The moral of this story is if you do work, or did work, without a permit, you will most likely get caught eventually. And, when you get caught, it could cost you an enormous amount of money. In this case, Fort Myers Beach property owner Daisy Garcia (pictured here) must pay nearly $300,000 in code violation fines…with more on the way
This code violation involves work done at 268/270 Nature View Court which is owned jointly by Dania Carballo Ortiz and her mom Daisy Garcia. The town says code violations started racking up on the property in February of 2020 when repairs were being made to the roof of the property without a permit.
From the issuance of the initial code violation the town says the property owners never responded to any correspondence with the town. Code violations eventually make their way to the town’s Special Magistrate where financial teeth is put into the violations. The town says the property owners didn’t show up to those hearings either. Over 1,000 days later and the fines eventually ballooned to $286,075.
Ortiz went in front of the Town Council this week to ask for a 100% lien reduction. She said the reasons for ignoring the town had to do with COVID, Hurricane Ian and having to deal with her mom becoming sick. While council members were sympathetic they denied Ortiz’ request and said she had to pay the full amount of $286,075 for this violation.
Mayor Dan Allers questions Ortiz why she didn’t respond to the code violations or attend the Special Magistrate meeting. Allers said to Ortiz, “This didn’t have to get to this point. You should have negotiated at the Special Magistrate hearing. There was plenty of opportunity to get this corrected.”
However, there were two more violations on the property to deal with.
The second violation had to do with the house being rented when the town told the property owners it could not be due to “life and safety issues.” Despite being warned not to rent the home, the town says it had evidence of the home being rented at least 24 times over 2 years. That fine totaled $12,075, which the Town Council also told Ortiz she must pay.
A third code case which the town opened back in 2018 for remodeling the home without a permit after a fire has racked up fines totaling $365,575. The council did not rule on that request to reduce the fine after Ortiz withdrew her request. She plans to discuss that case with her attorney before deciding how to proceed.
The 268/270 Nature View Court property is one of several that a previous Town Council placed a lien on then moved forward with foreclosure proceedings for ignoring code violations. The foreclosure proceeding is moving forward according to the Town Attorney.
The property is also listed for sale now for $1.6 million.