##VIDEO ID:iXR7oX1_-eY## and uh is the city prepared to present its case yes is the respondent here yes okay here okay okay all right you may proceed all right so just working through the PowerPoint um the property belongs to the respondent Brendan Miller the property address is 162 bimy Road um the home was purchased uh in November 2020 um the next few slides are just taxes just again showing this is the correct property owner okay on page nine perfect um the city believes that there's a violation of section 13-2 um and requested that the respondent obtain a business tax receipt for running a vacation rental at this property um I did send a $100 s ation for operating The Business Without A BTR on the following slide um the city also believes that the respondent is in violation of section 26.5 21 um due to the vacation rental being in the rs1 zone um the rs1 application would also need to be completed to properly run the vacation rental on the following slide uh you'll see the courtesy letter um with the corrective actions and the citation that was mailed both via um first class and certified mail there's the CT receipt um the green card came back it did not come back on slide 15 [Music] um I emailed the respondent after he came into the finance department to formally contest his citation um and then we communicated about coming here today um and the citation has not been paid um therefore on slide 17 um I sent the notice of magistrate hearing again just going through the the due process of everything click again certified male and first class male green card was returned and we did speak about um coming here today and he's here okay so on slide 23 We Begin the evidence um so you will see rental Escape um the live listings that are shown to to be uh renting the vacation rental property since March of 2023 that we can see on the following slide you see the Airbnb listing titled number 162 hosted by um someone named Cassandra uh the vacation rental property uh does have active listings and reviews if you go to slide 27 you can see um most recent reviews from August all the way back until um 2023 again um if you continue the slide just reviews showing that the listing is live and then again the same with the uh website vbo um and essentially in summary this is a a live listing of for vacation Ryals it is active actively taking bookings and so the city is requesting that the respondent um obtain the BTR for the the business obtain the rs1 registration um due to being in the rs1 zone uh pay the $100 citation and per statute section 20553 um maybe be fin $250 for not obtaining the BTR okay so you're requesting that the the maximum stat maximum fine under 20553 be imposed plus whatever late fees are by Statute us yes sir and then as to the other violation that the what would be the daily fine um The Daily fine is $500 for the first day and $250 every day thereafter if the rs1 uh registration is not completed that's the fine you yep that's that's the suggestion for our code that's does the city plan on introducing the PowerPoint presentation I would like to introduce into evidence if that's okay yes Mr Miller you've seen it obviously right you have any objection I no I don't dis okay it's it's it's so admitted then okay thank you all right Mr Miller do you have any cross- examination uh no no okay does the city have anything further no okay Mr Miller would you have like to present any evidence uh yeah I came here um to tell my story and I guess asked for sympathy maybe Mercy um I purchased the property as you saw in the evidence there which I do not dispute in 2020 um as you know primary residence and the place that I wanted to be I'm really fond of the community um I love my home unfortunately there's been a sequence of events which caused me having to to list the property um to go through them quickly you know seaw wall went had to replace that is very expensive I got caught up in the Legacy pools Scandal uh lost a $20,000 deposit there um had to redo the pipes like these were things that came up that I just wasn't expecting I I'm young and just trying to stay above water I also am fearful that citizens is going to drop me and force me to redo my roof uh which will be quite expensive fortunate to have parents in the area so at 31 years young I moved back in with them um listed the property I stay there whenever it's not booked but just trying to get back into a financial position where I can move back into the home I plan to spend um the better part of my life it wasn't a unilateral decision for whatever it's worth you know I spoke to my neighbors um so yeah I was just hoping to come and and kind of present to you and see if there is any Middle Ground um given you know my situation that's what I got okay well the city's asking that you be ordered to pay your tax the business tax receipts that's just a payment of a tax it's really not a license within two weeks of isn't that correct M Crawford yes that's correct and what is the time frame that you would like to to see for the registration as a rental if we could also just start that process within the next two weeks um just just to begin the process that that would be acceptable two weeks yeah two weeks okay so what this what the city is asking for is that the order provide that you have two weeks to take care of everything before any fines result as to the rental now under the business tax receipt like I said it's really a payment of a tax it's it's nothing more used to be called the uh the local um oh gosh business license used to be called occupational license I'm sorry uh fighting a head cold an occupational license it's not a license it's just a payment of a tax and the statutes provide what happens if you don't pay the tax on time and what the penalties are so that's just something that happens you agree with that M Crawford um yes but the city's still saying two weeks for that so could you tell me why you would you need more time than that why and why I can I can uh move forward and I will do so um within the two we window that's not a problem my understanding