An exasperated official has declared “there has to be a better way” to deal with out-of compliance homes with dead owners in The Villages.
The Community Development District 2 Board of Supervisors on Friday morning was faced with the problem of an out-of-compliance home at 1203 San Bernardo Road in the San Leandro Villas.
The owner of the villa died this past July 13. She and her husband, Rodney, purchased the villa in 1999 for $105,000. He preceded her in death. Carolyn Hunt graduated from the University of Minnesota with a master’s degree in Public Health Administration and “was the catalyst in opening the first hospital in The Villages,” according to her obituary.
A complaint was received by Community Standards on Sept. 22 regarding “a dirty exterior villa wall.” The complaint was verified the following day.
There does not appear to be a mortgage on the home, but the utilities are past due. The board gave the homeowner five days to bring the property into compliance. If not, a series of fines will be imposed.
“There has to be a better way to deal with abandoned houses than what we are doing,” said Supervisor Jim Cipollone.
He said some of the houses are left adrift for several years, in a confusing maze of probate and non-decisions by banks.
He said the problem is bigger than CDD 2 or any other community development district in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
“This falls on the entire Villages. It’s a retirement community. People die every day,” Cipollone said. “There is a better way of doing what we are not doing.”
He pointed to squatters that took up residence at a home in the Village of Polo Ridge in Community Development District 3.
“Is that what it’s going to come to?” he asked.
CDD 2 Board Chairman Bill Schikora agreed with Cipollone.
“I know that neighbors do suffer in a situation such as this,” Schikora said.