Code Enforcement Board - Regular Meeting

Absolutely. Good evening to everyone. Welcome to the special July 4th Happy 250 meeting of the Village of Miami Shores Court Enforcement Board meeting. My name is Attorney Marlon Hill. I represent the interests of the village at today's Court Enforcement meeting, chaired by Mr. Huber. The board members present this evening are all volunteers, residents of the village, and your neighbors. Is that a simulcast? The board is charged with enforcing the code and are interested in compliance with the code as a priority. And you can also view the proceedings on the village's website and the process as well. The village staff is represented today in the chambers here by Mr. Michael Orta, Director Raising His Hand, Mr. Kerry Mikulski, and Mr. Leopold Louis. They are the friendly neighbors from the neighborhood that visit your homes and businesses to enforce the code. Village Clerk, Ms. Elizabeth Vasquez, behind the screen. If you haven't checked in with hers yet, please make sure that you connect with her and find your place on the agenda. At this moment, I'll ask that if you have a cell phone with you, which is highly likely, please place them on vibrate so that we can avoid any interruptions of today's proceedings as well. For today's code enforcement board meeting, there are typically three types of hearings that happen here once a month. There's a first hearing, a penalty hearing, and request for relief. you are likely to fall in one of these three categories on our agenda. Chair Huber will walk you through in terms of the specific process for addressing the particular violation that you may have and how it could be resolved. And at the end of the day, all we're here to do is to make sure that you are in full compliance on behalf of the village and to protect your safety and other issues here in the village. If you have any questions during the proceedings, feel free. When you come to the podium and the mic here, please just state your full name, your address for the record. And the village is going to present its case. You'll have an opportunity to present your side of the case. And then the board will deliberate and come to a final decision. So that's it for the protocol for this evening's meeting.

to this evening's Code Enforcement Board hearing. This board is empowered to hear evidence in order to reach findings of fact and conclusions of law for the purpose of resolving cases that come before it. Oh, we didn't swear a minute, but we can do that after this. I'll finish that and then we'll do this for you. A finding of violation in any case before us may lead to costs being assessed and a daily fine being levied for violations of the village

Yes, for everyone that's going to be giving testimony from wherever you are, if you have the ability to just raise your right hand, that's all that's required. You could raise your right hand. You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Thank you so much.

All right. At this point, Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Board Member Trelviges?

Present.

Board Member Berryman? Present. Board Member Per? Here. Chair Huber?

Here. Please do the attendance for the remainder of the members.

Board Member Hahn, Board Member Buenconcejo, Board Member Congiano.

Board Member Hahn and Board Member Buenconcejo have excused absences. At this point, noticing that Jesse Congiano has not attended this meeting again, pursuant to Miami Shores Code Section 2-77, if any member fails to attend two of three successive meetings without cause or prior approval of the chair, the Code Enforcement Board shall Yes The next item on the agenda we have is case 0126-2. We have an incorrect summary adjudication, and I move to vacate the adjudication. Do I have a second?

I'll second that.

Okay. Any further discussion? Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Four member per.

Yes.

Board Member Berryman. Yes. Board Member Rodriguez. Yes. Chair Huber.

Yes. All right. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, is anyone present for first hearing?

No, sir.

All right. At this time, the chair observes that there have been no appearance by anyone on behalf of the alleged violators. Oh, I don't have a... No appearance by anyone on behalf of the alleged violator in connection with case numbers 0526187, 0526215, 0426142, 0626219. Mr. Director, the files on these matters contain affidavits attesting to the existence of the code violations alleged and demonstrating proper notice to the alleged violators of tonight's hearing.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. At this time, I will entertain a motion for summary adjudication.

