Regina Hill’s home in Lake Mann Estates was accidentally condemned last week, according to a report by Orlando Sentinel‘s Ryan Gillespie.
Former commissioner Regina Hill took to social media to declare the move an attack against her campaign by sitting commissioner Shan Rose, hoping to impede her effort to return to her work representing District 5, which she filed for at the beginning of the month. And then, in a poof of paperwork, city officials redacted the condemnation and its subsequent “Notice to Vacate” and called the whole thing a simple mistake.
Commissioner Hill is currently banned from accessing the home via a court order, which she is accused of purchasing using the private funds of a 96-year-old woman in her district, for whom she was acting as Power of Attorney. When the charges were first filed, Hill was removed from the house and was only granted access months later to remove her personal belongings, most of which had been stolen. More on that HERE.
All that time, the house has been unoccupied.
We reached out to the City of Orlando to see what might have happened to have led to Hill’s home being condemned and learned that it was in response to a formal complaint lodged with code enforcement.
“Regarding this incident, after code enforcement management reviewed the complaint and assessed the home, it was determined the house shouldn’t have been condemned. The house was however unsecured so code enforcement took steps to secure it. There are processes and procedures that were not followed and are being addressed.”
– CITY OF ORLANDO
So we asked the City what would normally have to happen for a home to be condemned and received the following.
“The process for a citizen to file a complaint about a home and potentially have it condemned involves several steps, typically beginning with the identification of an issue that poses an immediate risk to life, health or safety. In this situation, the complaint was related to transient activity on the property. Typically, if there is a history of transient activity, condemnation may occur if the property is being occupied without power or water.
The property owner has the opportunity to appeal the code enforcement condemnation decision by requesting a hearing before the Code Enforcement Board within 15 days of the condemnation posting. If the property owner does not agree with the Code Enforcement Board decision they can appeal to the circuit court.”
– CITY OF ORLANDO
Commissioner Rose has since shared that she had no prior knowledge of Hill’s home being condemned.