and concern uh is the registration of the property as as a commercial it loses my Homestead EX tion um hang on Miss Crawford's nodding her head yes having ex that's between you and the property appraiser okay that's between you and the property appraiser now Homestead is a very metaphysical thing in Florida because it's what your intent is on January 1st of each year and that's property appraisers are very jealous of making that determination I've experienced that with other code enforcement proceedings so that's between you and the property appraiser Okay C had nothing to do with that now can the property appraiser use evidence that you're renting the place absolutely can the property appraiser determine that on January 1st you intended to have that as your permanent resident that's up to the property appraiser but that was my primary concern and reason nothing happens to your homestead exemption because of this action not to beat the horse to death but that's between you and the property appraiser okay okay do you agree with that Mr Crawford oh yes I don't report to I report to property appr okay okay anything else no thank you for the time that's everything all right so in this case I'm going to adjudicate that there is a violation of section 13.2 of the city code and impose the the fine of $250 which is set forth in section 20553 or 53 of the Florida Statutes uh and whatever the statute says as to uh increases in terms of the amount of the business tax that just happens as to the vacation rental registration oh and I'm going to order that you have two weeks to do that okay uh as to the vacation rental registration I'm going to find a violation of section 26.5 21 and Grant you two weeks to come into compliance with that statute and if you do not the first day of the fine will be $500 and each succeeding day will be $250 and that'll be the orders that will be issued and you'll be receiving a copy of the written order okay all right understood thank you all right next case is case number 24259 the respondent is Mr Richard bore and the property is located at 134 Bali Road Mr bore yes sir all right you've seen the way it works this okay Mr group can I enter this pcket you've seen the PowerPoint sir I have all right you have any objection to being introduced in evidence no objections all right then it'll be so admitted thank you sir thank you all righty all right um so this is case dsce 24259 the respondent is Richard borer and the property address is 1034 Bali Road we'll briefly go over um due process um this is property appra are showing that Mr Bor is the owner of the property and the city believes that he is in violation of section 26.5-in occupancy uh for vacation rentals in the rs1 zone um the city asked Mr Bor to please reduce um his listings to um eight guests maximum per the code and to not allow more than eight guests to stay at the property on the following slide you'll see the um courtesy letter that was sent in August 29th of 2024 as well as the citation um due to the violation of renting the vacation rental over the maximum occupancy and the fine for that is $500 um um both of these were mailed via first class mail and certified mail um once the respondent received the mail he um came to the city to formally contest the citation um so I did send out the notice of magistrate hearing at the end of September again via first class male and certified male um um due to Hurricane Milton October meeting was cancelled we did speak about it um and he is here today um so another notice of magistrate hearing was mailed out for today again Bea first class male and certified male and a corrected one was also [Applause] submitted um on Slide 16 um we'll begin the the evidence um so the property was registered as an rs1 vacation rental in May of 2024 and at this time you'll notice uh occupancy is limited to two occupants per bedroom plus two occupants to a maximum of eight occupants so this is informing the the property owner of the code limitation on the following slide you can see um a brief conversation on our platform again just discussing this code um and asking that the uh the listings reflect the code um we had previously had a meeting about another Topic in July and at the end of this meeting in person we discussed uh the code again on slide 19 you can see that the vacation rental is being listed for 16 plus guests on Airbnb and that data was pulled from August and then the following data you can see in October it's it's the same 16 plus um the about this space section again just mentions that it can host large groups and then um I just on the next slide I just selected um just a couple of recent reviews again showing that groups larger than the allowed occupancy continue to uh prent the property um and then there are comments from the respondent saying I'm glad you liked it please come back um so essentially the city's point of view is that he's inviting more than the allowance on a regular basis which is created um some contention within the neighborhood from Neighbors and if you go to slide 25 again this is um another listing on VRBO again offering the listing for 16 plus guests and then the next slide and then the next one yep so again these are just listings um recent listings so this one's September 25th um saying you know a family of 11 stayed on the next slide a family of 17 on the next slide a family of 10 then a family of 14 and so it's just it's it's been it's not one isolated incident it's not just the listing it's it's an ongoing um issue on slide 36 um I received this notice uh notorized letter from one of the neighbors just again outlining kind of the the issues that have been created because of these large groups um and the reason why we have the rs1 limited to a guests is to keep the the peacefulness and the quietness of the residential neighborhoods and it's the city's point of view that allowing this many large groups into the home has kind of disrupted that peacefulness then we go to slide 38 um just in summary the respondent has been operating um outside of the code allowing 16 plus