I move for summary adjudication of all such cases to include a finding of fact and a conclusion of law that a violation exists as charged in the respective notice of violations issued therein and that in each such case the offending party shall correct the violation within the time period specified by staff in the staff recommendations for these hearings and immediately notify the code enforcement officer when the property is brought back into compliance. In each such case, if the violation is not brought into compliance, within such time period, the code enforcement officer may report this fact back to the board in accordance with the board's rules and regulations, at which time a fine is hereby authorized to be automatically assessed against the violator in the respective daily amounts specified in staff's recommendations for tonight's hearing, retroactive to the original compliance deadline, which will constitute a lien on the property of the violator. further with respect to each such case cost in the amount specified in staffs recommendations for tonight's hearing are hereby assessed in order to recoup the villages expenses in prosecuting the violations to date yes yes

Great. Also on tonight's agenda is a matter of status request for orders imposing previously adjudicated fines as a penalty for lack of timely compliance with the board's prior orders. I will now call the penalty cases on the agenda. Well, Madam Clerk, is anyone present? No. Okay, perfect. So we have case 0126. Mr. Director, the files on all these penalty cases contain an appropriate affidavit demonstrating in each case the violations referenced in your request continue to exist subsequent to the date on which they were to have been corrected. In accordance with previous orders of this board and to date, no one has contacted a code enforcement officer to advise that these violations have been corrected.

They do, Mr. Chair, and they have not.

Mr. Chair, I move that in each case currently remaining on the penalty docket for tonight's hearing, each respective violator be ordered to pay the daily fine previously adjudicated and authorized to be imposed against them by prior order of the board, retroactive from the day the violation was to have been corrected. That upon recording, the board's order in this regard will constitute a lien on the property of the violator.

Yes Yes You have John Hicks that is 1131st North is 104th Street

John Hicks, 1131 Northeast 104th Street, Miami Shores, Florida.

All right. So we are here for case 1023382, advertising rent and property as a short-term rental. The fine amount is $93,125. The amount proposed is $3,000. Please explain why we should accept your offer.

So I acquired the property September 22nd, 2022. Prior to that date, the property was owned by Anna Mueller and Helmut Mueller. At the time of the acquisition of the property, it was occupied by Harold Lozano, who actually was on the actual fine. A holdover tenant under a written residential lease executed November 2nd, 2020. With the Muellers as a successor in interest, I inherited the lease in an existing tenancy. The inherited lease is, and I sent that over to you all as proof, had a specific clause in the lease that that prohibited the tenant from subleasing the premises without the landlord's prior written consent. In clause 17 in the lease, limited property to residential use only and required the tenant to comply with all applicable state, county, municipal laws and ordinances and no consent for short-term or residential rental use was ever requested or granted by me. I had no knowledge of the short-term rental activity at the property at the time it occurred I first became aware of the underlying enforcement matter through a title examination conducted in connection with a mortgage refinance. I inherited the lease, was originally set to expire November 1st, 2023 as a holiday season courtesy. And again, not knowing this was all happening, I extended two months into January 2024. So Mr. Lozano vacated the property at that time and the property has not been used for any non-compliant purposes since then. So since I've taken ownership of the property and had full control of the property, I have consistently treated the property as the future single family home residence that I have tried to invest in. THROUGH IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPER VILLAGE COUNTY CHANNELS. SPECIFICALLY I FILED THREE ZONING ACTUALLY PERMITS. SO I HAVE A PERMIT ON FILE FOR DOC IMPROVEMENTS WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED. I HAVE APPROVEMENTS OF PERMIT ON FILE FOR FENCE WORK AND I HAVE A PERMIT ON FILE FOR ONGOING WORK WITH THE COUNTY AND THE CITY FOR complete renovations of the property so I'm just waiting on health approval for that so my point is sharing that with you is that I have nothing but respect for the board and the city and I've tried to be nothing but a compliant homeowner and so I would like that my you know fines be you know erased essentially because i didn't know that this was happening i didn't do the the actual violation and as i mentioned i didn't even know that this was was um was happening because i wasn't residing at the property at the time um so that's that's my story okay uh when did you take possession of the property uh it was 2024 january after i extended the lease for extra two months because of the holidays okay and when did you purchase the property in 2022 september okay

All right. And did you receive the notice? I did not receive the notice.

