Extreme yard sales mar Braddock Road
A resident of the nearby Parklawn community, who took the photo, says, “It appears that this junk was trucked in for this alleged yard sale.” He questions whether “a sale of a great quantity of used appliances meets the county’s definition of a yard sale.” He says there have been similar “yard sales” along Braddock Road presumably because of the high traffic volume.
He forwarded the photo to Mason Supervisor Penny Gross who passed it along to the Department of Code Compliance for investigation. “It’s not illegal to have yard sales. But there are restrictions; you can’t have more than two per year,” Gross says. “It looks like what is going on here is almost commercial. That is not allowed.”
The Parklawn resident also complained to the police and was told they “have no jurisdiction over this other than controlling traffic.” He says he was “extremely disappointed they could not do anything more than that,” but added, “ The traffic was bad and they did manage to get that under control.”
We have so far been unable to contact neither the owner of the house, who lives in Arlington according to tax records, nor the current resident who is apparently renting it.
It is not just at this house, but the house next to it as well. They have had at least five yard sales in the past few months and it causes all kinds of traffic issues, not to mention the yard sales themselves. Not sure if it's the same folks or if they are just shifting down the road a bit to avoid penalties. Can we submit complaints after seeing multiple sales on the same property? I live nearby and this drives me crazy on the weekends.
Please send me photos. Are those houses part of a community association?
Yes, the traffic on weekends is terrible. They average at least 2 weekend sales a month.
I dont think the houses on this part of Braddock are part of an association. They may be "Pinecrest" (Not golf course – that one is "the Pinecrest HOA) I think…. but I have heard that the Civic association is not active. There is another one further up that is in Parklawn that does it too. A person is allowed 2 yard sales a year. They are also allowed to sell 5 cars a year. The used car lot on Braddock Road – we have had to call on several times and we also sent them a letter from the Civic Association.
You can do one of two things or all of the above to report a yard sale violation. The first thing to do is report it the first time you see, that starts the County timer so they can keep track of the quantity of sales. Go this link http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/code/property/ once here, click on register a complaint;
or call •703-324-1300
Monday – Thursday 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Friday 9:15 a.m. – 4 p.m. You can leave messages on their VM on weekends
All your information when making the complaint is kept confidential.
Let the County know we are not going to take it anymore!
It is illegal to have a refrigerator at the curb or in your yard with the door attached for safety reasons. That alone should close down this false yard sale. Looks like a wholesale of overstocked items that either never made it to a store or were taken before they reached the store. Totally stupid. Needs to be shut down immediately.
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that said, it is certainly obnoxious to have this going on. that area is trashy enough w/out permanent yard sales going on. let's don't blame the police, as there probably isn't a law being broken that falls under police jurisdiction. just as the boarding houses were dealt with, so should this!
Free enterprise is great. What are their prices like?
great … that area is trashy – Most of our district is Trashy now. Our Supervisor needs to do something.
I do not believe it is illegal to havea refrigerator outside – that was in the 'olden' days when the handle had a latch. These days they just close w/the gasket.
On Backlick Road right next to Meadows Farm we finally had the yard sale shut down but it took two years. They were having "yard sales" at least twice a month. It was so bad that Meadows Farm had painted a sign that said "No Yard Sale Parking" and put it up every Saturday. I can not tell you how many times I myself had near misses with cars backing out onto Backlick with out paying attention to the traffic coming down the road.
They were at it again this weekend – garage sale BOTH Friday and Saturday at 4508 Braddock Rd.