County Cracking Down On Bank Code Enforcement Fines

Seminole County is taking a new, tougher stance on code enforcement fines.

Some homeowners were upset the county was letting many banks off the hook with greatly-reduced fines on foreclosed properties. Now, more of those fines will stick for banks just like they have been for everybody else.

The windows are still boarded up at 500 Raymond Avenue, but the property itself is in far better shape than it was.

“Oh, it looked terrible,” neighbor Dr. Nallan Chari told WFTV.

Chari says this foreclosed home was the neighborhood eyesore; the walls crumbled and the yard grew and grew. That's why Chari was astonished that $22,000 in code enforcement fines for the home might simply be erased.

“They should never, never erase those fines, especially for the banks,” Chari said.

But, as unmaintained bank-owned foreclosures piled up, Seminole County was sometimes doing just that: erasing or drastically reducing fines to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Banks said the fines needed to be forgiven so the properties could be resold, but this week county commissioners said they were tired of hearing it.

“It's great that they have a contract. It's great that somebody's going to occupy it. But they do have a responsibility during the period that they're owners,” Seminole County Commissioner Brenda Carey said.

Any cash that the county collects from code enforcement usually goes into the general fund. That can be used for anything from paying workers to paving roads. The extra income certainly can't hurt county coffers, so commissioners have directed the county attorney to investigate a new policy for dealing with bank-owned property.

As for the property on Raymond Avenue, commissioners would not erase the fines, only reduce them to a still sizable $15,000. County staff says the goal of code enforcement fines is to get the property cleaned up, not to make money.

In general, only a small percentage of assessed fines are actually paid on properties where the owner has brought a home into compliance.