CARE system

[strider]

This is a tale of a house on 5th street.  This house was lived in by it’s owner for many years.  The owner had little money so the house did not get the maintenance it really needed.  Eventually, the owner’s health deteriorated and the house was sold.  While I am a little fuzzy on this, the new owner began to plan on the houses restoration but the house got turned into the system to insure it got done and was condemned. The work on the house was started, but financial concerns prevented it’s completion so the house was sold.  The current owners have done wonders with the house.  It has been totally restored on the exterior and looks like new.  Many within the community have raved about the work done to this house.  However, as the house is being done on a cash basis; in other words, as the funds are available, the work gets done, it has not been 100% completed. 

Back to the issue with the city.  The owners have had to go in front of the Special Masters and will again soon.  If the house is not 100%, they will be fined.  This is not a house that looks condemned.  It is not a house that anyone living next door to would even think wasn’t 100% done from the outside.  Why is the city still trying force this issue?  Is it simply fund raising?  Why is the local organization not using the influence they claim to have to get code enforcement to back off?  Why is a representative not going to code enforcement and helping these owners, who are doing exactly what the organization wanted them to do, and speaking on behalf of the owners?

This is just part of the reason that using code enforcement as a “tool” to get houses done or sold does not work. It is a great tool for getting houses torn down but not saving them.  Even this house, as great of a restoration job as it is, is now at risk of eventually getting torn down if the fines get levied and start racking up.   The owners, who have done everything right, can get discouraged and decide to cut their losses. 

[Sigma]

What's the address?  PM me if you'd like.

[zoo]

Why is the local organization not using the influence they claim to have to get code enforcement to back off?  Why is a representative not going to code enforcement and helping these owners, who are doing exactly what the organization wanted them to do, and speaking on behalf of the owners?

I'd also like the address, as SPAR Council has not been contacted by an owner under duress on either E or W 5th St. I think that would have been one of the first steps this property owner should have taken if they expected this organization to help.

[ChriswUfGator]

Why is the local organization not using the influence they claim to have to get code enforcement to back off?  Why is a representative not going to code enforcement and helping these owners, who are doing exactly what the organization wanted them to do, and speaking on behalf of the owners?

I'd also like the address, as SPAR Council has not been contacted by an owner under duress on either E or W 5th St. I think that would have been one of the first steps this property owner should have taken if they expected this organization to help.

Zoo, you can't blame them for not calling SPAR and asking for help, when if my own experience is any indication, or many other peoples' experience is any indication, it was probably SPAR that ratted them out to code enforcement to begin with.

They really need to stop with that B.S. The result can very likely be a complete demolition, rather than renovations, and the whole thing runs counter to what SPAR is supposed to stand for. I think somewhere in someone's mind there may have originally been some good intent behind it, like "We'll call so they have to fix the place up, and that will improve the neighborhood."

But somewhere along the line it became a tool for harassing people SPAR doesn't like. And many times, it achieves the opposite result, and COJ condemns the place and you wind up with yet another vacant lot. That strategy is just awful, they need to knock it off.

[Springfielder]

Strider: Why is the local organization not using the influence they claim to have to get code enforcement to back off?  Why is a representative not going to code enforcement and helping these owners, who are doing exactly what the organization wanted them to do, and speaking on behalf of the owners?

So are you saying that the owners have contacted spar and they've not been helped? If they haven't contacted and asked for their help, then you cannot blame them for something they may know nothing about. However, if they were contacted and dropped the ball, then yes, blame them.

[Ocklawaha]

Ponte Vedra, World Golf Village, Nocatee anyone? You people don't get it. If the owners are chased away and the building falls, the size of the lots on either side of the remaining homes will seem to magically expand. As time passes YOU will be living in your own version of WGV... "FORE!"

OZ great wizard deluxe, calls from the corner:
"Knock down those unsightly buildings, get rid of those undesirable elements, we're building a Yellow Brick Road, of course it won't be Kansas anymore Toto, it will be suburbia come home to roost."

OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

I've sat in on a couple of special master's hearings and got the impression that they will bend over backwards to work with the owners who are working to save a house and keep postponing the imposition of any fines as long as progress is being made.  Was I just seeing a couple of exceptions to the usual practice?

[fsu813]

No, i've sat in on one as well. They are reasonable people generally.

[Dan B]

Why is the local organization not using the influence they claim to have to get code enforcement to back off?  Why is a representative not going to code enforcement and helping these owners, who are doing exactly what the organization wanted them to do, and speaking on behalf of the owners?

I'd also like the address, as SPAR Council has not been contacted by an owner under duress on either E or W 5th St. I think that would have been one of the first steps this property owner should have taken if they expected this organization to help.

Zoo, you can't blame them for not calling SPAR and asking for help, when if my own experience is any indication, or many other peoples' experience is any indication, it was probably SPAR that ratted them out to code enforcement to begin with.

They really need to stop with that B.S. The result can very likely be a complete demolition, rather than renovations, and the whole thing runs counter to what SPAR is supposed to stand for. I think somewhere in someone's mind there may have originally been some good intent behind it, like "We'll call so they have to fix the place up, and that will improve the neighborhood."

But somewhere along the line it became a tool for harassing people SPAR doesn't like. And many times, it achieves the opposite result, and COJ condemns the place and you wind up with yet another vacant lot. That strategy is just awful, they need to knock it off.

Yawn.

Not everything is about, or revolves around SPAR.

[strider]

The work being done in this house is permitted.  It is being done right, just not as fast as the city would like.  SPAR Council is involved because I now know that while they were part of the drive to force the owners of condemned and otherwise less than perfect houses to either sell them or finish them, they didn't bother to do any follow up. Get the houses into the sytem, but then, forget them and let things happen as they may.  We have already seen the result of that if the house isn't lucky enough to have someone actually be able to do the work.

By and by, my past experience with code enforcement and the special masters is that they will follow what the officers involved say to do. In my case, they actually agreed that I was not notified properly...somehow the notices went to the wrong address...work really probably didn't need done....but so what, pay the costs anyway.  I was not impressed that they were trying to be fair, I would more likely believe they were fund raising...picking some houses because they felt they would get paid.

I have PM'd the address to a couple and hopefully someone at SPAR Council will prove they actually have any influence with the city....

[cindi]

hopefully sharp can help resolve some of these issues if they ever get up and running.

[ChriswUfGator]

No, i've sat in on one as well. They are reasonable people generally.

I agree, the Special Master's hearing process is very fair, and they can be quite reasonable.

The problem is that the street-level code officers themselves are many times completely unreasonable, and two of them in particular I ran into over the years, who I'll politely decline to name, have got severe napoleon complexes. I suspect they must have wanted to be cops, but couldn't cut it, and wound up doing that instead. Others, like Bruce Chauncey in particular immediately comes to mind, are extremely reasonable and friendly people.

I've had all sorts of stuff pulled on me by one individual officer, who was all buddied up with SRG & SPAR, and that was the one who cited some non-existent violations at one property, and then mailed the only notice of the hearing to another rental where he knew full well I didn't live. Because I never got notice, I didn't go to the meeting, and by the time I found out about it I already owed COJ (literally) $120,000.00 for B.S. like trash in the yard. It was a railroad job. Thankfully we have a court system. But the bottom line is, the Special Masters hearing process only works if everyone plays by the rules, and some don't.