Description
I have notified the Huntsville Times on 5 occasions over the last few years to stop throwing these garbage advertisements into my yards at 3503 and 3511 Panorama DR SE. I would like the city of Huntsville to start fining them. This was on the 10th of July and another was dropped on the 17th so they intend to continue (yet again).
In the past the city's response to free paper complaints has been to provide contact information for the organization doing the littering. As a taxpayer on two properties in the city I should not have to contact anyone to tell them to stop littering on my property even once - much less 5 times.
3 Comments
City of Huntsville (Verified Official)
Acknowledged Huntsville Landscape Management (Verified Official)
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Closed Huntsville Landscape Management (Verified Official)
Thank you for reporting your service request to the City of Huntsville.
The City of Huntsville Legal Department has provide the following:
The City of Huntsville continues to hear from residents who are frustrated with unwanted handbills, such as advertisements, circulars, pamphlets, handouts, and newspapers, being deposited at their homes even after they have tried to have them stopped. The City of Huntsville has an ordinance already in place to stop unwanted hand-billing. The ordinance simply requires you to follow one or both of the following methods for providing notice that you do not want to receive handbills:
A. Posting a Yard Sign. The first and perhaps the easiest way to provide notice is to post a sign on your property in a conspicuous location and that can be easily read that states “No Handbills”, “No Trespassing” or “No Solicitation”. When you do so, please keep in mind that you may also be telling solicitors that you do not want to receive any form of door-to-door solicitation.
Once the notice is posted, then no one can deposit unwanted handbills on your property. If they do, the person who actually deposited the unwanted handbill is subject to being cited for a municipal ordinance violation. Please keep in mind that the person who actually deposited the handbill will need to be identified.
B. Mailing Written Notice. The second way that can be used to provide notice, which can be in addition to or instead of posting the notice at your home, is to notify the responsible person for whom the handbills are being deposited. This could include the publisher of a newspaper or magazine, the owner of a company advertising their product or service, or a candidate for office.
The written notice must: (i) be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the responsible person, (ii) state the name and contact information of the person providing the notice, (iii) state the purpose of the notice, and (iv) give the street address of the private residential premises. The notice becomes effective 14 days after receipt of the request. Please keep a copy of the certified mail return receipt and a copy of the notice you sent. Also, please keep in mind that you must renew the notice in December of each year if you want it to remain in effect for the next calendar year.
Once the written notice is in effect the responsible person you notified cannot allow or cause the unwanted handbill to be placed on your property. If they do, then they are subject to being cited for a municipal ordinance violation.
After you have followed one or both of the notice methods provided for in the ordinance and the notice is ignored, then you will need to contact this office at 256-427-5001 in order to initiate a citation process. Please be aware that should the matter need to be tried before a municipal court judge, you will also need to be available to testify at the trial of the case.
The entire text of the ordinance, City Code Section 22-39, can be read at the following link: https://goo.gl/xFyW8B . We recommend that you carefully read and understand the ordinance and call our office at 256-427-5001 if you have any questions.
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