The tenant made the notice vanish, as you can imagine. So because the tenant was still living in the property when you all gave the notice.

Yeah, but it would have been mailed as well to the to the address on the title.

Yeah, I did. I did not receive it.

OK. Is the property for sale or for rent or refinance?

It was trying to be refinanced, but I couldn't refinance it because I have a $90,000 lien on the property. So that's the part of me being here is trying to refinance the property so I can move forward with that.

Okay. And you plan on living there? Yes. Or are you currently living there?

I'm not currently living there because I would like to renovate it because the property was pretty destroyed when the tenant was in there. So renovate primary home, et cetera, et cetera. My license proves that.

And it's vacant now?

It's vacant now.

Okay. Do we have any other questions or comments from the board?

Mr. Hicks, who is Adrian Mackey, LLC?

That is the LLC I was required to put the property in because it had that tenant, so it had the holder release. So I couldn't make the property my primary single-family residence because there was the liability of the tenant and the property at the time. So that's your LLC? It's my LLC. Okay. And there's nobody else in the LLC.

Okay.

Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. All right. So we have a fine amount of $93,125. The amount proposed is $3,000. Is that your best and final offer?

To be honest with you, I was hoping I could make it even less. I've already paid $5,000 plus to compensate for the fees of the county. So I'm hoping to not pay more for something I didn't do. So I'm actually hoping to reduce that amount if possible. Because at the time I wrote that, I wasn't aware that I owed the extra $5,000 that was already paid to the city. So I paid to the city in order to be here. And I didn't realize I had to.

We can't adjust the amount for you, and we can only vote on one amount. If not, it'll be the next month. Let's move forward with $3,000. Okay, and how long would you need to pay? Today. 30 days? Yeah, you can't pay today.

We can get this done today. 30 days, yes.

All right, 30 days. All right, so the offer is $3,000 payable in 30 days. Do I have a motion?

So moved.

All right, do I have a second? I'll second it. Madam Clerk, would you call roll? You should – are you handing out the letters today or still not? Okay, so the estoppel letter and all that won't be ready until the end of next week, especially considering they're off tomorrow. So definitely – right? Is that what we're saying? A week. Yeah, perfect. No earlier than Friday next week. Cool. Don't call them. Don't show up.

Just come to the – Yeah, to the clerk.

Perfect. All right. Thank you very much. All right, if you would approach and state your name and address for the record.

My name is Luis Romero, 1130 Northeast, 104th Street, Miami Shores.

All right, you reside at this address?

No.

Okay, so your address is?

3840 Tree Top Drive, Western Florida.

Okay, thank you. We're here for case 02-2647, prohibited real estate sign, fine amount $2,300, case 02-2647. for a grand total of $100,325. The amount proposed is $1,100. Please explain why we should accept your offer.

May I approach you to read?

Yeah, if you have evidence you want to hand out. It's okay. We'll make it. We'll make it. I will read this aloud.

