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Hopefully they rewrite the code that makes this illigal asap. That's just completely unreasonable.
Why would they? Sadly they control water and electric so the money from those services will trickle to the state and local governments so they have no incentive to fiix their stupid laws.
aah...
It's best if you stay far far away.
This is terrible bizarre and very sad.
We are in Australia, and we are on tank water, there simply is NO piped water available. We are also on a septic system (no sewerage) - We aren't alone in this, everyone in our local area is the same. If we could afford it we'd get batteries and solar and live entirely off grid but that's damn expensive.
I can understand the government stepping in (as it does here) if you are selling products USING that water to third parties. If you decide to run a kitchen to bake goods for markers for example you need to have the water tested and they may force you to add down pipe gutter leaf guards or to have a small UV sterilizer added to the taps, but fair enough.
I live in America and have no running water (I collect rainwater for the garden and haul water 20 miles from a well in town). I am not hooked up to the electrical grid either. I have a battery bank and a generator. Later this year I will upgrade from a generator to solar panels. I also do not hook up to any sewer or septic system. We (gasp!) don't even have indoor plumbing! We have an outhouse that we use. We have our cellphones for internet and phone, but that is the only 'grid' service we use.
Also, we consider ourselves solidly middle class.
Are you worried someone from local council may come along and tell you it is illegal?
What you sound like is very much like a lot of rural Australia. Most of those people have very, very large properties and, well dunno if they consider themselves middle class but they are well off in terms of property at least.
No, where I live (Interior Alaska) my situation is fairly common. Our long term plan is to get a well after we get our solar set up installed. That might be 2-3 years down the road, but we're comfortable enough without it for now.
The law probably exists so that people are left accountable for any effects that result from their activities. People should have the liberty to not to have utilities, but they shouldn't be creating their own that may be unsafe.
The code doesn't seem at all against the idea of living off the grid, only that living itself must be up to an appropriate standard. I think, at worst, the code might be used and interpreted by the city to fight people living off the grid. If she is living all hunky dory, instead of faulting her for simply not getting approval first, it should only be right to fault people for living off the grid only after a review determines they do not meet the standard.
who determines the standard?
Obviously people who know better than the rest of us.
Us and the neighbors are all on septic tanks..And yes,I think if people want to live off the grid,they should be able to. Florida makes plenty of money with the lottery,etc. People get sick of being nickled and dimed to death.
Ridiculous. However the ruling about rainwater collection has some merit. Perhaps a license that verifies that her rainwater collection has no detrimental effects 'down stream' would make some sense.