Special magistrate recommends reduced lien for Huggins property, forwards recommendation to Board of County Commissioners

Special Magistrate Harrison Poole on Jan. 14, 2025 recommended that the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners reduce the code-enforcement lien on a Callahan property now owned by Bryce Huggins to $5,189.45 and forward the case to the board for final determination.

Huggins told the magistrate he purchased the property roughly 18 months earlier without conducting a title search; he said the seller provided a letter stating there were no financial liens. After purchase, county staff informed him an $87,550 fine and administrative costs were on the property from a prior enforcement matter. Officer Jerry Hato testified that the property had not been brought into compliance until June 26, 2014, and that fines had run from Sept. 9, 2009 through June 25, 2014 (1,751 days) resulting in an $87,550 fine plus administrative costs of $335.11, for a total of $87,885.11 in the historical record.

County staff explained a subsequent change to the county code caps the maximum amount of a code-enforcement lien at 35% of the property’s assessed value at the time the lien was imposed. County staff recommended a reduced lien consistent with that cap: 35% of a $15,000 assessed value ($5,250) plus administrative costs of $335.11, for a total recommendation of $5,585.11. Magistrate Poole said he was constrained by the code and recommended retroactive application of the ordinance cap using an assessed value of $14,827, which yields a maximum recommendable lien of $5,189.45. Poole said the reduction was appropriate because Huggins acted promptly to clean the property upon learning of the lien and because without reduction the property was effectively undevelopable.

Poole told Huggins: “I’m going to recommend that the Board of County Commissioners reduce the fine to $5,189.45, which is the maximum I can recommend to them, and the constraints of what our code is written.” The magistrate noted Huggins will have an opportunity to present to the Board of County Commissioners, which makes the final determination.

The magistrate’s written recommendation and order will be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration. The county will include documentation of the assessed values, the historical fine amount and the administrative costs in the record for the board’s review.