OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – Marion County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously authorized foreclosure on code-enforcement liens against a Summerfield lot where the owner lives elsewhere and a tenant has occupied the property for years amid junk, debris, and recreational vehicles.
Before the agenda item came up for discussion or vote, Joseph Walker used public comment to address the board.
Walker said he was there to speak on item 8.1, the code-enforcement case that he said “started in 2020,” and that the county still “can’t get the property cleaned up.” He said officials now want the board to “foreclose on the liens,” which he put at “$33,000.”
He asked, “Why [do] we keep people working for the county? We can’t even get the property cleaned up,” and said a problem unresolved for six years used to mean the person in charge resigned. “What’s wrong with the county here? My simple way of looking at it, as they used to do, is they came along, and if you have a problem like this here that can’t get resolved for six years, we asked for the guy, [the] person in charge; several of them resigned, and then hired somebody new who can do the job.”
“This can’t keep on like this here forever,” Walker said. “We got $33,000 shown here. We’re not going to get that on that vacant piece of property.” He called the way the county operates “comical.”
Commissioner Craig Curry answered before the vote. He said Walker’s claim that the county has no plan for litter and garbage “is simply not true,” and that more than 20 cases have gone to the State Attorney’s Office for prosecution, the most recent involving 13 tons of debris. He said enforcement has increased, including a deputy who goes out two days a week, and that a litter task force can call that deputy out immediately.
“I don’t know exactly the details on this one,” Curry said, “but I’m not going to go quietly into the night on this because you and I have sat down together and I have tried to explain to you the program of action that we have.” He said the program is strong enough that the county is about to visit Lake County to help build a similar one, and that cities in Marion County now share the same litter law as the county. “The problem we run into a lot of times is private property issues, and we can’t violate the law, and that’s probably what we’re looking at here.”
“We do have a plan of action,” Curry said. “We are working that plan of action.”
Marion County Attorney Matthew Minter told Walker the foreclosure item was the county doing what he was asking.
“The county can foreclose and obtain title to this property,” Minter said. “It’s a leased property. The property owner claims that he cannot get the tenant to remove the objectionable mobile homes and items off the property, and he says he can’t afford to pursue a legal action against the lessee himself, and so our remedy is since we have these outstanding code liens that we’re going to foreclose on the property, and obtain title to the property, and then we’ll clean it up.”
When the item was called, Minter said the nuisance had been abated twice and had come back.
“We can’t go out and handcuff the tenant and force him to do something,” Minter said. “And so, rather than us continuing periodically to go out and abate the nuisances, but then have it show up again, that’s why we’re proceeding with the foreclosure action.”
Commissioner Michelle Stone said she had no questions, but “Just hate this,” she said of the county being put in this position. Commissioner Matt McClain called it “a last-ditch effort to try and get this cleaned up.”
County staff told the board the case has to be filed in circuit court, the defendants have 20 days to respond, and everyone in possession has to be served. She said the parties’ locations are already known.
According to staff, the Florida rules of court would have it done within 12 to 18 months. They continued to say that the foreclosure “will be filed against the individuals in possession and the owner.”
County records put the recorded liens and administrative costs at $33,911.77, plus interest still accruing on two abatement liens. A cover sheet on the legal request listed the total as $33,911.70. The figure does not include interest already logged on the abatement liens: $1,472.53 on a 2020 unsafe-structure cleanup and $920.87 on a 2024 junk cleanup, both calculated through May 19.
The 2026 TRIM notice in the agenda packet lists the lot at 0.21 acres with a market value of $15,462. A Sept. 11 tax-account printout in the packet shows the parcel in tax-deed status, with certificates sold back to 2016 and $10,364.31 due by Oct. 31.
Property owner David Haskins’ mailing address on the tax roll is 10390 SE Sunset Harbor Road in Summerfield. Some earlier code orders were mailed to 10309 SE Sunset Harbor Road. Code Enforcement says he has allowed Miguel Serrata to live on the 100th Court lot in an RV. In a June 24 legal request, Code Enforcement Manager Robin Hough wrote that the junk and debris “annoy and injure the health of the community,” and that Haskins told officers he cannot afford an eviction. Hough wrote that another county cleanup would not stop the violations because the liens do not bind the occupants.
The cases on the parcel:
- Case 807095, a Code Enforcement Board lien recorded June 5, 2020, for $6,000 after a $100-a-day junk and zoning fine hit the cap, plus $54.50 in costs.
- Case 813887, an unsafe-structure abatement lien recorded Oct. 28, 2020, for $3,933.80. The county certified that it removed the structure after a May 22, 2020, notice.
- Case 852563, a board lien recorded Jan. 27, 2022, listed by staff at $12,500, plus $41.62 in costs, after a repeat-violation order for junk, unserviceable vehicles and zoning violations.
- Case 939457, a junk-abatement lien recorded April 10, 2024, for $4,808.69, at 12% interest. The county said it removed junk and litter after a November 2023 board order.
- Case 967354, a board lien recorded June 3, 2026, for $6,500, plus $73.16 in costs. An April 10 order found that Haskins and Serrata had not complied by April 2. It cites junk, unserviceable vehicles, a repeat violation, an accessory use without a principal structure, and an RV occupied in the Mixed Residential (R-4) district.
A Sept. 11 Property Appraiser aerial photo in the packet shows the lot packed with vehicles, trailers, and debris. Code Enforcement site photos dated June 2 show the same accumulation at ground level.