Re-appraisal inspection?? WTFF!!??

WHOA! So I just got a letter in the mail from my city assessor's office saying that the town is reappraising all properties to adjust property values or some bullshit. They have hired a contractor (private sector) to come in and assess all properties. Apparently, this person will perform "a complete interior and exterior inspection of the property." So basically, he's gonna come into my house and look in every room, every closet, measure everywhere and what not. Needless to say, I"M FREAKIN OUT!!! I got five beauties goin under a 400 w MH right now, just a personal stash thing, but still... So my questions are

1. how the hell is this 'inspection' legal? Don't we have any right to privacy? How can the town fuckin decide that some random guy can waltz into my house and look around, with no warrant and no nothin??

2. Anybody else ever had this happen?

3. how worried should i be that if he sees evidence of a grow the cops will magically find out about it soon after?

I really don't want to kill these now even though they're just in veg (some 2, some 4 weeks), so I'm thinking I'll just put some jade or other house plants under the light as decoys (it's for my seasonal affected disorder!) before he comes and hide the plants in cardboard boxes inside a big storage cabinet I have. No way he can snoop inside my storage, right? Fuck that!!

I feel like even with this plan, he's gonna see the closet with the light and the vent holes cut in the closet door, fans and shit, and he's not gonna buy the indoor garden excuse, and I'll be way paranoid the rest of the time. Any experience with this kind of situation or advice would be so much help. Thanks a lot for reading guys!

I would start some herbs for cooking and set them up as the decoys. That would be more believable than the decorative jade plants. As far as the legal side of it I am clueless. It sounds like you have a pretty good plan. Just another home invasion.....

Fuck that. Lock the fuckin' door, change the locks, whatever you have to do. Some of you asked for "CHANGE", well, you got it!

yeah, the cooking herbs idea is a good one. I'll look into planting some parsley, oregano, sage or something, it can't be too hard, right? Never grown herbs indoors. As for changing my locks, the letter claims that there must be full access to all rooms in order to ensure a complete and accurate appraisal. This makes me so mad that I'm tempted to show em the barrel of a shotgun and say "Appraise this!" But what am I saying, I'm a pacifist!! I just get so discouraged when stuff like this happens that seemingly violates everything I stand for that I then start to stray from my principles... anyway, better to put down the gun and pick up some big cardboard boxes! any other suggestions or thoughts, keep em comin!

thanks again guys!

this has went down with a good friend of mine. he was 2 weeks from harvest and just decided to clean up shop. and move everything out of the house. and then after they came to his house and did there shit, a few months later he set up. This is what i think, it isnt worth going to jail getting caught up in the system for a few plants, that you can just regrow again. trust me probation if horrible, and so are the fines. if you have a really good friend who might already know about your situation then see if he will take your plants if you dont wanna trash em, or cut clones. dude it just aint worth getting caught for personal. you never no, they might get paid extra for finding a house growin dope inside like the power companies do. and they might be appriasing and lookin for dope at the same time, who knows.

get a lawyer, aint no way in hell thats legal. is there? you might have to go up a few diff higher courts till you find one that will listen. yeah, everything that happens in the world is always the fault of barak obama, we all know he's everywhere at all times pulling the strings....

i think it might be 100 percent legal, if he is renting this house and if it is in a home owner association. and plus you dont wanna put up a red flag.

I've never heard of an interior for appraisal. Find out what time frame they are doing it on. it takes a long time to do every house, theymay be at it a year. Just keep refusing to schedule it until you are clear then call them and say I'm ready now.

Check ur state laws. In my home state a property appraiser cannot come into ur house without permission. They may only look at the outside. Unless of course you are selling it.

The reason they are reappraising your house is because they want to see if it is worth more/less so they can charge you more/more for taxes. I say more/more because there is a very low chance they will actually charge you less.. when does that ever happen lol? The thing about the inspection is.. its not going to take all day. At most it will take a couple hours. You do not want to try and avoid/get a lawyer over this because that will just draw attention to yourself and your grow. Act normal and polite like any normal neighbor. Here is what I would do:
1. I would call the city and setup a SPECIFIC appointment time. Say that you are uncomfortable with someone in your house when you are not there, and you have a very intensive work schedule so you need an exact date/time they will come. If they refuse to give you this, then I would call a lawyer because that is unreasonable.
2. If there is anyway to take down/hide your grow box for a few hours then do it.
3. Since you are only in veg, I assume they are not 8 feet tall and you may be able to put them out in your car/truck in black bags for a few hours while the guy comes over. That way, as soon as he leaves you can sneak them back in and rebuild the box and you are set for a couple more years.

