Florida Man Receives Massive Fine for Unkempt Lawn!
A Florida man has lost his court battle to have 10s of thousands of dollars in fines for his unkempt lawn to be overturned.
According to the local press, a federal court has upheld a Florida city’s decision to issue nearly $30,000 in code violation fines to a homeowner whose grass was overgrown.
Following a two-year legal battle, a judge from the Middle District of Florida ruled this week that Jim Ficken, 71, will have to pay the fines to the city of Dunedin, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
According to court records obtained by the Times, the city issued the fines in 2018 and Ficken sued in May 2019 after the city sought to foreclose on his home to collect them, His lawyers argued Dunedin’s fines were excessive and given with no notice.
“The city’s behavior toward Jim is outrageous,” Ficken’s attorney, Ari Bargil, said in a statement. “This ruling emboldens code enforcement departments across the state to impose crippling financial penalties and it empowers them to do so without first notifying a property owner that they are potentially going to be fined.”
City officials defended the fines, saying Ficken was a repeat violator in 2015, subjecting him to $500-per-day fines for future violations. This includes having grass that grows taller than 10 inches.
In his suit, Ficken claimed that he was never properly notified about the fines. He said he had left home for two weeks in July 2018 to manage his mother’s estate. That’s when the first fines were issued by the city. During that time, Ficken said the man who mowed his lawn died. Ficken says that when he returned home, he tried to mow his overgrown lawn but his mower broke, the lawsuit said.
Ficken alleges that two months passed before he knew he owed fines. When the bill arrived it was totaled $29,833.50, the lawsuit said.
According to local TV affiliate WINK, he was ordered to attend an August 2019 Code Enforcement Board hearing, but he missed it because he was in South Carolina to manage “yet another issue” with his mother’s estate. The board voted on Sept. 4, 2019, that the fines would stand.
Ficken said he won’t stop fighting his fines until he has exhausted every possible option.
“What happened to me is wrong and I will continue to fight,” he said.
Good thing it wasn’t an HOA., but I think the fine should not have been that high and a warning notice should have been given before the fine.
hard to tell if the guy was telling the truth if the city can prove they sent warnings out then then he is a just trying to get out of the fines but we need to help our elderly unless this guy is extremely wealthy he should not be forced to pay such a outstanding fine and it reaching that amount just makes me think that Florida has failed this gentlemen on notifying this person that he has a outstanding amount and legal action will be followed if it is not addressed.. if we owed that much in ohio we would have the police at our door informing us of a notice to appear in court and that we may be prosecutor if we do not comply
Cities becoming control freaks way too often!
Nazis
Screw them! I would plant a yard of sawgrass and tell them to go screw themselves.
Pure communism.HOA’S ARE COMMUNIST ORGS. EVER WHY THEY ARE CALLED “COMMUNITIES HOA”‘S HAVE RAKED IN BILLIONS SELLING HOMES FOR KISSED DUES, THEIR LIKE VULTURES, WITH THEIR OWN KICKBACK REALTORS”.
NOW WE HAVE CITIES, THAT ARE RUN BY GESTAPOS. THIS GUY IS 71, 10″ GRASS WHO GIVES ME A RATS @$$. ITS HIS PROPERTY. NOTICE THE CITY HAS ITS OWN REALTOR. LMAO
THIS JUST EXPLAINS OUR ENTIRE POLITICAL SYSTEM. THEIR NO BETTER THAN DOMESTICT TERRORISTS, THEY MAKE LAWS TOO STEAL FROM YOU.
If the hoa was so worried why didnt they hire a gardener and bill the individual? Pretty simple. Or better yet neighbors that complained go cut it or hire someone.