Florida resident fined $ 30 for overgrown lawn

After a two-year trial, a Florida judge ruled that 71-year-old Jim Ficken would have to pay a fine to the city of Dunedin. NBC Miami.

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A federal court upheld a Florida city decision to impose a fine of about $ 30 on a homeowner whose lawn is overgrown with grass.

According to court records, the city imposed a fine in 2018, and in May 2019, Fiken filed a lawsuit after authorities tried to arrest his house in order to recover the amount due. His lawyers argued that the fine was excessive and was imposed without notice.

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“The city’s behavior toward Jim is outrageous,” Ficken’s attorney, Ari Bargil, said in a statement. “The ruling emboldens state code enforcement departments to impose significant financial penalties and gives them the authority to do so without first notifying the property owner that they may be fined.”

City officials have defended the fine, saying Ficken repeatedly violated the rules in 2015, so he was fined $ 500 a day for future violations. This includes grass taller than 10 inches (25,4 centimeters).

Fiken argued that he was not properly notified of the fines. He said he left home for two weeks in July 2018 to manage his mother's estate. It was then that the city imposed the first fines, the newspaper said. During this time, according to Fiken, the man who mowed his lawn died.

When he returned home, he tried to mow an overgrown lawn, but his lawn mower broke down, according to the lawsuit.

It took almost two months before Ficken found out about his debt. When the bill arrived, it totaled $ 29, the lawsuit says.

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Ficken said he was told to attend the Code Enforcement Council hearing in August 2019, but missed it because he was in South Carolina to resolve another issue with his mother's property. On September 4, 2019, city officials voted to have the fine remain in effect.

Ficken said he would not stop fighting until he exhausted all possible options.

“What happened to me is wrong and I will continue to fight,” he said.

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