that I know of is actively using theirs besides me. Most have boats that sit until that one time or they decide to take it out then realize it no longer runs and it costs big money to fix at the marina so they push it back in a corner and cover it up. A few have jetskis, but I've not seen those come out of the garage in years now either. They have been trying to pass an ordinance lately to ban people from doing their own car repairs or painting of any type. They passed the car repair part but no one seems to enforce it so far.
