Posted on 07/17/2021 5:41:33 AM PDT by george76
State court turns down Lantana’s attempt to dismiss suit over whether sky-high fines for minor violations violate the Florida Constitution..
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—This morning, a Florida court rejected the town of Lantana’s attempt to end a lawsuit filed by resident Sandy Martinez, who is contesting sky-high fines she was assessed for minor infractions on her own property. One parking violation, assessed daily for over a year, totals more than $100,000. The total amount the town fined her, which includes two other infractions, comes to an astounding $165,000, more than half what her home is worth. In February, Sandy teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to file a lawsuit asking the court to rule that her excessive fines violate the state constitution.
“Six-figure fines for parking on your own property are outrageous and today’s decision will allow Sandy to make the case that these fines are unconstitutional,” said IJ Attorney Ari Bargil. “While Florida’s Constitution forbids fines that are ‘excessive’ or ‘shock the conscience’, places like Lantana routinely impose crippling fines against residents for minor code violations. It is time that Florida courts make it clear that cities cannot fine people into poverty for trivial violations.”
“It’s surreal that the town still refuses to admit that what it’s doing to me is abusive and unfair,” said Sandy. “Like everyone else in my neighborhood, I work hard for what I’ve got. I shouldn’t have to fight in court to stop the city from fining me into poverty. But with today’s decision, I’m glad that I am one step closer to making sure that doesn’t happen—to me or anyone else.”
The $165,000 that Sandy owes is a result of daily fines that the city assessed for property code violations. Most of this amount is a result of the way Sandy’s family parks their cars. Sandy, her two adult children and her sister all own cars so that they can get to their jobs. When all four cars are parked in the driveway, sometimes one of them has two tires on the lawn, a $250 per day violation. And those fines continue to accrue until the homeowner corrects the problem and calls the city to inspect the property to confirm it is in compliance.
After receiving the parking violation, Sandy called the town like she was supposed to, but an inspector never came out. Once Sandy discovered that the fines were still accruing over a year later, she immediately called and passed the inspection. But by then, the amount she owed was $101,750. This fine is on top of fines for two other similarly trivial violations—for cracks in the driveway and a fence that fell over during a storm.
IJ has challenged abusive fines and fees across the country, notably in Dunedin, Florida, where a homeowner is facing foreclosure after he was fined over $30,000 in fines for tall grass. IJ has successfully protected homeowners in California and Missouri from abusive fines and fees practices. In 2019, IJ released a study of cities that relied heavily on fines and fees to balance their budgets, “The Price of Taxation by Citation,” and in 2020 released a 50-state survey of state laws governing municipal fines and fees.
The tyranny of government continues to spread, even to small towns.
“So you are OK with your neighbors having cars up on blocks, weeds and dead grass everywhere and old refrigerators on their front lawn?”
Where do you live? I’ve never lived in a place where that was common. Seen it for short periods of time but I’ve never had problems with neighbors doing it long term.
I do have a car on jack stands in my driveway right now. My son is supposed to replace the engine in it next week. Waiting for parts. From the street, it looks like it is just parked there. You’d have to get close to see the tires are a couple of inches off the ground. What is the problem with that? First time we’ve NEEDED to do that in over 10 years.
I was thinking exactly the same thing.
We have no HOA thanks to my wife and a few other good people in our neighborhood. They drove out the Nazi/Commies. Got elected to the HOA and passed nullification of their power. The jerks who had made the HOA their fiefdom moved out and our property values are at a record high. The rules are still the rules but the HOA can not enforce them. Homeowners can at their own damned legal expense and the Nazi/Commies dont have the fees of good people to do misdeeds anymore.
Just WOW.
Makes me proud to not live in a "neighborhood". On my rural property, I can have my compost bin, my burn barrell, my tractor parked on the grass and a big old garden in the front yard.
if you follow the comments you will see the underlying point was cities have a duty to enact and enforce reasonable laws and fines to ensure a tidy appearance.
This case is way beyond that and that is not the point of thus discussion. The poster I was supporting just said the fines should be reduced to reasonable.
.......lol, NO, I’m far from a commie.
Leave your keyboard and go move your car out of your yard.
Amen!
EXACTLY!
You nailed it!
Frankly if you’ve chosen to live in town then you abide by the cities codes....better to buy elsewhere and be free to do what you want in your own yard.
I live in town, but it’s not a town run by freedom-hating, priss-spigot control freaks. Anyone who doesn’t like the way my house looks is welcome to either make me an agreeable offer on it or grow up and find something else to look at.
The point went past you.
No, I think Mr Rogers got the point, there are “property Karens” on FR.
I might suggest that the towns bulldoze such homes to teach a lesson./S
What? You make it sound like without lawn nazis, everyone is a slob.
She had two wheels on the grass, and upon notification, corrected the matter. She then called for the inspection per the ordinance, but the inspector never showed. Meanwhile, the $250. per day cost of the 1 violation continued until after a year, the city determined it was 100K. She had another violation written for a crack in her driveway. The article was well written and easy to read.
-- ... the decent and the indecent
-- ... those who demonize people who disagree with them and those who don't
-- ... the extraordinary and the ordinary
-- ... those who divide people into two groups and everyone else.
Perhaps Dave Berry covered it all:
"There are two kinds of people in this world, and I am one of them."
Today we see clearly what must be added to the lengthy list is this:
"There are two kinds of people in this world, those who must control other people and those who just want to be left alone."
It is painfully obvious that petty tyrants and would-be petty tyrants are everywhere and at every level of assumed power and authority.
It’s surreal that the town still refuses to admit that what it’s doing to me is abusive and unfair,”
There is a WHO involved here…
I cannot understand how anyone would live in a home that is controlled by an HOA your post is example 999 of 1000 reasons why. No HOA is first on the list whenever I decided to buy a house.
I hope you can organize your neighbors and dilute at least if not totally remove the HOA covenants. Positions of power in HOA’s generate multitudes of pencil penis prick heads and good ole fashioned Karen’s to inflict their mindless insecurities upon the neighborhood.
If you live in a place where you can reach out your window and borrow something from your neighbor reaching out their window, you should probably keep everything nice and tidy—no cars on the lawn; and, heaven forbid, no cracks in the driveway. Your sanity is probably in enough danger already. Bless your little heart.
For those of us who live otherwise, with perhaps an occasional coyote or bear straying onto the property, which may have, heaven forbid (again), an actual garden on the site where real food grows that has never seen a grocery store...well, we are a little more laid back.
Y’all come back now.
She should pave her lawn
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