Florida retiree fights City’s $250,000 fine for allegedly “unpermitted” dock that was approved 30 years prior

After Hurricane Irma swept across Florida in 2017, retired widow Carol Edwards applied for a permit to repair a dock on her property in Altamonte Springs. The City informed her that no repair permit was needed, so Carol set to work. When she finished the lengthy and expensive repairs, however, she found herself facing a new challenge—the City imposed a ruinous fine on her dock to push her into tearing it down.

Shortly after the hurricane, Carol’s longtime neighbor sold his property. After the sale, Carol learned that her newly repaired dock encroached a few feet into the water space of the adjoining lot. The inadvertent encroachment had been approved by the City in the dock building plans three decades prior and had never caused conflict with her old neighbor. Even though the new buyer knew about it before he bought the property, he complained to the City about Carol’s dock shortly after his purchase. The City then began a years-long campaign to force Carol to demolish it.

First, the City alleged that her dock had been built illegally because the local government had no record of an initial permit—a flood had destroyed years of City records. Even though the dock had been noted on county tax records since 1989 and Carol had a copy of the permit proving that the City had approved construction three decades ago, the City continued to claim that the dock was an illegal structure.

Based on this false claim, the City then told Carol that she needed to destroy the dock and secure permits for an entirely new construction. She spent years and tens of thousands of dollars submitting engineering and alternate plans, which the City flatly rejected.

Finally, the City began fining Carol $100 every day that she did not tear down her dock. The fine is currently up to $250,000—and accrues daily.

Carol already won a legal victory in state court proving that the City had approved her dock’s construction three decades ago and that she has a right to keep it. But despite the state court’s ruling, the City has refused to drop its allegations against her—or to dismiss the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines it wrongly imposed on Carol’s property.

The City violated Carol’s constitutional rights by imposing hundreds of thousands of dollars in still-accruing fines without due process or the opportunity for appeal. The government must provide a jury trial when imposing significant fines, and those fines must be proportionate to the alleged offense.

Represented at no cost by Pacific Legal Foundation, Carol Edwards is filing a federal lawsuit against the City of Altamonte Springs for violating her constitutional rights by imposing excessive fines without a jury trial.