guests at the home um the city is asking that the respondent be found in violation of Section 26.55 3 um order to reduce the listings to eight occupants to immediately not allow more than eight occupants to stay at the home um um and to pay the 500 uh $500 citation that was issued so you're not asking for a per day fine you're asking for a $500 fine yes anything anything else nothing further sir do you have any cross- examination yes sir go ahead thank you but do you want to ask M Crawford questions or you want to make a presentation uh I do not want to ask questions I may come up with one at the end that I think is to the gist I have some little bit of background um first of all I want to state that I want to be a very good corporate citizen you know citizen of the community and I have made every effort to do so I have found if you can imagine my house on Bali Road next to me are the neighbors Tom and Jenny Lacy who I love who are we have great relationship to and sort of have that ADT advertisement we trust each other with a water leak if I was off to my right is another Airbnb behind me is another Airbnb and then off kitty corner is this letter here of David and Christine who have no manner of aggravation with the fact that it is a sharing economy and people now rent houses to vacationers he has complained I would ask Daniel to corroborate this he has complained about noise violations in the middle of the day with kids in the pool kids Elementary School and Dave says when the dad comes in and plays with the kids it becomes even louder and I'm like Dave I I don't know that that's a violation from reading the code being a corporate citizen trying to figure out what is the problem here they're playing with balls in a pool I have when I gave Dave a Christmas gift two years ago and I gave him this thing of coffee and cookies and blah blah blah he's talking to me about anecdotes that shock me including one that says that a kid kicked a ball into the neighbor behind next to him behind me into his pool went around to get his ball and they threatened him with bodily Force saying if that owner was in the house he would shoot you I'm like what is wrong with this man it's like persecution the lights that he mentions here on the pergola were cut who's going to do that Tom and jeie I don't think so the owners of the airan over here I don't think so it's bizarre he complained about the pergola being this far too close to his his fence fine so I went we had a nice meeting we talked about it the thing was air rated from $2,500 Perla with $1,000 installation it's got to have 10,000 pieces if it has two beautiful Perla over the the hot tub I put in sound deadeners in the roof so that would the that the sound wouldn't Ricochet or whatever so it's that far it was wind rated for 110 the city engineers said it had to be wind rated for 140 I called engineering company saying can we wind rate it and lag bolted in the thing I had to liquidate it okay fine Dave and Christine I've liquidated my pergula and that's fine fair is fair $3,000 in the toilet it's fine most of the people there are families with grandparents then the kids you know that are my age that are middle-aged and then other kids three generations they come there cuz Grandma and Grandpa are having a 50 year wedding anniversary from Gainesville and they're coming down and the family from Boston and they're quiet they go to Disney they go to the beach they hang about the pool it's not Animal House the movie it's not I guarantee you now are there cases yeah there are cases that sometimes there's noise I'm on speed text with Tom and Dave I'm like just let me know I live in Satellite Beach I'll come right up I'll say be quiet I've done it before settle down it's in the middle of the day I'm not even sure it's a noise violation there I think it's after 10 if you're 10 ft away and you're inside someone's property if you can hear the noise then it's a violation I'm asking Danielle to say will you make sure the police see if that's a violation because you know what women in the hot tub having a lady's weekend out with their wine who knows how follow their language is Dave I'm sorry I don't know if that's a noise violation I don't think there're screeching and yelling and singing he's just upset that the house is used previously it wasn't used it was dilapidated and derel I'm sure he would have liked it to remain that way okay but it's not it's lived in I go in there all the time I had my family vacation there this July which was every manner of aggravation with family you can imagine I had a friends reun there I stay there okay so that's a little background I'm just going to put that on the Shelf because then this rils me a little bit but that's fine I just want to go on the record of what his story is this Dave and Christine and my story is he says that my lights are are flashing too much my flood lights or that people have lights so the next day I'm out there with a contractor angling them differently everyone in the neighborhood has lights glowing and blinking it's a Beach Town Dave I I try to respond to everything I send out notices to people before I say watch your Lang you watch your noise I have it on a little hello card handwritten with a gift coffee that says watch your noise I have signs posted everywhere saying watch your noise I don't know if I think I've sent you photos of that or what have you I have another sign that says sh don't bother the neighbors with the arrows for Tom and and Christine's house so I really try to be a good corporate citizen I want to start with that I want to get to the point the point is over occupancy I want to make a couple uh owner claims to it um and may just concede this fine and maybe ask your advice and going forward number one in my advertisement it says maximum people eight when you order at the at the uh the $5 value menu at at McDonald's they say here's a variety of options choose four you don't get all of them in these listing sites you put configurations of beds and the more the better because oh you know what we've got five boys