So I'm the owner of the LLC, that is the entity behind the property 1130 Northeast 104th. Basically, the whole idea was to maintain the aesthetic and the structural integrity of our neighborhood. It's not the first property I own in the city, and it's not the first property I fixed in the city. So I appreciate the opportunity to make my case on this hearing. I want to share basically the whole timeline. I acquired the property in September 2022. At that time, it was not the only property I owned in the city. I was working on different projects in the city. And by May 2024, I was about to sell one of the property that I fixed. And it came to, there was a, I was not able to sell the property because there was a lien on this 1130 Northeast. So then, At that time, I proactively reached out to the city and shared my plan to renovate 1130 Northeast. I sent an email, which is on the exhibit A, on that paper I gave you, explaining what was the scope of the project that is an extensive fix on the property that included new septic tank, new plumbing, new electrical, everything. So by that time, when we realized there was a lien on the property, Obviously before that we were working on pulling all the permits. We were working with the architectural to make the whole Project so yeah, but that was in May 2024 so the city Allowed me to What's it called? Personal release of thing so I was able to sell sell one of the properties and with that Money I was able to keep working on 1130 By July 2024 I was in full compliance of all the mentioned issues. As by January 2025, I was preparing the property to launch the property on the market. Obviously, I cleaned everything, even obviously the roof for taking the pictures. That was, by that time, the second time I cleaned the roof. By February, March, I approached the city again, asking about what is the next step, that everything was in compliance. By February, 2026, there is this new code case that I was aware of in May 2026. Basically, since 2022, when I got the property, it's been vacant, the property, and it's been over big intervention since then. So by May 2026, I got aware about this sign situation. The sign was removed. So my intention was always being responsible, being proactive. I had done everything on the property with permits. And well, that's why I'm proposing this payment. I think it's basically an issue of miscommunication between me and the city. because in this period of time at least three times the roof was cleaned and the fence was fixed a couple of times. Basically the fence has a Clusias, I think is the name of these. And the Clusias took these fence. By the time they grew up, the fence was broken in different areas. But in two opportunities, they were fixed.

All right. Is the house currently for sale?

It is for sale.

It is for sale. What's the listed amount?

$1,350,000. It's $1,350,000. You purchased the property in 2022? Yes.

How come you didn't talk to code enforcement?

I didn't know there was a... I mean, I don't, like... Yeah, I just cleaned it because I know that I had to do it. Clean the roof and...

So did you receive the notice of violation?

Yes, I know. I didn't receive, but I was aware when I sold the other property in May 2024. Okay. But at that time, we were already in demolition. We were doing septic tank. So there was no...

But you didn't demolish the roof.

Not the roof, but I had to make... changed tiles to make all the gutters also. So on the process of rebuilding this property, we have to wait until that's finished in order to clean everything else.

OK. Mike, do you have where the address was served for this?

Sure. The notice of violation was sent to Red Cedar Development, LLC, 40 Southwest 13th Street, Miami, Florida, 33156.

Is that your address? No. For your LLC?

On the LLC, yes.

Okay, so that's where your LLC receives mail? Yes. Okay. Okay.

So I know you're extremely busy, Mike, back then, and you're now reinforced. Yes, sir. So I want to give you two of your credits. Thank you. I cannot believe that within the two months that he emailed you, you didn't email him back. It's hard for me to believe that.

Me too.

Because that should have been on this sheet right here. You emailed him on May. And in July, you're in full compliance. And to the chairman's point, in those two months, there should have been some communication, either from him or from you back to him, saying, WTH, what the heck is going on? I emailed you. I'm trying to figure out what's going on.

No, no, no, no.

For him to stop it, yeah. To me, that's where you lost me right there.

Yeah, no, I did not receive an email. As a matter of fact, in... In May, so in February, I sent an email. And then in March, I follow up in March 14th.

It's a year later. Sorry? You said you sent an email in May 24th. And then you sent another email in February, March of 25. Yeah. So my question – It's a year later. It's a year later, so I'm asking – so that's where you lost me.

Yeah, yeah.

So like in Shark Tank, I'm out. Not to be funny, but I'm out because that's where you lost me.

Mike, we gave him a partial release on the lien.

Well, he had to release another property in Miami-Dade that he had. Yeah.

Yeah. And he still didn't... You released it prior to the cleaning? Because the date is prior to the cleaning.

It has to be. Yes.

Yeah, so... And then he still didn't come back and tell you that it was clean. I'm sure you... Did you instruct him that he had to inform you?

Or did you just... Well, that's what the notice says. Yes.

Yeah. But at the time he came for the... I can't remember that conversation. Okay. Okay.

So in July 24th, it was compliant.

