A Florida man thought he got the deal of a lifetime buying a foreclosed home.
He found himself in an unthinkable situation.
And a Florida man’s worst nightmare came true after he bought an awful home.
Florida man hit with $1 million in code violations by previous owner
Denny Dorcey of Oakland Park, Florida thought he would take a chance on buying a home in foreclosure and fixing it up.
He restores classic cars and thought he would tackle the challenge of restoring a home with a nostalgic theme.
“I’m holding on to a little bit of the ’70s that I enjoyed when I was a kid,” Dorcey said.
He was going to give the home some of the 70’s flare from his childhood.
The home had no liens or fines associated with it when he bought it.
But the city of Oakland Park hit him with more than $1 million in code violations that were committed by the previous owner.
Oakland Park waited 10 years to drop that massive fine on him.
“The letter said that I owe the city over $1 million for code violation fines from the time before I bought the house,” Dorcey explained. “It’s like having a bomb dropped on me. I just couldn’t believe it.”
Oakland Park dumped the fine on him over four minor code violations that were committed by the previous owner.
The trash in the carport and overgrown weeds were some of the violations that had been taken care of years ago when Dorcey first purchased the property.
City tries to pawn off the fine on the collections company
Oakland Par let the fines on Dorcey’s home pile up for years without telling him.
When he called the city to protest, they told him he had to resolve the problem with the collections agency they passed the fine off to.
Dorcey had no way to pay the enormous fine and no ability to make the clueless government bureaucrats come to their senses.
Miami TV station WSVN contacted Oakland Park about the fine and ran a story on it which shamed the city into rescinding the fine.
The city claimed that the home was never “brought into compliance” before it was sold in foreclosure.
Oakland Park officials claimed that they had no idea the home was in foreclosure before Dorcey bought it.
“Government agencies do not have to notify a new owner about the fines, allowing them to grow,” legal expert Howard Finkelstein told WSVN. “But in this case, the city cannot do this to Dorcey because he bought the property in foreclosure and that wiped out any existing liens and fines that the city had.”
Oakland Park officials finally came to their senses and dropped the hefty fine against Dorcey after the TV station got involved.
The lien on the home was erased and the nightmare ended.
“Without you guys, they would have destroyed my life completely,” Dorcey told WSVN. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Government bureaucrats nearly ruined a man’s life over a paperwork snafu on their part.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
