Man fined $345 for parking his work truck in own driveway
A Florida man is facing a $345 fine for parking his work vehicle on his own driveway, despite having done so for 45 years.
Bali Ramnarace from Boynton Beach in the US fell foul of parking restrictions when he brought the box truck that he drives for his job home with him to help make work easier for himself.
Ramnarace is now locked in a civil lawsuit with the city authority, and says that parking his work truck on his own driveway helps him physically.
Now, single dad Remnarace has been ordered to remove the truck, and is facing penalties of paying money if he doesn't.
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But Ramnarace is saying that this will have a significant impact as he is handicapped, and parks the truck on his driveway to make it easier for him to do his job as a handyman.
This also means that he needs the 10-foot box truck in order to be able to carry materials and tools for his job.
“I think they should have some consideration, because I’m handicapped and this is very convenient when this is here at my house,” he told WPTV.
“That’s how I make a living, without that I can’t do anything.”
City officials have claimed that the truck goes against municipal codes which restrict certain vehicles being parked in residential areas.
The code comes from Chapter 14 Section 14-3, and says that it's there to 'property values and character of property within residential areas'.
It does this by barring vehicles like tractors, buses, heavy equipment, forklifts, and trucks from being parked in a neighbourhood for longer than 15 minutes.
Ramnarace is claiming that his car meets the specifications for a permitted vehicle - except for the fact that it is referred to as a 'truck'.
This includes things like weight limits, size, and axles, such as not having two or more axles, being a box truck between 14,000 and 16,000 lbs, or more than 16,000lbs.
He said: “I always do what they say, 10-foot box truck, single axle, no more than 16,000 pounds in weight, this is only 5,900."
Ramnarace added: “I don’t know what I have to do, they did not say where we can park it."
The handyman has been ordered to remove the vehicle, and is facing mounting charges, with $75 being added to the initial $345 penalty for each month he doesn't move it.
He is asking that the city 'grandfather in' the truck, which would mean that it's allowed to remain on the property.
However, when he asked about this he was told that the city does not grant any waivers regardless of how long a vehicle has been parked in a particular spot.
Kit Roberts