In 2013, Don Bourgeois invested much of his life’s savings in a multi-unit rental property in Largo, Florida, planning to use the revenue from the rentals for his retirement. The property needed some work, but Don is a retired builder and fine woodworker with an architectural engineering degree who was confident he could handle the repairs himself. Little did he know the City had other plans that would ultimately cost him his entire investment—and his rights.
Within a month, and with permit in hand, Don began work on the first project, replacing the roof. But the City quickly revoked his permit, insisting he hire a licensed third-party contractor instead—something Don couldn’t easily afford, especially after some tenants moved out, reducing his rental income.
Two years later, City officials issued a code enforcement notice for several violations, including the unfinished roof repairs and a lack of heating units (which many Florida homes do not have). The notice ordered Don to address all violations within about a month or daily fines of $250 would begin the very next day.
Absent a miracle, there was no way Don could meet such an abrupt deadline on his own. Nor could he afford to quickly hire contractors for the City’s laundry list of deficiencies. He was relieved by a code enforcement officer’s repeated assurances that the fines would be forgiven if he just kept making progress on the repairs.
Trusting the officer’s word, Don obtained several other City permits—spending thousands of dollars and many hours of his own labor—to repair and improve the property.
Then came the devastating twist. While the City kept granting Don new permits and he kept working on the building, the City allowed the $250 daily fines to accumulate without further notice. The City even identified new violations that Don quickly remedied, still believing those fines would be forgiven. But in June 2021, when the penalties ballooned to an astonishing $590,295, the City finally moved to foreclose on the property. By the time Don was served with the foreclosure papers in August 2021, he had remedied nearly all the code violations.
Don tried to defend himself, asking a court to hold that the cumulative fine was unconstitutionally excessive, that the City broke its promise to forgive the fines, and that he should have had a fair chance to challenge the enormous fine before losing his property.
The court wouldn’t consider Don’s claims, tossing them out without a hearing. When Don appealed, the higher court said he was too late—claiming state law only allows such challenges within 30 days of an initial notice. Missing that 30-day period in 2015 shut the window on any chance for Don to raise any of these claims, even though his penalties piled up for the next six years, to more than half a million dollars, before the City abandoned its plans of forgiveness.
Adding insult to injury, the City sold Don’s property at auction just two months after the appellate court ruling for a mere $99,100–despite a county appraiser’s $480,000 valuation.
Both the U.S. and Florida Constitutions prohibit excessive fines and guarantee due process. Yet Florida law gives just 30 days from the initial notice to challenge enforcement, even though the penalty in Don’s case was designed to increase indefinitely. This rigid deadline prevented Don from contesting the excessive fines even after he corrected the violations and the City enforcement officer’s promises proved false.
His retirement investment totally wiped out, Don sought review at the Florida Supreme Court, which was denied. Now, with free representation by Pacific Legal Foundation, Don has taken his fight to federal court to restore his rights and end Largo’s destructive and illegal use of fining power as a money-making scheme.
What’s At Stake?
- The Constitution bars municipal governments like the City of Largo from deploying their code enforcement powers as money-making schemes.
