Imagine having your home or business tied up in a lien worth almost three-quarters of a million dollars, not because you ignored a serious threat, but because inspectors took forever to verify your compliance.
That’s exactly what happened in Lauderdale Lakes, Broward County’s hidden slice of government overreach. A CBS Miami / News4JAX I-Team investigation revealed the city’s latest magic trick: turning routine property fixes into windfall revenues—to the tune of $300,000 in code-enforcement income projected in the 2025 budget (up 161.6% over last year).
One case sounds scripted by Kafka: Alan Levy, a prominent landlord, said his tenant’s minor bathroom permit violation should’ve cost around $18,000 to fix. Instead, it hung fire for more than 1,000 days, ballooning into a $740,000 lien—all while the city apparently had no digital system for reviewing compliance
“It took seven or eight months to do $18,000 worth of minor work… one delay after another,” Levy told CBS. “When I went in for my lien reduction, [city staff] said, ‘We don’t have a platform for that—you’ll have to speak to the city attorney.’”
Then there’s Kenneth and Mildred Bordeaux, an elderly couple with a duplex and a mortgage they hoped to leave to their kids. They were hit with $366,000 in fines because inspectors waited 222 days to recheck simple fixes—like cracked outlet covers and broken window handles—and then hit them with daily, $1,500 perviolation fines during the delay. Kenneth’s quote says it all:
“I feel like I’m just being beaten with a sledgehammer.”
Here’s the rub: the city’s 2025 budget didn’t just casually mention it—it relied on code-enforcement revenue as a major funding lever. When pressed, the city attorney refused to comment, telling CBS Miami the issue is “pending litigation before a magistrate”
So what does all this add up to?
1. Profit-first code enforcement. The city is weaponizing backlog and bureaucratic inertia into a cash cow.
2. Innocent homeowners and business owners—the Bordeauxs, Levy—get stuck between punishment and paperwork, with no digital system to verify whether they’ve complied.
3. A broken appeals process. No streamlined path to challenge or reduce liens—just silence and red tape.
4. Taxation without transparency. The fines are levied before services are complete, and residents have zero idea how to fight back.
Lauderdale Lakes’ story is a cautionary tale. When enforcement is untethered from accountability, government doesn’t protect—it preys.