I’m Louis Adamson

Updates

Since around mid February, I became aware and started to learn about the potential within the relationship between property owner and the governing municiplity bestowed with the power to exercise authoritority over that property. I’ve found it hard to understand how this potential was put in place to be reached. It’s been eye-opening. It’s been slightly amusing here and there. Some of this was information I had read or witnessed related to my properties. Other times the amusement came from the broad research I sought ot make sense of it all, to find similar examples that support the outcome I hope for, or to understand how to become less shocked by how this potential gets put on the books.

To get a better idea of I’m talking about, here are a few notable examples you may have heard about in the news:

A case involving a Florida man fined nearly $30,000 for tall grass eventually reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. This case, involving homeowner James Ficken and the City of Dunedin, garnered national attention due to the high amount of the fine for what many considered a minor offense. The case was litigated with the help of the Institute for Justice. 

The core issue was whether such a large fine for code violations, specifically related to the excessive height of grass (exceeding 10 inches), violated the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause. Ficken argued the fines were excessive and that he wasn’t properly notified. 

While a federal judge and the Eleventh Circuit sided with the city, upholding the fine, the case highlights the ongoing debate about the proportionality of municipal fines and the reach of the Excessive Fines Clause. 

In Louisville, KY, failing to register a rental housing unit, which may include any property that is not owner occupied, and by that it means not a primary residence, is subject to penalty. I was asked for months to register a property that is a single family property purchased to redevelop, where no one lives and no one pays rent. The first offense is $100 fine, the second offense within 24 months is a $250 fine, and the third offense or more in a 24-month period is a $500 fine. The last sentence of the section describing the penalties for not registering states – “Each day of such violation(s) shall constitute a separate offense.”

This is how the potential penalty works out. If a property owner in Louisville, KY, failed to register a four-unit building for one full year, they would face escalating fines based on the ordinance’s penalty structure for each day the property remains unregistered:

First Offense: $100 per unit, which for four units would be $400 for the first day of violation.
Second Offense: Within a 24-month period, the penalty increases to $250 per unit, making it $1,000 per day for each day after the first day until the violation is corrected or the 24-month period resets.
Additional Offenses: For each day beyond this, within the same 24-month period, the fine would be $500 per unit, amounting to $2,000 per day.

Since each day of non-registration constitutes a separate offense:

The first day would be $400.
The second day would be $1,000 (first day of the second offense).
Every day after the second day would be $2,000.

For a full month (30 days), the fines would accumulate as follows:

Day 1: $400
Day 2: $1,000
Days 3 to 30: $2,000 each day

Total potential fine for one full month:

$400 (Day 1) + $1,000 (Day 2) + $2,000 * 27 days = $400 + $1,000 + $54,000 = $55,400

Thus, failing to register a four-unit building for one full month could theoretically result in a fine of $55,400, assuming no changes in the enforcement or ordinance during that period and that each day is considered a separate offense under the escalating penalty system. Even failing to register for two weeks, the approximate frequency that I visit the Post Office to empty the mail received in my PO Box for many years, the potential fine would come to $25,400. For one year, the fine could total $727,400.

This calculation is based on the information provided in the ordinance and does not account for any potential grace periods, and administrative discretion.

At the moment, I have four 4-plex apartment buildings and I’ve registered three of them. The remaining four unit building does not have a tenant in any unit nor a lease agreement in place currentlky or with a future starting date. It is terrifying. I have multiple examples the included actual notices in unopened emvelopes, displaying postmark and routing time and date stamps, and mailer ID barcode tracking history data, where the deadline to appeal had passed by the time the notice was received.

I had a Short Term Rental License on five units that are no longer active. The changes for both LT & ST happened at the time. Because the were referred to differently, one being a license and the other a registry, I thought I was registered to satisfy the LT requirement. IThe enforcing department as presented to the public that the goal was to be able to reach property owners. I was reachable and quite proactive in my communication with this department. Still, I received eight fines with no phone call.

Rental and Lead-Safe Housing Registry