Do you own the house?

you only spend money to make it, its all about raising tax's

Well then, call me the PA G*D. I invited my guy into my second home and after twenty minutes and a cup of coffee, had my valuation dropped...

Honey always beats vinegar.

CrackerJax said:

Well then, call me the PA G*D. I invited my guy into my second home and after twenty minutes and a cup of coffee, had my valuation dropped...

Honey always beats vinegar.

Click to expand...

obv brag about having 2 houses.
J/K man jk.

See if you can get a copy of the blueprints to your house. Those will give him all the info he needs. The company who built your house may have them, depends on how old your house is. In my state, if you don't let them in they will make "assumptions" about your house based on an outside inspection. Do you have any unfinished rooms? They may decide to count those as finished and up your taxes. Talk with someone who knows the regs/laws in your state. Its the govt. delays are the norm, they move slow.

sorry, my "other" house ...

I agree with just taking down your light, fans, etc and moving it all into your car or a cardboard box. There is ZERO chance they will start snooping through any boxes, especially if you tape them shut.

The plants should prob go to the back of the car too. Just make sure you deal with this stuff the night before he is supposed to come so no one sees you taking shit out to your car.

While your idea about putting herbs in there as well is a good one, it seems like more of a red flag. It may be legal, but how many people REALLY grow "herbs" with their 400w lamp, ballast and bulb?

from this invasion of privacy, and them demanding to enter your house for an appraisal to probably charge more for future property taxes, I can only assume you probably live in California. I can't image many other states pulling this "we need full access to your house" to appraise it. thats ridiculous..

But If you're gonna let the fucker in to do his appraisal...why not just schedule a time and take your plants and lights and put it in your car, truck or SUV? or move it to a friends house? whatever you do don't draw attention to yourself....someone suggested growing herbs as a decoy is just dumb, take the fucking light out of the closet all together and remove ANY suspicion.

a good lawyer friend of mine told me this....

get the measurements of the room and have them ready.... when the inspection officer comes tell them you have a roomate who locks their door when they are no home.. they will not allow anyone in their room because of it being their personal space.. offer them the measurements (closets included).. 99% of the time they will take your word on it.. if its that 1% of the time tell them you will have to reschedule at a time when your room mate is available.... you should be able to get out of it.. but at least you'll have a nice heads up if they HAVE to see the room....

Read your letter more carefully. I recently received the same letter and it clearly states that if nobody is home at the time the appraiser arrives, they will only do an inspection and measurements from the outside of the home. If indeed you are a renter then the landlord/homeowner MAY be contacted to allow access to the inside, although that is highly doubtful. If you own the home there is NO WAY you are obligated to let anyone inside the home for any purpose without a warrant, but that's a whole different situation.Read the letter better and see what it actually says. They cannot, in this crapass economy, expect someone to take time off work to meet with an inspector for an appraisal for tax purposes. Even if that were the case, you are under NO OBLIGATION whatsoever to let them into your home.

just scan the letter and post it so we can see the actual wording of this letter demanding them access to your house...the damn police need a warrant, how the hell can a property appraiser not?

Thanks for all the support everyone!

some responses to comments:

I am not a renter, this is MY house (still pay a mortgage though so I guess it's partially the bank's...)


I don't live in California, but in another state that has medical marijuana, is very leftist, and that has the highest percentage of marijuana users in the country, or maybe second (maybe you can guess). I thought my state was chill!

The letter does say that an appointment will be made for the interior inspection, so at least I will have time to make whatever preparations I decide on.

I really like the idea of having blueprints on hand. The gardening closet is in a back bedroom, away from the main parts of the house. So we could claim someone's sleeping in there (works nights, whatever), and just show the blueprints.

I think since I'll know ahead of time when they're coming I'll just hide the MJ plants away in boxes (right now they're less than a foot tall) and leave it set up as an herb garden. There's NOTHING they can say about an herb garden, so let em think what they want! Also, there was just an article in the local paper about how MH lights and indoor gardens are a good cure for seasonal affected disorder, something common here where it gets dark at like 4 pm right now.

Finally, even if they did see a full blown grow op, as I understand it, there's nothing they could legally do, and any evidence gathered from such an inspection would be thrown out in court. HOWEVER, I'm just paranoid that they'll tip off the cops and then the bacon will say they smelled cannabis from afar even though there's NO way someone could know about this from outside the room it's contained within, nevermind from the yard or street.

Thanks again for the support folks, and wish me luck! I'll post as the situation comes to a head or is resolved...