Continuing Complaints

Jerry, our Fire Marshal, texted me Monday to let me know the case against mom’s mainland house has been reopened due to new complaints. He also emailed me and the tenant:

“Apparently the City is getting further complaints about continued finish
work on going at the mainland house. Please see the comments from our
code compliance tech below. As of last Thursday 9/12:

‘They can still smell varnish and wood stain in the neighborhood. So the cabinetmaking is still on-going as of today. They believe this is not just the property owner doing this himself, but there are several employees with work trucks who don‘t live on the street coming and going and parking overnight on the block. They have tried discussing this with the vehicle owners, but they didn’t answer questions. Advised to contact MPD non-emergency for noise complaints and vehicles with expired tabs. They think we should do a surprise site visit again to see all the activity going on.‘

Your attention to this is important. The code compliance case has been re-opened until this issue has been completely resolved.”

Jerry and I spent a fair amount of the day texting. My tenant is not spraying at the property any more. He’s found another shop to use, and has decommissioned the outbuilding, which is now being used for storage. I was there last Tuesday for an hour, and smelled nothing. I smell EVERYTHING. I hear increasing little, but my sniffer makes blood hounds proud.

This is the tenant’s reply to the Fire Marshal:

“Thanks for the notification. Whoever the complainant is obviously has it in for me. As I said before you left. I won’t be able to burp without someone complaining.

I have not sprayed varnish or lacquer since your last visit, or used any kind on noxious ordored material that anyone could smell. I completely dismantled my spray shed and it is now used as overflow storage. You’re welcome to come take a look. Since your last visit I have secured a location out in a rural area of south Everett to do my spraying, etc. If you would like a copy of the agreement with the property owner I will give you one.
Furthermore, I HAVE NO EMPLOYEES. I do however own 2 white work vehicles, which Im sure you saw on your last visit. Since we have lived here, one of them has been non operational, but due to a family vehicle being damaged because of a collision with a deer, which you can verify with the Snohomish County sheriffs department, as the Sultan Police had to come out to the scene to euthanize the deer, I had to get it running and compliant for my daughter, and wife to drive. I had to park it out on the street for a couple of hours to shuffle the cars in and out, and I do believe that at the time I hadn’t yet gone to the DOL to get the tabs renewed. But I would think that would be a
concern for Mukilteo PD.

Whoever this person or persons is that is complaining approached and spoke to, but got no answers from, is not related to me or my business in any way. I asked my daughters, their boyfriends, and my wife, if anyone accosted them on the street recently and they said no. So Im not sure what thats all about other than straight up fabrication in order to take me down. Im not sure about any noise complaint either, but I do know that my next door neighbor rented a backhoe last week to scrape his yard and there was a bit of noise associated with that. Also the smell of diesel which might have contributed to the odors that are are being attributed to me.

I do know the lady that lives 2 doors down has called the PD in the past if someone parks in front of her house. Which Im sure the PD has a record of. Apparently she believes she has a right to keep the street in front of her property clear of any vehicle.

At some point I believe I have a right to face my accusers, or at least be notified who they are. If they are neighbors of mine I want to know so I can take appropriate action to avoid them, and protect myself from false accusations like these or any other mean spirited actions.

If they are not, than I would like to know that also. I will do my research to find out what my rights are in this matter and apply them as such.

As far as a surprise site visit. All I can say is give me a heads up! Ill put an extra pot of coffee on so it won’t be a wasted trip?

Hope all is well“

The tenant and I are pretty sure which two neighbors are griping. Jerry gave me the name and number of the person at the city who can tell me who made the complaints, if they left their names. I’ve left voice mail twice with no response. I’ll ask Jerry to help me get in contact with this person should I not hear back by tomorrow. Frivolous complainters have cease and desist letters in their future…

When I have to drive the truck to the mainland house, I make a point of parking in front of the ridiculous person who calls our police department when people park in front of her house. She deserves it. And it builds a dossier against her with the PD. I know who’s making complaints about faux smells as well. I don’t want to sound vindictive, petty, or that I’m lowering myself to that person’s level, but ‘bring it on!’ I’m SO done with this nonsense. I’m going to draw my attorneys out of my holsters, and put a a stop to this. A few well written letters citing code re parking regs, and making false accusations, hopefully will put this to bed, given that our tenant has complied.