Because we have to pay for the firemen and ambulances.
And everytime an emergency occurs somewhere, other people risk life and limb, for example, emergency vehicles can get into an accident racing to the scene.
And firemen are more likely to be killed or injured when fighting a fire in a house that is not up to code--floors more likely to collapse under them, roofs to fall on them, etc.
I'm very much in favor of codes and zoning.
And before I buy a house somewhere, I check to be sure the rules are to my liking.
When an Earthquake hits the USA - a few people die.
When the same magnitude Earthquake hits Iran, Haiti, etc, etc - THOUSANDS die.
They are “free” to build cheap crap that falls down and kills people as soon as the Earth shakes a little.
I am more inclined to agree with you within city limits. I intimate as much in one of my comments. I am considerably less inclined to agree with you if a person is miles from anywhere.
If say a farm is ten miles from the nearest fire department, that department is not going to respond, or by the time it does, the house will be so far gone, they’ll more or less stand by and watch. The farmhouse will burn down and by the time anyone shows up it’s going to be academic whether the wiring was done properly or not, as it relates to a threat to the firemen.
I also stated, let the buyer beware. If a person who has built their own home hasn’t complied with county suggestions or ‘requirements’, then I wouldn’t purchase the home.
It’s just rubs me the wrong way to tell a person who is trying to get away from it all, that they must answer to some bureaucracy anyway. They didn’t move to the country because they loved intrusive entanglements.
If a guy out there wants to slap together a shanty, as long as it’s not creating a health problem for his neighbors, I say leave him alone.
The little bureaucracies in our nation have gotten to the place that an Indian with a teepee would be in trouble these days. We can survive running people into the dirt in our cities. We can afford to let the others take care of themselves. Really... they’ll do just fine.