that are all cousins from Minnesota and Boston or whatever I just said and they all want to be together you don't have a room with five beds okay sorry swipe left this is a business there's a ton of costs hurricane costs air conditioners that go bad etc etc etc etc etc and I'm trying to get those reservations okay so that if you have these beds these extra foldout beds and things for configurations I've had people there that want to sleep in the foldout bed I say Chris you have a room up there okay whatever it doesn't mean they get all of them it doesn't mean 16 people stay there okay they could have two double full over full double beds four kids there and one in every other room and that's eight okay so now the question is are there violations I don't know of any specific violations these are reviews we can presume and I would assume that you would presume they're accurate of the people that say we had such and such more than eight I don't go and police them I don't know how many show up I often have people say one no one person's not going to show up to a five bedroom right so then they show up and Danielle's once said hey there's more than four cars I adverti four cars there's plenty of space for more cars but I said four cars RVs I think is against violation say know if people ask I tell I don't know who shows up and I guess um my question is just trying to see my question is what is the city's enforcement let me just quote here reduce guest allowance it's advertised as eight currently all listings reflect occupancy of 16 I would counter by saying that's a misinterpretation it is configuration of up to 16 beds 16 spaces for a person to sleep a a full queen or king would be two it says $500 citation issued for operating over occupancy operating means renting how is the city documenting that is it reviews because I would um Advance The Proposal that the city needs to document in some fashion that there are more than eight occupying the house in order to issue a citation per occurrence not going through Airbnb and writing 55 checks in order to make $225,000 for the city when they really don't know there's one single violation maybe they can go through through 55 listings and see 110 reviews to each and says oh we had more than eight and saying oh there gotcha is that really proper documentation or should the city show up for $500 and document ma'am do you have more than eight people saying staying here yes I do what's your name Susie Johnson okay on this date Susie Johnson it was documented had more than eight people here's the citation I really think that there is a lack of credible proof that's substable I would ask can you verify any of these reviews with these people in here can you you know call them document it how do we know they're not typos maybe not you could presume they're accurate I don't know is that how it's going to be in the future every time there's a review that says Marcus I've advertised it as8 I really can't tell if certain people come up trust me I've been scammed we're a Christian organization blah blah blah and then it's a it's a house party this was at my other house at Satellite Beach and they write things and people ask you know if you have an H limit I immediately say rejected if you have to ask you're not coming CU you're college kids or 18 or whatever I really do try but I I really can't control I really can't control who comes there I'm sorry to say it I'm I'm I'm actually conceding that right cuz I don't stand there at the door handing the keys you give them a code and they come in and most of the time as I described it's these triple generation families they come they have fun at Coco Beach and um I I would hope that it's eight and I think I guess it's fair to be charged $500 if it's a violation but again my question is what is Cocoa Beach doing to validate this because they've obviously got it wrong and saying oh it's advertising sleep 16 that's a configuration issue when my when my listing says Max 8 but how do they Define and document incidents as a violation well I don't answer questions so yes sir if you have a question of M Crawford you can call her and ask her we can share the pulpit or whatever you call this the podium okay um so I I guess my answer would be to agree with Mr Bor I have to take all of these reviews and his responses at Accurate face value and there are so many so many reviews and so many responses from Mr Bor saying I'm so glad you're I mean we can go to specific pages and look I'm so glad your your party of 17 had a great time please come back he's inviting these large groups into the neighborhoods over and over again I know for a fact I'm sorry to there there won't be a case in there that says well I document the number find it we can take time you can do the other case there's not one where I've responded saying I'm glad you had 17 rights I'm glad you had a good time I've never validated the number of people in these responses if you give me one minute I can find a response where he's saying I'm so glad your group had a great time my dining room table can sit 20 people yeah they people do invite others in they've asked people have asked others to come in for cookouts they're at other condos at other locations because they have groups they have different things they can come in and have a meal can't they it's against the code we don't allow more than eight and that's for the the rs1 neighborhoods quiet to come into the house yall could argue is that what it is I I didn't know I thought it was occupancy meaning residing meaning sleeping meaning being in a bed if you have more than eight people walk through the threshold of the door that's a violation What happens when contractors come there's eight people staying there and a contractor comes in but y yall can have this disc that those really aren't questions I'm going to right base my decision on the evidence submitted and that the the reviews are evidence yes sir I agree and I mean I at least will several of them talk about staying this house was wonderful for our family of 11 to stay for a long weekend