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.
Too many ,even here, want the freedom to tell everyone else how to live.
To the poster who says the myob can kma I say he can gth!
If there isn’t an HOA or city rules, homeowners can park their cars all across their yard and stack old couches to the roof. If it’s the neighbors’ responsibility to keep up your property value, then give them a front door key and full access to your spouse and kids.
Absolutely agree. I remember HOA discussions of years ago and FReepers were generally outraged. That seems to have changed.
The article stated that they were parked with tires on the lawn.
That is NOT the same as what you described.
In my HOA, you are not supposed to do major car work on your driveway. It is okay to do the work in a bay of your garage. For the most part, the HOA here is usually pretty reasonable.
There you go injecting common sense into the thread.
And for all we know it may have only been a couple of inches, which seems likely considering the property nazis that infest HOA, and apparently FR as well.
Please tell me your comment was sarcasm.
Sounds like Ohio and the unlamented, dissolved village of New Rome and the Double Wide of Justice. Read more of its history at New Rome Sucks. But don't worry, there are many more crooked cities and villages and hundreds of traffic scams.
>>The article stated that they were parked with tires on the lawn.
That is NOT the same as what you described.<<
The point was the need of the city to maintain orderliness. That was clear from the post.
The “broken windows” theory has been proven through both positive and negative application.
You don’t believe in private property in land. Your “property values” are of no legitimate concern to your land owning neighbors. Rise and fall of potential sale price has to do with the market and there is a risk you take that other people will treat their own land in ways of which you do not approve. You have bought NO rights in another man’s land when you bought yours. Some buyers assume they have bought all rights to their neighborhoods and all those allowed to reside near them have to follow their rules as the virtual landlord of those neighborhoods.
When the total of the fines reaches the value of the vehicle, simply take it away for ransom.
Would you like some smelling salts to help keep you from swooning at the thought of a car parked on someone elses property snowflake?
This is a common practice in south Florida.
However, I am surprised they let it go this far. They never let these cases go to court, because they don’t want to risk a negative ruling that will shut down their gravy train.
They usually drop the fine to 1k to 5K in an effort to make it go away.
I had a friend that had 260k in fines that got settled for $1600.00.
Hahaha. And people think there is such a thing as private property.
It's not the neighbors’ responsibility to keep up your property value, but it is their responsibility to refrain from harming it.
I’m with you FRiend!
We were in an HOA. 7-8 year ago, the owners voted the HOA into non-existence with nearly 90% of the owners agreeing to dissolve the HOA. Our HOA would elect a BOD that were nazis, then recall them 8 months later. Then a relaxed BOD for a year, then folks would forget and the same nazis would get back on the BOD. We had successful recall elections every other year for the 8 years leading up to dissolving the HOA. I was on the BOD that engineered the legal work and election that ended the HOA.
Since then? Folks will, for a few weeks, have some project going on that is unsightly. Then they finish and life goes on. With no HOA, things are much more relaxed...AND we all genuinely try to keep appearances up.
We’re also on at least 1 acre lots. It isn’t a place where we live cheek to cheek anyways. I’ll be out today with my 4 gallon backpack sprayer spraying for weeds. Not because of an HOA or the county, but because I want my home decent.
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