Seminole moves to redesign code rules
With $53M in liens, county agrees to revamp its process
Facing nearly $53 million in outstanding code-enforcement liens, Seminole County leaders say the system of getting property owners to mow their lawns, clean their pools and get rid of the junk in their yards is broken.
“When you’ve got cases going on for 10 or 15 years, then that’s not working,” County Commissioner Jay Zembower said at a workshop this week.
Commissioners agreed to move toward revamping the county’s code-enforcement process into a three-pronged system of issuing citations along with amnesty and lot-cleaning programs to get property owners to come into compliance with Seminole’s rules and regulations.
Under the code-enforcement process, a complaint first must be filed with the county before an officer or sheriff ’s official investigates. Code-enforcement officers aren’t driving around the county looking for violations, officials said.
An officer then investigates the complaint within two days and issues a verbal notice a week later. If the violation hasn’t been corrected by 30 days, the property owner then would receive a final notice within two weeks. After that,
Seminole’s code-enforcement board or special magistrate schedules a hearing and issues a lien on the property.
If the property continues to be non-compliant, the lien amount continues to swell on a daily basis. Some properties have liens that have ballooned into more than a million dollars.
For example, a home in a middle-class neighborhood just north of State Road 436 and west of Interstate 4 near Altamonte Springs has racked up nearly $1.7 million in liens — at a rate of $350 a day — because of a dirty pool that hasn’t been cleaned in years. The home has an assessed value of $79,000.
When a lien is placed on a property, the owner can’t sell, refinance or transfer title of their home without first paying off the lien amount. By state law, the county can’t take possession of a homesteaded house with code-enforcement liens and toss out the residents. So the liens continue to grow daily until the fines are paid off.
“What’s happening is that once the fines start, we don’t do anything to try to get them to come into compliance, and meanwhile the neighbors are having to live with it,” commission Chairman Brenda Carey said.
Through April, the county had 451 open codeenforcement cases. So far in 2019, the county is opening an average of 25 new cases a month. That’s a 127% increase from 2016, when the county averaged 11 new cases a month.
According to the county’s policy, code-enforcement liens go away — or are “written off” — after 20 years. Senior Assistant County Attorney Desmond Morrell pointed out that some property owners then decide to simply ignore the lien because they figure they’ll never move.
“Our hands are then somewhat tied,” he said.
Under a citation program, a warning is first issued to a property owner by a code-enforcement officer after the county receives a complaint. The warning is then followed by a citation rather than a lien placed on the property.
Under a lot-cleaning program, a county officer issues a notice of violation. If the property owner doesn’t comply after a certain number of days, the county would hire a contractor to clean the property and bill the property owner. If the fine isn’t paid, the fine is then assessed on the property tax bill.
In an amnesty program, the county works with the property owner to gradually reduce the lien or fine amount as the property comes into compliance.
Commissioners also suggested that the county could work with area nonprofit organizations in helping homeowners who have financial difficulty or personal hardship that impedes their ability to bring a property up to code.
County staffers are expected to bring a more detailed report and draft of an ordinance in the coming months.
“It’s not our intent to displace anybody,” Zembower said. “It’s not our intent to not have sympathy. We just want compliance.”