Clearwater board upholds nine housing-code violations at 1135 Tangerine Street

The Board of Adjustments and Appeals in Clearwater on June 4, 2019, voted 4-0 to uphold a building official's finding of nine housing-code violations at 1135 Tangerine Street, concluding the appeal brought by property owner Ivette Williams and leaving repair scheduling to the code enforcement process.

City housing inspector Sam Swinton presented photographs and a written report documenting sanitation problems, missing smoke detectors, exposed electrical wiring, a sagging and rotting porch, cracked flooring and an open crawl space. Swinton told the board the citations were sent by certified mail and that the certified letter was returned unsigned, after which staff posted the property: "We wrote it up, cited the violations, sent it to the property owner, Miss Williams. And Miss Williams contested it with this appeal to our decision to write these items up that they were not in compliance with the housing code." (Sam Swinton).

The presentation listed nine cited violations under Chapter 3 (transcript references include sections listed as 302, 302.5, 302.9, 304, 305.2, 305.160.2, 305.30.2, 305.5 and 305.8). Sam Swinton asked the board to agree these were housing-code violations and asked that the homeowner make repairs to meet those sections of the code.

Val Carty, who said she called in the original complaint and recently vacated the unit, told the board she saw roaches behind the oven, noticed many small flying insects and said the grass was overgrown. "He pretty much detailed everything that is going on with the unit at this current time," Carty said in support of the inspector's findings.

Ivette Williams, the property owner, told the board she has owned the property since 1990, said she had performed intermittent renovations over the years and strongly disputed the characterization of the property as in "disrepair." Williams said she did not receive a copy of the report until the day before the hearing and described repeated attempts to reach staff that she says went unanswered. She also said she had evicted the tenant who triggered the complaint and provided text-message copies and other records she said show tenant misconduct. "I am not a slumlord," Williams told the board.

Board attorney Jay Daniels limited the hearing's scope to whether the building official misapplied or misinterpreted the code; he said landlord–tenant disputes and conditions at other properties were beyond the board's jurisdiction. The exchange between Williams and staff focused on whether legal notice procedures were followed. Swinton told the panel he received one voicemail and that certified mail to the address on file is the legally required method; when certified mail is returned unsigned staff posts the property and proceeds to hearing.

A board member moved that the citations should not be removed; the motion was seconded on the floor (the spoken record does not clearly identify the seconding member by name). The board voted to deny removal of the violations; the presiding officer announced, "Seeing none of that motion passes 4 to 0." (Jay Daniels).

The board's written order will be issued within days to a week and mailed to Williams. City staff offered to meet with Williams to discuss a repair plan and inspection schedule and provided their office location at 100 South Myrtle, Second Floor, Suite 210. Once repairs pass inspection, staff said, the case will be closed.

The board also briefly discussed administrative items, including an open seat on the board; the meeting then adjourned.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to deny removal of cited housing-code violations at 1135 Tangerine Street (appeal BAA2019-01001): Passed, 4-0. The motion leaves compliance timeframes and inspection scheduling to the code enforcement process.

What happens next

A written order from the board will be mailed to the owner within days to a week. The owner was advised to contact city staff to arrange a repair plan and to schedule reinspection after repairs are completed.