Jun 10, 2009 6:08 pm US/Eastern
Sunrise Sues Homeowner To Get Junk Cleaned Up
Click Here To Read The City's Complaint
SUNRISE (CBS4) ―
If one man's trash is another man's treasure, then William Daeder of Sunrise could be the richest man in the city. There is so much junk and trash strewn around his home's yard that it would make TV's Fred Sanford of Sanford and Son proud.
But while he sees nothing wrong with it, the city and his neighbors see it a different way. "Snakes crawl out," said a squirming neighbor. "You have big lizards, frogs, everything." And now the city is taking action.
Click Here to read the official suit the City of Sunrise brought against Daeder.
Daeder, who bought the three bedroom home in the 95-hundred block of Sunset Strip in 1988 for $83-thousand, is being sued by the city to clean up his property.
Neighbors say Daeder didn't always keep his house and yard cluttered with junk. It all started in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma damaged his roof. According to Daeder his mortgage company, which went bankrupt, kept his insurance check.
"I put a new roof on," Daeder said. "I did it within their time frame and they still liened me anyway."
After that he said he started receiving the fines from the city. The first was in December 2005 for an overgrown tree that needed to be removed. He was then cited for his damaged roof, rotting fencing, several broken down vehicles in his yard and eventually for all the junk in his yard – which now includes a flatbed truck, which is piled high with junk.
In the last four years, Daeder has racked up more than $200-thousand in fines, roughly the assessed value of his home. The city has also placed a two hundred dollar a day lien on the property, which they won't be able to collect until the house is sold.
Daeder told
CBS 4's Ted Scouten that the junk in his driveway is actually his way of protesting. "The only reason this stuff is here and the only reason this truck is here and all this stuff and debris, is because the city liened my house." Daeder said it could all go away fast, on one condition. "I'll clean it up when the city cleans up the liens, these illegal liens they put on my house!"
Now here's another catch, if those liens are not removed, Daeder said he could move to plan "B" starting with nother junk car for his driveway. "I can get an old car from the junk yard, like an old Malibu or something that's got dents, maybe rolled, and plate it and it'll be legal."
Daeder, who used to work as a photographer, says selling the junk in his yard for scrap has helped him get buy. If he loses the suit, he plans to clean up the yard before the city can get a court order. He thinks for all the stress the city has caused him, they should waive the fines.
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