Sacramento County's crackdown on illegal fireworks is drawing complaints from some homeowners who say the enforcement is going too far. One Citrus Heights property owner was hit with thousands of dollars in fines over illegal fireworks even though he was not at the home when they were set off, and in fact lives hours away in the Bay Area.
The fine was tied to a rental home the man owns on Pompeii. According to the city, the illegal fireworks were shot off by tenants living at the property rather than by the owner himself. The penalty notice was mailed to his Bay Area home, leaving him to answer for something that happened at the rental while he was away.
The property owner, Keshwan Nand, said his first reaction when he saw the fine was that he simply did not have the 25,000 dollars it demanded to pay up front. Rather than accept the penalty, he decided to fight it, arguing that he should not be held responsible for what the people renting his home had done.
Nand also questioned how far the rule should reach. He asked what would happen if someone went and lit a car on fire on the street, and whether he would be liable or the person actually doing it. He said the city has good intentions with the crackdown, but argued that the policy is written too broadly and that officials should narrow its scope.
In the end, Nand won his case. The fine was dismissed and he was reimbursed for the administrative fees related to the case, though he said he still ended up paying a small fee of around 20 dollars to resolve the matter. He described the outcome as a relief after the stress of contesting such a large penalty.
Even so, with the Fourth of July only weeks away, Nand said he remains worried that the same thing could happen again at his rental property. His experience has raised questions among other homeowners, some of whom have also fought fines in court, about whether they too could be left on the hook for fireworks set off by tenants or guests.