Yeah, I mean, and typically we're willing, you know, because you have a receipt, so we're willing to, you know, I mean, typically we're willing to exceed that happened at that date, right? So the number would be different. It wouldn't be 98,000. It would be, looks like about a third of that amount. The difficulty there is, though, you already knew about the lien. You approached code enforcement about the lien to get the partial release. They let you do the partial release before the cleaning, and then you still didn't come back and inform them that it was clean.

Yeah, it was not communicated, but it was compliant.

Yeah. No, no, I understand.

but it was not communicated. Again, I did not receive the letter, even though I never seen the letter before. But again, it was communicated. The roof was cleaned at least three times. It was cleaned three times and the fence was fixed. Everything on the property was, there was a lot of things that were done on that property in order to get it to make it Miami Shores really nice property so but again it was everything was done with the permits by that time in 2023 we were pulling the permits for the demolition and you know I had excavation on the property that basically well first of all the property it's on Biscayne Boulevard and the roof is white so I have a bus stop right in front of the property so I get yeah the black isn't from the bus the black is from the shade of the house getting Sorry?

Do you have an offer on your property?

Yeah, the property is currently under contract.

What's the closing date?

is just waiting for this hearing. The closing date, it's already passed. You missed it already. I missed it already. I was waiting for the hearing. So as soon as we fix it, we'll be ready for closing.

All right. And Mike, I have one more question because it All right, do we have any other discussion?

I had a question. Oh, it's about the sign. I was going to say, how do we get a $2,300 fine for a sign? In four months? Yeah, for three years, so the dates are wrong.

Yeah, the dates are wrong. If it had been February 26, they would have given them a March compliance, so it would have just been the two and a half.

What was wrong with the sign?

Well, the sign was too big, and it was too high.

Okay, got it. It seems to me that Mr. Romero's probably biggest problem is pressure cleaning the roof and not immediately calling code enforcement. But I'm looking at the date of the citation, this is May 23, and the invoice from the company that cleaned the roof was over a year later. If I say to myself, everything after that should be removed because he fixed it. We have a record of compliance. Right. Even though he didn't inform, we have a record of compliance. He's still looking at like $20,000. Yeah, that's what I figured, like a third or quarter. So $1,100 is not going to swing it tonight. But I would be willing to accept a proportionate offer.

I mean, again, it's been really hard for me to maybe the communication with the city. When I decided not after Being on the after I heard about the lien and seeing all the other work that needs to be done on the property, We decided to clean it after we did the hard work outside of the property. So it was going to be neat.

That doesn't help your case. The thing is, the reason why we require people to clean and even under construction by the yard and things like that is nobody wants to live next to the construction pigsty or the house that's in disrepair. It's a flaw of mine.

Oh, I know what I was going to say. I don't know how much of a hurry you're in and if you've ever been here with us before, but we can only vote on one offer a month. That doesn't mean that if we don't accept your offer tonight that you can never, ever come back the rest of your life. That's not true. If you're in a hurry to close on the property, logic would suggest to make your best offer. If you're not in a hurry, make a low offer. We'll probably turn it down. You can come back next month, make a little bit better offer. And I hate to say this because people have actually done this. There was one... lady who came here every month for nine months in a row and she increased her offer by like a hundred dollars a night eventually she got to the lowest offer that we would have accepted so i would throw that out there for your consideration but i will not vote for eleven hundred dollars

Yeah, I understand, and I'm willing to increase my offer if you accept that.

Well, all right. We'll get to that in a moment. Do we have any other discussion? Hearing none, okay. Let me turn back on my mic. Hearing none, we have an estimated fine amount of, let's call it $23,000. The amount proposed is $1,100. Is that your best and final offer?

No.

Okay. Your offer is?

Give me one second please.

No worries.

All right. OK.

So 9,800. You said 9,800?

Yes.

OK. And how long would you need to pay?

As soon as possible.

30 days? All right. We have an offer of $9,800 payable in 30 days. Do I have a motion?

For Member Berryman?

