Blighted Key West house fine reluctantly accepted

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Not so fast.

Despite standing tough and rejecting a $2,000 offer to settle a $12,750 fine against a neglected house on Seminary Street, Key West City Commissioners turned around and unanimously accepted the offer when it was brought back before the commission at its Jan. 18 meeting.

The reason? Because $2,000 is as good as it’s going to get, according to city code compliance officials and City Manager Jim Scholl. The problem, which was not explained to city commissioners when they rejected the settlement at their Jan. 4 meeting, was that the property at 1523 Seminary St. was in foreclosure and had been repossessed by the mortgage company, ARCPE 1. Since there were other creditors ahead of the city with what’s known as a “superior” claim, there was no way the city was ever going to receive payment of the whole $12,750 fine.

“We’re too far down the food chain,” Assistant City Manager Greg Veliz said, referring to the list of creditors ahead of Key West.

“They [city code compliance officers] tell me that the possibility of collection is slim to none in that particular case,” said City Manager Jim Scholl. “The likelihood of us recovering under a foreclosure is nil.”

The new information was reluctantly accepted by Commissioner Richard Payne, who had previously called the $2,000 offer “insufficient.”

“What changed my mind is our staff is saying take it or leave it. We can’t get the whole thing so let’s take what we can get,” he said.

The $2,000 will at least cover the cost of the time code compliance officers put into inspecting the property and going to court to request the fine, Scholl added.

The vacant house at 1523 Seminary St., previously owned by Elsa Diaz, started drawing complaints from neighbors last June. When a city code compliance officer responded, the finding was that the property was “vacant, overgrown and had debris littered throughout.” The city’s special magistrate levied a $250 a day fine against Diaz and it accumulated until the property was cleaned up and secured by ARCPE 1, which repossessed the house.

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