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.
“homeowners can park their cars all across their yard and stack old couches to the roof”
That was the argument used when we voted to dissolve our HOA. “People will paint their homes purple with yellow dots!” It was 2013 or 14 when we dissolved the HOA. No one has painted their home weird. Most of us do our own yard work/remodeling. And...no old couches on any roofs.
Freedom, trust, and living in a place where people aren’t trash. What a concept!
Nonsense!
WHAT , AND RUIN TRADITION ON FR BY ACTUALLY READING THE ARTICLE?
By the article, the woman complied. The inspector person failed to do the followup. The inspector should be the one to pay any fine beyond the first $250 And should have a permanent injunction against being allow anywhere near this woman’s property.
True.
There are a bumper crop of them.
Then the neighborhood by-laws should spell out that no one may have four cars to a house regularly, if there are no overflow parking spaces.
“Notwithstanding the previous sentence, homeowners, left to their own proclivities, will trash a neighborhood and lower everybody’s property values. Parking cars on your lawn is one of the worst violations.
This woman needs to be fined a “reasonable amount” and the City needs to find some common sense somewhere and back off.”
Agreed.
No kidding! Parked with tires on her lawn and she gets fined for that?
That's ridiculous.
Do you think you can do just anything with your land? You may not. Try building a house without getting permissions and paying the legally prescribed bribes to various licensing authorities. Try not making your annual rent payment to the county. Try putting chickens in your yard in an urban setting. Insofar as you may not do as you desire to do with your land you do not won it. You think you own something and probably believe you own rights in your neighbors’ property, too, and you can tell your neighbor what he is allowed to do on “his” property.
Looks like New Rome had quite the run. I’m glad the folks at the website are after other speed traps now. Unfortunately they shifted over to Fakebook.
The little town I’m from used to show up in the 100 worst speed traps from time to time. That ended when the state built the bypass around the town.
You’re right. It seems like for every ticket happy place that gets squashed ten more spring up.
That’s your view of homeowners is we’d all trash our neighborhoods unless we have a nanny state to rule over us?
SCREW YOU!!!!
That was my thought as well. A fine for a crack in the driveway? You’d have to fine 99% of homeowners!
And a fence blown over in a storm?
Betcha they didn’t even give her a chance to fix it. And she probably wasn’t the only one.
Want to bet someone is dipping into the fine money?
Yep.
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