Nearly 11,000 code cases opened in St. Pete, residents question inspection process

Yahoo

14-02-2025

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Petersburg residents in the Shore Acres community say city officials are blanketing the neighborhood with code enforcement notices without fully assessing whether there was actual damage to the home.
Many are voicing concerns that the open code cases could be detrimental and potentially cloud the title of their home.
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Code enforcement recently issued the notices in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
'They just came through here and put these code violations on every home that they thought was damaged when we can prove they weren't damaged,' said Joey Romanik, a realtor with The Romanik Group.
Romanik is also a Shore Acres homeowner and says his street never flooded during the storms, however, he received a notice from code enforcement about an open case.
'It has not been very difficult for us to have that code changed from an active violation to an invalid complaint,' Romanik said. 'However, the code violation still shows up on the title search.'
On Thursday, several homeowners took their complaints directly to the city council.
'I'm here today to talk about the 'Scarlet C',' said Kevin Batdorf, president of the Shore Acres Civic Association. 'Future buyers will use this data to identify houses that flooded. Unfortunately, properties that did not flood will also carry the stigma, and they will mistakenly be identified as having flooded.'
According to city officials, nearly 11,000 code cases have been opened to monitor compliance with city code and FEMA regulations.
Brokers and real estate agents are concerned about long-lasting implications if a code enforcement case is documented as public record.
'It could cause a transaction to fall apart,' said Liane Jamason, a broker for Corcoran Dwellings Real Estate. 'The city is falsely claiming that this does not affect a real estate transaction and I'm a broker of 18 years saying, yes it does.'
The City of St. Petersburg issued the following statement:
The City's Codes Compliance Assistance Department has initiated codes cases at properties that were identified through damage assessments after Hurricanes Helene and Milton to monitor compliance with city code and FEMA regulations. This includes properties both in and outside of flood hazard areas that experienced storm damage. These cases are being initiated to ensure compliance with city and FEMA requirements by ensuring permits are obtained for necessary repairs, verify permits are closed out with all required inspections to ensure compliance with Florida Building Code, and protect potential buyers from purchasing a property that has been repaired without the required permits and/or inspections being completed.
Please note, an active codes case does not impact the ability for a property to be sold or transferred to a new owner and a violation notice would only be issued if work is completed at a property without first obtaining the required permits. If an owner is cited for work without permits, they would go through the enforcement process and cases would go before the Code Enforcement Board and Special Magistrate prior to any liens being placed against the property for non-compliance. At this stage in the process, 63 violation notices have been issued. All the violation notices are within their provided compliance time, so no enforcement action has been taken at this time.
The City's goal is to help residents through this process, prevent properties from being rehabilitated without permits and sold to unsuspecting buyers, and ensure compliance with FEMA regulations. 10,898 code cases have been opened to monitor compliance with city code and FEMA regulations. Codes cases are routinely initiated against properties to determine whether violations of city code exist. Notice to property owners is required once a violation is observed, and due process is then provided to the property owner to cure the violation prior to any enforcement action. The enforcement process is outlined in Chapter 162 of state statute. It is important to understand that these are codes cases, not violations, that have been entered into our case management system for monitoring purposes. Code violations have only been issued when work has been observed without approved permits.
To ensure compliance with FEMA regulations and city code, these monitoring cases were established based on damage assessment inspections that occurred after Helene and Milton. Due to the volume of cases, and available resources, cases were scheduled across a four-week period to conduct the initial assessment. This plan was overviewed during a committee meeting held to review the 49% FEMA regulations. We have been conducting inspections for nearly two weeks and notifying residents as needed that they are in violation and must obtain permits for completed repairs.
Properties that have permits do not have violations. We were intentional with this process and in any case that has an approved permit, those details are clearly documented in the case. The case type, which we use internally for reporting purposes, gets changed to a 'Post Disaster Permit Emergency Permit.' If the permit has all final inspections, the case is closed. If the permit inspections have not been completed yet, the status of the permit is checked every 30 days, and the case is closed once the permit receives all final inspections.
All codes cases, and details within them, are available via the City's website. Thousands of cases get initiated every year when residents express concern about potential code violations in the city and our standard process is to initiate the case and verify if violations exist. If we do not find violations, the case is documented as such and closed out. At the time that we identify violations, we then initiate the process to notify the owner of the property. While in greater scale, the same process is being applied in this situation.
The goal throughout this process is to be proactive and assist residents with taking the right steps to comply with these requirements, while also protecting current and future residents and the City's flood insurance discount. We understand that residents may have questions about this process and encourage them to contact us at [e-mail] or 727.893.7373. More information can also be found on the City's Damage Assessment Codes Cases webpage here – https://www.stpete.org/residents/community/damage_assessment.php.
City of St. Petersburg
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