The law on yard and garage sales is quite clear for Metro Nashville: “A resident is allowed no more than two (2) yard/garage sales each year, for no more than three (3) days at a time. More than two (2) generally constitutes doing business in a residential area, and is not permitted. The purpose for a garage sale is to allow a property owner or resident the opportunity to periodically dispose of unused or unwanted household items. Consignment sales are strictly prohibited.”
With that ordinance in mind, and 3 YEARS of codes complaints about a property that is having what they call “yard sales” 5 to 7 days a week in order to avoid business licenses, proper taxes, and store fronts – why has Metro Codes refused to enforce the law? They’re ignoring the near-permanent yard sales, ignoring the operating a business without a license, they’re ignoring complaint after complaint about 1605 Benjamin St since October of 2014. It should be noted that no sales tax is being collected on these items, as Durbin considers them a ‘yard sale’ – however according to the state, he is not nearly exempt as he believes.
Here are the complaints codes has received, as far back as October of 2014, and as recently as last week – many of them noting “no violation found (NVF) on the same day the complaint was received – we ALL know codes doesn’t work that quick. Even when ‘abate notices’ were generated, they were not for yard sales or improper business, but they were for open storage violations.
After several neighbors contacted us about the lack of resolutions from Metro Codes, we began to document, both from in-person observations, neighbor reports, and social media posting by Jerry Durbin, the man behind these yard sales.
This property has had a yard sale 25 of last 30 days. (and 38 of the last 45 days). Jerry Durbin has used his city yard sale time allotment for the next 15 years in the past 6 weeks. Yet after inspector after inspector noted ‘no violation found’, we thought we’d provide a record of every day we have verifiable, photographed proof, of a public yardsale taking place at this property. Here’s the list since August 1st 2017:
Here are some examples of what this yard looks like on a near-daily basis:
Durbin even makes note on his personal social media account about receiving a letter from codes – and completely misunderstands what the problem is:
So, Metro Codes, since you were not able to verify a continious yard sale, we’ve done your leg work – here is documentation of the past 38 yard sales since 08/01/2017: They are all time/date stamped in each image.
It’s your move, Metro Codes..
