City uses “international code” to evict widow from her house

By Rebekah Maxwell on January 24, 2014

This Week’s Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us

By Rebekah Maxwell

Oh, America. A nation of pioneers and rugged individualism, founded by fearless folk who were willing to brave all of nature’s cruelty, forgoing city comforts and amenities, to settle the untamed land. Just for a place to call their own. Their property. Their home.

Until we discovered that the government, not the property owner, actually owns all our property…and they dictate what you can do with your home. Because they say so.

A widow in Florida is facing eviction, of the home she owns free and clear, because she’s choosing to live “off the grid,” without using the city systems of electricity and water. The city says her self-reliant lifestyle makes the home “uninhabitable,” and cited “international property maintenance code” to justify throwing her out of her own home.

As WND reports:

Widow Robin Speronis of Cape Coral, Fla., is among the growing number of Americans who happily embrace this “alternative lifestyle” known as “living off the grid.” Robin doesn’t have a refrigerator, oven, running water or electricity at her modest home.

Most of what she owns was free, donated or bought for next to nothing.

She cooks on a propane camping stove, and her electronics run on solar-charged batteries. And when Robin needs water, she collects it in rain barrels and uses a colloidal-silver generator to disinfect it.

“My message was to create, so I created a happy place … a place where I get up, and I’m like this is beautiful,” she told WFTX-TV in Fort Myers, Fla.

Unfortunately for Robin, her decision to talk to a local TV station about off-the-grid living put her on the radar of the city of Cape Coral.

The very next day, authorities tacked a notice to vacate the property on her door, despite the fact she owns her home, and is up-to-date on her taxes.

“A code-enforcement officer came, knocked on the door then posts a placard that says uninhabitable property, do not enter,” she told the TV station in a later interview.

The city’s code-compliance manager told the station the home was tagged because it doesn’t have running water or electricity – but neither is mentioned as a requirement in the code cited by the city on the notice.

(You would think the enlightened government officials would be more tolerant of Mrs. Speronis’ “alternative lifestyle.”)

Instead, city officials cite “international property maintenance code” as a justification for the eviction.

The ‘international property maintenance code’ is a lengthy set of regulations published by the International Code Council which, although not law, are “available for adoption and use by jurisdictions internationally.”

Because I guess “Nor shall any person . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” is just too passé. Or is that part of the Constitution that evolved again? Turn your back for one second, and suddenly centuries of private property law are usurped by international policy. Not sure what the “due process” of “international law” is, or how a city government is empowered to enforce it, but they’re going to have to prove it.
Because Mrs. Speronis is not backing down without a fight.

A local attorney has decided to represent Speronis for free, according to WFTX-TV.

Cape Coral told the station if Speronis can prove she can sustain her life and the home without running water or electricity, they may be able to come to an agreement.

“I’m going to bring this to the attention of anyone who will listen until justice is served,” she said.

Living off the grid is less about pinching pennies, and more about principle for Robin. She vows to fight any future legal challenges by the city.

“I’m prepared, and if that challenge comes up, we’ll deal with it,” says Robin. “And if my Father in heaven wants me to be the test case for something, I’ll be the test case for something.”

And if the city’s trying to use “international law” to force widows out of their own property for being frugal and self-sufficient, then a test case, this most certainly is. Because if we’ve already abolished private property in America, in favor of international/government ownership, someone better call the Marxists and let them know they’ve won.

Read more at http://stevedeace.com/news/city-uses-international-code-to-evict-widow-from-her-house/#ezc5XShfMbu2qsl6.99