By: Sharon Aron Baron
After almost two years, one neighbor has seen enough of the constant mess in front of his neighbor’s home in his Tamarac community.
It first it started with couches, a ladder and trash on the front and side of the home in Vanguard Village. The neighbors believed that the neighbor was just cleaning out his house or fixing his roof. But the items stayed and more junk accumulated.
This wasn’t all either. The owner began parking construction equipment on his lawn and across the street instead of at his business.
“At nighttime, when you pass by, there are at least five work trucks, and all of the employees and their cars are parked there in front,” said George G. – who didn’t want to give his full name.
George said his family has lived in the community for 10 years and have never seen a mess like this before.
“The funny thing is, when you look at the house to the right, they have really nice landscaping. It’s a beautiful house and then you scan to the left of it – you see the chaos,” he said.
According to documents by Code Enforcement Manager Scott Krajewski, the home received two final orders totaling $750 back in December 2015 for having commercial vehicles. In it, it states that the owner had not applied for a occupational license for running a business out of the home. The license, would only be for a home office which would restrict the parking of vehicles at that location.
In May 2016, a lien was issued for the commercial vehicles as for an occupational license violation with a daily fine running at $100 per day from Jan 5, 2016. It stated that should the property not be cleaned, a fine and a lien would be placed.
“It takes almost a year to finally get a lien on somebody’s house,” said George. “That means we can do anything in Tamarac for a whole year and basically get away with murder.”
George said both the community and the board is good. The only issue is this particular homeowner.
“To me, it’s not really the violations. To me, it’s like, ‘why can’t Tamarac do something about it other than putting a lien on the house.”
There is some progress, according to city spokesperson Elise Boston, on Monday, the city now has the option of towing vehicles on the city swale that are not in compliance. This could mean that the construction trucks will now be moved, however, it may take more time before the other violations are cleared up.