Yes.

For Member Pearl? Sure. For Member Rodriguez?

Sure.

Chair Huber?

Yes. All right. Thank you very much. I don't know if you heard earlier, but the earliest you can get the ASAPA letter will be Friday of next week.

Yes, I hear.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone else?

Yes, sir. You have Maddie Payne. That's 115 Northwest 97th Street.

All right. If you would approach and

Good afternoon.

Mattie, you don't have to stand.

Board members, my name is Andy Fucsa. I'm an attorney representing Mattie Payne. Mattie Payne is legally blind, so she has asked me to help her. I don't know if anyone read the memo, but when you allow me, I'll begin to discuss the facts in her particular case.

All right, so we are here for 155 Northwest 97th Street. The amount proposed is $100. Sir, if you would explain why

If you'll indulge me, let's take a few minutes. This has been over a five-year ordeal for Mrs. Payne. Mrs. Payne is a nurse who was working at Jackson for decades and lost her sight. back in in 2021 there was a storm at her home and it caused a partial collapse of her roof she immediately made a claim with her insurance company who came out and began to fight with her and deny the claim in large part there were a number of experts who went out because the particular requirements for her policy to cover a collapse have to we have to prove that there's no long-term deterioration oh i apologize i apologize anyway um so june 9th 2021 she has a claim she's having trouble she sent the letter to the she's trying to deal with her husband was alive at the time and her husband was helping with uh her to try to process this claim with her insurance company. The insurance company had sent what's called a reservation of rights letter so that they had to go out there and investigate because this was a large claim, you know, tens of thousands of dollars to fix because of the structural nature of the damage. Ultimately, the insurance company said no. She contacted our law firm. We filed suit on behalf of Mrs. Payne, and it was a protracted, extraordinarily litigious litigation. Never have I had an insurance company take the position that a blind woman was charged with being able to see the condition of the entire interior of the roof. We litigated this basically into the courthouse steps, and at the courthouse steps, the insurance company finally capitulated. But I want to explain to you why it took years of litigation, and I brought one of the experts, Mr. Calderon, with us. There were a lot of issues with regard to this particular case with the concrete tile and the wood structure, and forgive me, I'm not a structural engineer, that supported it. One of the issues that the insurance company brought up was that the load from the tile, it was not designed properly, and that's what caused the failure, not the rain. This was disproved. Then there was an issue of long-term deterioration, that this roof had been leaking for decades. There was no evidence of that. She resided at her home, and this deposition after deposition, and expert after expert going out to the property. all under the threat of spoliation because we had made a notice to the insurance company, hey, at one point we got informed that she's getting fined. So that we immediately went to the insurance company and they're like, well, we need to get our other expert out there and this other expert. One thing led to another, and I don't know if you guys are familiar with litigation, but it took a lot longer than we wanted to get it settled. It had settled for thousands of, I don't know if I'm, her net after paying her, it was like $60,000 to fix her roof, which was the insurance company was saying nothing. Immediately when the check got here, despite her husband, and by the way, part of the reason that she had these problems is, aside from her her husband died shortly after this occurred. It was a very tragic situation. So here we have a widow who was facing a home that she couldn't barely reside in. When I walked in the home, I was shocked that somebody would be forced to live like she was. In any event, so we're here because Ms. Payne finally got her roof done. We had some volunteers. We had Paul Bain's roofing go out there. There was over $10,000 of structural wood repair that they had to do. They repaired the roof, put in a metal roof because there was also an additional cost because they couldn't go back with a tile roof. We had to go with a metal roof because of the weight. She's now in full compliance. It is a tragic five-year story. I've litigated thousands of cases. Seldom have I seen someone have to live through this and through the situation that she's been in. I mean, I've seen people have to leave their home, but she's the most vulnerable in our community. In any event, I can go on and tell you more about the situation. Every penny that she got from the insurance company, because the roof, we have it on the permit, was over $40,000 that she had spent. Every penny that she pays in a fine is less money that she has, and she is not a person who is selling their home for over a million dollars. You know, this is her only asset. This is not an investment. This is not something that she's flipping to make money. And she was in a very difficult position, because had we gone and repaired it, the insurance company would have said, OK, fine, spoliation, because they had sent us the notice that these experts were going to do this investigation. And we had more and more depositions and more facts coming up with regard to her claim. She was caught in a difficult situation. As soon as she had the money from the insurance company that she was due, after paying decades of premium, she finally got the roof done immediately. It's been inspected. I believe she put on a very expensive standing seam metal roof, which is the roof that would not cause any further, I guess, depression or be able to load-bearing. In light of the fact that, you know, we heard of a 90-something thousand dollar being settled for $3,000. I know $100 is a very small amount of money. I was hoping to get it waived, but I'd like to amend and add it to $1,000 to make an offer to resolve this case for $1,000. Again, Ms. Payne is... a handicapped blind widow with very limited funds and needs every penny that she got from this insurance recovery to restore her home. She also has special needs inside because of her handicap that are going to cost a lot of money to finish the inside with her appliances and stuff that got destroyed. Other than that, I'm sorry for having to tell you the history, but this has been a five-year – most cases that I have settled in a year or two. This was a five-year dogfight with an insurance company to bring resolution in this particular case. It was really tragic.

