(WSVN) - Snakes, rats, plenty of mosquitos … how would you like that next door? It’s what several South Florida families are facing, and even more frustrating, the city says they can’t force the homeowner to clean up the mess, or can they? It’s why we have Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
When Michelle bought her home, she had this bedroom set aside as her office, and then…
Michelle Brown, pests next door: “The baby came. He took over my office.”
The baby, of course, has priority.
Meaning Michelle had to head to the closet to do her work.
Michelle Brown: “Squeeze my desk in here and at night, I close this. It’s my office door.”
Michelle and her husband are enjoying their new child, even though they have to keep him out of the backyard.
Michelle Brown: “I can’t even go in my own backyard with my baby ’cause there is mosquitos.”
When Michelle bought the home in 2015, she couldn’t wait to enjoy her pool ’till her neighbor’s fence started falling apart and she saw what was next door.
Michelle Brown: “And I look over there and I am like, ‘Oh my God.’ You know, yikes.”
Her next door neighbors are unfortunately in foreclosure. Their property is a mess.
Michelle Brown: “The pool looked like a lake with things growing in it, like vegetation.”
If disease-carrying mosquitos love a stagnant puddle, imagine how happy they are with this black body of water.
Michelle Brown: “It’s a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos.”
The overgrown yard has produced some slithering surprises for Michelle.
Michelle Brown: “I have had snakes in here, in my yard.”
They are outnumbered though by the four-legged rodents.
Michelle Brown: “Rats or mice, whatever they are, I don’t know. I don’t usually deal with those types of rodents.”
Last and the noisiest are the frogs.
Michelle Brown: “I swear I am not exaggerating. All night you hear ribit, ribit, ribit. It sounds like hundreds of frogs ribbiting all night long.”
Michelle put up her own fence before her neighbor’s finally fell over.
But with their gate busted, Michelle worried curious kids would come check out the pool and possibly drown, so she called the City of Sunrise.
Michelle Brown: “They had running liens going on the home, but running liens does nothing to improve the situation and it’s useless.”
Sunrise’s website shows Michelle is not the only one complaining. Code enforcement has been called out more than a dozen times, slapping fines on the homeowner totaling $95,000, but the city says they can’t force them to clean up the mess.
Michelle Brown: “Because the property is occupied, and homesteaded, they are unable to go on the property and clean the pool.”
A fallen fence, a black pool, an nesting ground for any pest you can imagine year after year after year.
Michelle Brown: “They continue to tell me they understand and I continue to tell them no, you don’t. It’s not fair for anyone to have to live next to those type of conditions.”
The city says they can’t do it or can they, Howard?
Howard Finkelstein, 7News legal expert: “Of course they can correct the problem. If the homeowner refuses to clean it up and won’t allow the city to do it, all Sunrise has to do is go to court and ask a judge to give them the right to go in to drain the pool, fix the fence and clean up the yard. It’s that simple. But government agencies don’t want to do that because that involves spending money. Money they won’t get back for years, if ever. But it’s a danger and it has to be done.”
The City of Sunrise told me we are exploring all options available and they sent the homeowner a letter asking to let them drain the pool, but he did not respond to their request.
I then went to talk to the homeowner. He told me if Sunrise wanted to board up the gates and drain the pool, he didn’t care.
Sunrise then went over. The owner promised not to sue if something happened during the clean up. That afternoon, the gate was patched up and the pool was drained.
Michelle Brown: “I feel very grateful.”
Glad it finally cleared up now. And hopefully it stays that way.
Michelle Brown: “Thankful to Patrick and Help Me Howard for getting this rectified.”
Glad we could speed things up. Sunrise had to pay about $700 to board up the gate and drain the pool. They will add that to the $95,000 in liens. And I checked … that property is scheduled to be auctioned off in foreclosure next week. Maybe the city can get some money back, and hopefully for Michelle, the new owner will keep the pool clean.
Snake in the grass got your saying, “Oh rats.” Don’t let them fence you in. Contact us. We will pool our resources and create a nice buzz for you.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN
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