Global Courant 2023-04-25 17:00:00
Last month, Marina Adair returned to Bradenton in desperation to save her home.
Located in the Village of the Arts neighborhood that Adair helped establish, the 1925 house had once been the site for her art space, Marina’s Village Studios and Gallery, which showcased local artists. But Adair, 63, planned to move in and spend the rest of her life there.
The artsy neighborhood is home to more than a dozen studios and shops that are also artists’ residences. In Bradenton, the community is known for its vibrantly painted homes and Art Walk events that attract thousands of visitors each month.
However, Adair’s retirement plan was jeopardized after the city filed a lawsuit against her last August to seize the home over unpaid code enforcement fines.
The fines stemmed from a 2014 code violation for “dirt, mold and mildew” and “chaking, chipped and peeling paint” on the exterior walls of her home, which Adair said was the result of algae from banyan trees in the front of the house. her house. and paint that was removed when she removed a vine growing on the house.
Adair was aware of the first breach but believed it was resolved in 2014 when she hired a handyman to clean the walls.
The lawsuit came as a shock.
It was filed by a private attorney named Matt Weidner, who signed a contract with the city in 2020 to file foreclosure lawsuits against properties with unpaid code fines. Under the terms of the deal, Weidner gets a portion of what the city gets back by foreclosure homes and selling them at auction or making settlements with owners like Adair to pay some or all of what they owe. are payable.
A Miami Herald investigation found that Weidner has signed similar agreements with a total of nine cities and counties across the state and has imposed foreclosures for code violations in the cities that hire him.
That research, and its impact, could now help Adair keep her home.
In Bradenton, Weidner has filed 37 lawsuits on behalf of the city over the past three years. The city does not appear to have filed any similar cases in the decade prior to Weidner’s hiring.
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Through October 18, 2022, Weidner had received more than $230,000 from Bradenton in fees and expenses, according to public records obtained by the Herald. Statewide, Weidner has filed more than 780 foreclosure cases since 2015 and collected about $3 million in fees and expenses for his work.
Weidner declined to comment on his work for the city and directed the Herald to contact Bradenton officials.
‘Sleepless nights’
In the lawsuit against Adair, the city said a subsequent re-inspection of her home later in 2014 found the property still did not meet requirements. But Adair said she was never told about the subsequent inspection.
Fines for the violation were increased by $100 per day and the city now said Adair owed $75,000 in fines, the maximum amount allowed by city law.
Adair, who works in the insurance industry, has been wondering how to keep her house. She hired a lawyer to fight the case and considered emptying her retirement accounts to try and pay some of the fine.
“I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve had,” she said. “That would be my retirement home.”
Undated photo of Marina Adair, who is at risk of losing her home in Bradenton over a code violation she knew nothing about.
Adair purchased the home in 2000, the year after the Village of the Arts was first established. For several years, Adair served on the board of the Artists Guild of Manatee, which supports the Village of the Arts, and would later serve as president of the Manatee County Arts Council.
Adair envisioned the neighborhood as a more down-to-earth alternative to Sarasota’s established and more expensive arts offerings, and she was proud that they helped transform what was once a crime-ridden neighborhood into the vibrant neighborhood it is today.
“We’ve done a lot in that community,” she said. “We wanted to keep it local. We just wanted more people to support the art.”
Adair was living in San Antonio at the time her home suffered its first code violations. She had moved there in 2013 to care for her ailing parents and initially planned to return to Bradenton in a few years. But her stay was extended as her parents continued to require care and was further extended after her daughter suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2021. She rented out Bradenton’s house early in her time in San Antonio, but after some negative experiences, she decided to keep the house. house mostly empty, welcoming family and friends to stay there when in Bradenton.
Adair had been in direct contact with the city’s chief of law enforcement, Volker Reiss, shortly after learning of the 2014 violation. Reiss had even sent a letter to Adair’s San Antonio address about the matter. But instead of notifying her after the re-inspection in San Antonio, the city only sent the non-compliance notice to her home in Bradenton.
She said she learned the issue was considered unresolved when she was notified of the lawsuit on August 26, 2022. This time, the city was able to find its address in San Antonio.
In support of the city’s request for summary judgment, ruling the case in Bradenton’s favor without trial, Reiss, the chief of code enforcement, confirmed that he had sent the notice of non-compliance to Bradenton’s address. had sent – but not to her San Antonio address. Weidner, filing on behalf of Bradenton, insisted that the law did not require the city to notify Adair in Texas because “the order was sent to its registered address.”
The circuit court judge presiding over the case, Edward Nicholas, sided with Bradenton and ruled in late February to foreclose Adair’s home. The house will be auctioned on June 1.
Adair’s assessment of the case was blunt.
“It’s legalized robbery,” she said. “It’s not right.”
Bradenton is reviewing the Code Policy
Adair hoped she and the city could come to a settlement, but the city’s $30,000 offer had forced her to withdraw money from her retirement accounts to pay the balance. Adair said she was doing everything she could to find another solution. She tried to contact city manager Rob Perry. She called Josh Cramer, the city councilman representing the neighborhood in which the house is located.
“I called everyone I could think of,” she said.
Her trip to Bradenton came a month after the judge ruled against her. It also came a week after the Herald published an investigation into the surge in foreclosures in Bradenton and other cities that had partnered with outside attorney Weidner.
Perry said the Herald’s reporting prompted a review of the city’s policies to clearly define when foreclosure is an appropriate measure.
“I have instructed Code Enforcement to compile a manual that clearly outlines what the process will be to approve the foreclosure of the properties,” he said. “It needs to be more formalized with our municipality’s policy.”
Marina Adair’s home in Village of the Arts on 12th Street West was intended to be the home where she spent the rest of her life before attorney Matt Weidner filed a lawsuit against her. Weidner signed a contract with the City of Bradenton to file foreclosure lawsuits against properties with unpaid code enforcement fines.
Perry also intervened in Adair’s case to reach a settlement.
Adair and the city were discussing $30,000 when Perry contacted her attorney to say the city would be willing to accept $10,000 instead, as long as she could make sure the property complied with city codes.
While the deal is not yet final, she has taken steps to get the house compliant, transferred the money to her lawyer, and hopes the city will honor the agreement and allow her to keep her house.
Defending Weidner’s work for the city, Perry said the attorney “has actually done a pretty good job” in getting homeowners to comply, citing complicated probate cases and a desire to eradicate slum and blight in Bradenton.
“There are a lot of things that make it difficult, but at the same time I have to clean up the neighborhoods,” Perry said.
But the foreclosure trial experience has changed Adair’s view of the city and made her question her plan to eventually retire to Bradenton.
“I’m worried,” she said. “I’m almost to the point where I think I should sell the property if I can. It all just depends.”
