CENTRAL FLORIDA — Junk yards outside homes are popping up in neighborhoods across central Florida. Residents are upset about homes that have been riddled with code enforcement fines, and that leaders cannot do more than that to get them cleaned up.
Piles of boats, strings of underwear and statues of rear-ends are just some of the things that WFTV has found in some central Florida yards.
Seminole County Dave Radosevich said, "I could never sell my home because no one wants to live there."
Radosevich lives down the street from Alan Davis, the so-called "junk man," who used to have a statue of a rear-end on his yard. While the statue is gone, Davis' yard is still not clean.
"They cleaned it up before, but then they let him bring it all back," said Radosevich.
Neighbors told WFTV the home is just dangerous.
"Why can't the county clean these houses up?" asked WFTV's Tim Barber.
"Well, there are very limited circumstances where they can do so. Again, one man's trash is another man's treasure," said real estate attorney Barry Miller.
Miller said the government can remove dangerous materials from private property, but only if it is an immediate danger to the resident.
Florida has one of the strongest homestead provisions in the country, so the only way someone can be kicked out of their house is if they don't pay taxes, don't pay the mortgage or if they had property improvements that resulted in a lien.
"They are very hesitant to go out onto private property and violate someone's property rights," said Miller.
WFTV pulled numbers for counties across central Florida and found each one was fining problem properties.
During the last five years, Seminole County has collected nearly $1 million in code enforcement fines.
Osceola County has $3.2 million and Orange County has $4 million.
Radosavich knows fines are a great deterrent. He just wishes they were enough to force his neighbor to clean up.
"If you want to start a junk yard, do it in a commercial district," said Radosevich.