A man in Georgia says he spent the last four years building his dream treehouse, only for the county to tell him he was not allowed to live in it. Officials appeared to offer a solution, which was to make the structure bigger. However, he says that the fix would open up a series of new bureaucratic problems that the man is trying to avoid.
The situation was explained in a TikTok video by a man identified as Bruno, who runs the Southern Adventures social media accounts. He is a custom treehouse builder whose content often goes viral. His video gathered 1.5 million views, 208,300 likes, and more than 6,000 comments.
In the video, Bruno said the county initially allowed him to build the treehouse. However, he said that once county seats changed, the decision was reversed. As he explained it, “the county seats changed, and the new guy said, ‘Hey, no, never mind, you need a permit for that.'”
A permit condition reportedly set off a chain of new problems
Bruno said the dispute over the permit turned into a battle that lasted about a year and a half. According to him, officials eventually granted the permit, but with a condition attached. He said, “Okay, fine, you can build it, but you need to make it bigger, up to 1,200 square feet, to meet our minimum size requirements.” He added his own interpretation, saying the requirement existed “so we can tax you more.”
After getting the permit, Bruno said a new problem appeared. The county said his parents could not build a house on the same property, which he said is over 100 acres, because the treehouse would then count as the primary residence. Disputes over how land can be used have surfaced elsewhere, including a case where a Texas community lost donated park land.
In the video, he stated, “Now they say that my parents cannot build a house on the same property which is over 100 acres, by the way, because now the treehouse is the primary residence. So we can’t do another house.” His clip is one of many personal stories that spread widely online, much like a woman whose blood work went viral.
Bruno said he met with the county again to explain that the treehouse was still only 750 square feet and had not been made bigger, which he argued meant it still qualified as an accessory structure. However, he said officials told him the local ordinance prohibits building an accessory structure before the main house. According to him, the reasoning was that “people just never build the main house.”
Bruno said he pushed back, arguing that he was in fact trying to build the main house. As he described the exchange, “we’re actually trying to build the main house, like right now we’re trying to build it, but you’re saying no.” He said the discussion kept going in circles, with officials repeatedly telling him it was impossible to build another house on the property.
According to Bruno, his father asked about applying for a variance, but was reportedly told it would likely be denied. Bruno said he then came up with what he described as a loophole. As he explained it, the plan was to divide the property on paper, draw an invisible line down the middle, and have his parents pull a permit to build their main house. Once that house was finished, he said, they could reassemble the properties so the treehouse would become an accessory structure to the main house.
Bruno said this workaround came at a real cost. According to him, “We had to pay surveyors thousands of dollars to draw invisible lines across the property so that my parents can build on the exact same property.”
He added that they would later pay “thousands more dollars to erase the invisible lines and put the properties back together,” saying the only alternative was to nearly double the size of the treehouse. Construction disputes can affect nearby homeowners too, as seen when a Minnesota woman reported cracks in her home after work began close by.
Bruno also said that he could not get a certificate of occupancy for the treehouse until his parents’ house was finished, which he said means he cannot legally live in it. In the meantime, he said, he and his wife are living in what he described as a “leaky, mold-infested camper.”
He added that the county tried to raise the property tax bill this year by claiming the treehouse was done and occupied, even though, by his account, he has no certificate of occupancy and is not allowed to live there. Summing up his frustration, he said, “Make it make sense.”
The video drew a range of reactions in the comments. One person wrote, “Your mistake was telling the county.” Another commenter said, “No government should have this much control.” A third added, “Listen, if I have 100 acres of land ain’t nobody gonna know what I’m doing on it.” The local authorities did not respond to the video as of writing.
Published: Jul 3, 2026 03:21 pm