yes no I agree and I thought that at the beginning I maybe misunderstood you but I thought at the beginning of your statement you were acknowledging that sometimes over eight stay I don't know that but I am acknowledging they put that in the review and presumably they were they're not that you know I wasn't duped and they said it was eight and then I drove down the road and everyone came around the corner and parked and there was eight 11 or whatever but I'm just in the future is it every time there's a review cuz I don't know are you going to document when there's more than eight is that your documentation is just going to be the reviews or you got to go to the door this was my attempt to get your attention because we've had so many discussions cuz I'd like to manage it without getting fines all the time I don't know what I got you and quite frankly the city it and I don't mean this mandatorily I think this is just a fair comment the city could go could and I'm going to use the word go after prosecute you charge you whatever you want to phrase it on a perday basis they could go for 250 a day for each day and then go for 500 a day for a repeat violation they're asking for a $500 fine because of one occurrence not for each of these occurrences if I got that correct yes correct there's so they're asking that one of these occurrences be find $500 and then in the future and that's that the issue is how do you prove the violation in the future another $500 per day not per day another $500 fine per violation occurrence so the city's not going after you on a perday basis which is pretty normal they're going like just as a onetime violation so this that's in your from your point of view should be a good thing okay now the evidence of these reviews is it's it may not work in a criminal trial but this is not a criminal trial this isn't Beyond A Reasonable Doubt okay this is a a lower standard okay and that's this suffices for that standard I can tell you that okay I understand M Crawford has done well putting these statements together saying that there's been over eight occupying the premises and I'm sort of telling you what I'm going to order but I don't see any other wit that's fine I respect that honor fully in the future yes indeed there has to be new evidence for each violation how that is presented whether it's the testimony of your your friendly neighbor who you're or M Crawford or another code inspector observing it or quite frankly and this is something you might want to think about I'm not I don't give advice right but these reviews are wonderful but they're also damning yeah you know they're saying all 40 of us or 20 of us or nine of us had a great time there you go there's some evidence you know so yeah um and so um I appreciate all of that and I receive it verbally and obviously from the city's guidance and penalty I I I guess I don't know if it's appropriate to ask the question I'm just going to it's not improper I'm just saying I feel harassed by this neighbor who says he feels hairy and and and intimidated and and I think I've talked to Daniel who who said at one Miss Crawford who said at one point well uh Dave is complaining a lot so I'm going to have to issue citation soon and I and I and I countered and I understand that people you know can get in her business which is her business to respond to violations and I and I push back at saying are they violations for the noise kids are splashing in the pool in the middle of the day I don't know and I'm just and I'm just saying that in the case of that's what I'm pushing back in over $800 because $500 is not IMM material in the cost structures and trying to get by in life maybe it's a little more sensitive here in the off seon but that's why I'm just chafing a little bit and saying well well what are the guidelines how do I navigate because I'm trying to navigate this individual that's that's complaining about everything the blink lights the flood lights the the um the Gazebo the people splashing in the pool and I don't know what to say other than a little bit driving me crazy and in this case I'm just trying to be a corporate citizen I've tried with him and I continue to I understand the city like most cities is focused on Code Compliance not fines okay and there's no VI there's no allegation of noise there's no allegation of lighting there's no allegation of anything except the occupancy okay so that should tell you that your the city is not targeting you now what you do with a complaining neighbor all I can tell you is the legislature changed it so that you can't be an anonymous complaining neighbor anymore two years ago you could be an anonymous complaining neighbor now the legislature said no no no no if you're going to make a complaint it has to be yeah known who the complaint is you know who the complaintant is inquire and get specifics from that sent that's a good thing yeah but unless there's further evidence to be submitted on either side I'm ready to rule okay your honor in this case I'm going to find that there was a violation of section 26.5 53 and that the maximum occupancy was conceed was exceeded uh and that the respondent will be ordered to pay a fine of $500 for this violation and um if there is a repeat violation the uh fine would be $500 per occurrence for a repeat violation and that'll be the order that'll be entered okay but that is not a per day fine that is a onetime thank you all for the time I appreciate that resolution all right the next case is a massing hearing on case number dsce 24-23 this is the uh Mark sof and Mandy Thomas property I thought I saw Miss Thomas here earlier yeah I I informed U Miss Thomas that I because she's getting the final inspection done tomorrow I couldn't write the Affidavit of compliance so I will uh present that at the next uh special magistrate hearing oh so we're going to continue this one yes if that's okay all right it'll be continued all right they got to be regular customers all right is there anything further to come before me today know your honor all right then that being said we're adjourned