Unlawful Home Search Consequences
Summary
The user, a homeowner in Mississippi, experienced an unexpected search of his property by code enforcement officials and police. The officials claimed to have a warrant, which the user found vague and non-specific. Prior to this, the user had received a notice to clean up their yard, which they complied with. The user is seeking advice on the legality of the search and potential actions they can take.Full Conversation
I own my home and land taxes are paid in full and code inforcement come my home with police escorts saying they had a warrant to search my home told me I was obstructing justice if I watched them search I had to go outside and wait they took pictures all over my home and searched through my house they lied saying my house was unsafe, they had no reason to enter what can I do?
Did they provide you with a copy of the warrant? It's important to verify its validity and the specific areas it covers for search.
Yes it really says nothing
What exactly does the warrant state? In general, a search warrant must specify the area to be searched and what they are searching for.
It says Marcus Catchot (Building official/ code enforcement) personally appeared before me and made oath that there is cause to believe violations of codes and ordinance adopted by Jackson County exists of the premise located at * Nevada Ave ocean springs Mississippi * (this is not our zipcode ours is *) it says Menace to public health and safety. You therefore command to make immediate inspection of said premises/structure, and property owners/occupants are hereby ordered by this court to allow entry and inspection by Jackson county code officials then it says Building official/code enforcement sworn and subscribed before me on this date of * of July,* Angeline MGroves and county Court judge something Watt
Did you receive any prior notice or warning about potential code violations before this incident?
We received a letter on our door about a month ago to clean our yard which we did
What was the exact content of the letter you received a month ago?
It just says everything we had to clean up on the yard and things we had to remove from the yard
It says what we needed to clean and remove from our yard