Commission Meeting Agenda Item

Case number 06-0291 was originally presented to the Special Magistrate on November 27, 2006, for violation of Town of Lady Lake Code of Ordinances Ch 20-20(a)(1) Property maintenance residential exterior and Land Development Regulation Ch 9-2(h) Outside storage. Special Magistrate ordered Respondent to clean up outside front and side areas of property and maintain in orderly fashion; and to remove all outside storage of unused household items, junk, and debris from front exterior of property. Items must be stored in enclosed area or removed from property.  Property was to comply in sixty (60) days or a fine of $100/day would begin to accrue. Administrative fee of $65 to be paid within ten (10) days of the hearing.

The property was reinspected January 29, 2007, found not in compliance and the $65 administrative fee was not paid. Due to non-compliance, the Order of Enforcement and Affidavit of Non-Compliance was recorded as a lien on the property on 3/8/07, Book 3385 pages 1711-1713 at 3:21 p.m. The lien continued to accrue at $100/day indefinitely.  Research through all past cases associated to this property did not indicate this case ever came into complete compliance. Located in case, 07-0917, for similar violations was an Affidavit of Compliance issued on 1/11/08. The fine was discontinued from accruing retroactively on that same date. Case notes on 1/14/08 indicated case was closed and the lien was ceased from accruing. Case notes of subsequent case, 08-1105 on 11/18/08, indicated Town Attorney affirmed no other liens on this property.  The daily fee accrual of 347 days at $100/day resulted in $34,700 plus the $65 administrative fee for a total lien of $34,765.00.

Case number 08-1105 was originally presented to the Special Magistrate on July 28, 2008, for violation of the Town of Lady Lake Code of Ordinances Section 7-46 Junk/abandoned property for storage of an unlicensed Ford pickup truck parked in the front yard. Special Magistrate ordered the Respondent to comply and pay administrative fee of $65 within ten (10) days of the order or a fine of $250/day would begin to accrue. The property was reinspected on August 14, 2008. The $65 administrative fee had not been paid and the unlicensed pickup truck was still on site.  Due to non-compliance, the Order of Enforcement and Affidavit of Non-Compliance was recorded in Lake County Clerk of Court’s Office as: CFN: #2008095911, BK 3666 PGs 834-837 at 10:32 a.m. The lien continued to accrue at $250/day due to non-compliance being obtained. Research was conducted through all cases on this property. Subsequent case number 10-2755, opened for the same violations as case 08-1105 was closed on 2/1/11 as complied. Therefore, the $250/day fine was discontinued from accruing retroactively on that same date.  The daily fee accrual of 908 days totals $227,000. The unpaid administrative fee of $65 added to that sum produces a grand total of this lien to $227,065.

Case number 12-3803 was originally presented to the Special Magistrate on December 19, 2012, for violations of Town of Lady Lake Code of Ordinances Section 7-67 Garbage, junk, and debris visible in front yard and Land Development Regulations Section 9-2(h)(1) Outside storage of unlicensed vehicle, appliances, equipment, and other household items. Special Magistrate ordered Respondent to comply in 30 days or a fine of $250/day would begin to accrue. Administrative fee of $87 to be paid within ten (10) days of the hearing.  Property was reinspected January 17, 2013, which resulted in no compliance. On August 4, 2014, another inspection was performed on the property with same result of no compliance. No other case notes or inspections are documented for this case. On September 16, 2019, a new case (19-7197) was opened for high grass and miscellaneous junk on the property. This case was closed as complied on September 27, 2019.  This same date was assigned as the comply date for case 12-3803 and the fine was ceased retroactively from accruing. Total of accrued fine and $87 administrative fee is $610,337.

PAST ACTIONS

The Special Magistrate heard the request for lien abatements on March 22, 2022 and issued a Reduction of Lien Order based on Code Enforcement recommendation. Per Town of Lady Lake Administrative code Section 1-83(h)(5)(a), The initial recommendation of Town Staff shall be to set the reduction to twenty-five (25) percent of the value of the property if the accrued liens have exceeded that amount, or to five thousand dollars ($5,000), whichever is less. Per Lake County Property Appraiser, subject property is currently assessed at $20,661.00. Twenty-five percent (25%) of the assessed value is $5165.25. Therefore, Staff recommendation is to reduce the accumulated liens total of $872,167 to $5000,00.

There has been obvious neglect of the property over the years. Town Staff believes the reduction of the liens will allow the property to be sold in anticipation of future owner maintaining it in good condition and compliance.