(WSVN) - Residents in one Miami-Dade neighborhood are fed up with living next to a massively overgrown lot, and they want the owner to clean things up. 7’s Heather Walker investigates.
When you look down this Richmond Heights street, you see manicured lawns, flowers, fence and then, there’s this.
Linda Irby/neighbor: “Man, this thing is scary. Really scary”
Linda Irby lives next door and says the lot has grown out of control. The grass is taller than her grandson.
Linda Irby: “You don’t know what’s in there.”
Some of the weeds, even taller than her house.
Linda Irby: “Might be a human in there.”
Tim Smith lives across the street. He says the overgrown property is attracting unwanted attention.
Tim Smith/neighbor: “You’ll get cars parked here all hours of the day and night.”
Tim and Linda say the lot has been like this for about four years.
Tim Smith: “To have people throwing their garbage here because nobody lives here. That’s kind of insulting.”
7 Investigates found more than a dozen code violations spanning nearly two decades. Neighbors pleaded with the county to clean up the eyesore, but neither the county nor the neighbors could find the owner.
Tim Smith: “Their only response is to bring out the little wooden stick and put a notice on it.”
Days after 7News contacted the county, the lot was cleared.
Linda Irby: “I’m glad. I appreciate y’all. Thank you very much. Y’all make the news good.”
Even though Miami-Dade County crews cleared the land, the person who owns it, is still on the hook for the code violations. We wanted to get to the bottom of this growing problem, so we did a quick search of property records.
We found multiple addresses and after a few door knocks, we found the owner.
Heather Walker: “Hi, are you Ms. Harris? Heather Walker with 7 Investigates. We’re here about your property in Richmond Heights, it was overgrown. Are you aware of this?”
Harris: “No.”
Heather Walker: “OK. Has the county contacted you at all?”
Harris: “No.”
Harris: “I’mma have it taken care of right now.”
The owner says she paid somebody to take care of the lot, but now that she knows the work hasn’t been done, she’s on it. We shared the news with Linda.
Heather Walker: “Well we found her.”
Linda Irby: “That’s good! Thank y’all very much! Haha! Very much!”
Linda says she feels safer now. She’s also relieved we were able to get to the root of the problem.
Heather walker, 7News.
CONTACT 7 INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
7Investigates@wsvn.com
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