All right. Is the house currently for sale? No, it is not. Refinanced? No. Okay. She resides in the property? Yes, she does. Okay. Do we have any other questions or comments from the board? Who's the insurance company now?

Her insurance company was Universal Property and Casualty. Who's it now?

I would have to ask. State. Citizens.

You got the state insurance.

I could go on and bring you the whole case and tell you. It was something unusual. We had an extremely overzealous insurance company attorney.

For the insurance company.

Yeah, I mean, how can you possibly allege that she was aware that her roof was leaking and could see it all to a blind person?

Was it a jury trial or a judge trial?

No, it was going to be a jury trial, but finally they capitulated and they paid. You're right, you said that. Yeah, because I don't think you're able to convince a jury that a blind woman could see that her roof was leaking.

And the amount was for?

The $60,000 was to replace her roof and make the repairs. But it took us five years with a claim that was basically, I think they paid like $2,000, something like that. But she didn't have the money. It took forever. If you would walk in, if the code enforcement would have walked in the home and saw, it's a tragic situation. I would wish that upon no one.

It may not be my place, but I'm just curious. Why did you accept the capitulation there? Why didn't you just take it to a jury trial?

Because I know you would have won. I've won a lot of cases, yes, at trial.

The reason is because Universal has a track record. Oh, I'm sorry.

This particular insurance company appeals everything. They appeal everything, even if you win. In fact, I just won an appeal with them. So, yeah, so she was at the end of her rope. So I can list the other cases that I've had with... Well...

That's what I was hoping to say. I was just trying to...

So another appeal in Dade County, assuming we win, is a year and a half, which means another trial. So she's elderly. She's done. She's like, I can't do this. And she did everything she could to try... We went to mediation on multiple occasions to try to resolve it, to get her money. Because she paid insurance benefits for decades. decades for this situation. I have the notice of settlement that I included to give you the date. And I'm hoping that the board has some mercy on this particular person.

All right. Do we have any other discussion? All right. Hearing none, we have no further discussion. We have a fine amount of $108,390. The amount proposed is $1,000? $1,000. All right. And that's your best and final offer? Yes, it is. Okay. And how long would you need to pay? Within 30 days. 30 days. Perfect. We have an offer of $1,000 payable in 30 days. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chair, I move that upon receipt of $1,000 in 180 days that the lien on this property be waived.

Okay. All right. Madam Clerk, would you call roll?

Board Member Furr? Yes. Board Member Berryman? Yes. Board Member Rodriguez? Yes. Chair Hueber.

All in favor say aye.