Special magistrate orders Daytona Beach mobile-home park to clear common-area violations by Sept. 3

A special magistrate for the City of Daytona Beach on Aug. 12 ordered Daytona Beach MHP LLC to bring common areas at its manufactured-housing community into compliance by Sept. 3, 2025, after finding the property in violation of city codes for outside storage, unmaintained property, rodent harborage and dilapidated fencing.

The order followed testimony from John Stinson, a city code inspector, who said the propertywide inspections showed persistent trash and debris, a deteriorated perimeter fence and conditions supporting rodent harborage. Stinson recommended the magistrate find the property in noncompliance and set a next cutoff compliance date of Sept. 3.

The magistrate said the violations described in the notice were adequate to inform the owner of the problems and declined to treat the case as legally ambiguous. The magistrate directed the respondent to remedy the deficiencies by the next cutoff or be returned for consideration of fines up to $1,000 per day thereafter.

Why it matters: the case concerns a three-acre manufactured-housing community with 54 lots; the city treats common-area sanitation and perimeter maintenance as the park owner’s responsibility and can seek administrative fines when those conditions persist. Owners commonly rely on tenants to maintain private lots, but the magistrate stressed that owner responsibility for the common areas and overall property upkeep remains enforceable under local code.

The owner’s representatives said much of the park’s housing is tenant-owned and that many lot-specific items fall to individual residents. Dionne Coochell, district manager for the entity managing the property, provided a rent roll and a park lot layout map to the city and said the manager had repaired the fence at Lot 180 and obtained pest-control service invoices (Orkin) to show routine pest treatments for some units. Coochell told the magistrate she had asked the city for clarification on whether the city wanted repair limited to a single lot or for the entire perimeter and that she had submitted a written fencing proposal for board consideration.

The city replied that its notice covered the whole property and asked the owner to identify and fix the common-area problems. The inspector said the perimeter fence, sanitation and outside-storage problems were not limited to a single lot and remained visible during inspections. The magistrate said the owner should use reasonable, common-sense measures to identify and cure the listed defects and, if the city disputes the adequacy of the repairs, the owner may return with proof of what was done.

The magistrate declined to delay enforcement to resolve landlord–tenant allocation disputes, saying the municipal code’s enforcement interest in common areas outweighs disputes between owners and individual lot tenants. The magistrate also invited the owner to coordinate an on-site walk-through with the inspector to identify specific repairs.

Next steps: Daytona Beach MHP LLC was ordered to correct the named violations by Sept. 3, 2025, or face return to the special magistrate for possible fines. The magistrate said inspectors would re-check the property and that the owner should document repairs and pest-control steps to demonstrate compliance.

Ending: The magistrate closed the hearing by saying that if the city presents evidence the conditions persist on Sept. 3, the owner should be prepared to explain why the city should not impose fines.