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Blue Cypress Lake Stilt Houses May 13, 2015 Page 12 1. Ejectment. If the court finds the property does belong to the County, one of the remedies available to the County is to get an order from the Court removing the occupants from the stilt houses as they built on land not owned by them and without County permission. 2. Violation of the County and Florida Building Codes. It is believed that the stilt houses were built without any building permits. If this is the case, the houses must obtain after-the-fact building permits and be inspected as to electrical, plumbing and structure in order to determine if the houses meet applicable code requirements. 3. Trespass. If the court does find that the property is owned by the County, the court could also find that the stilt houses and occupants are occupying the lands without permission and are thus trespassing on County owned land. 4. Theft of utilities. Based on information and belief, the stilt houses have running water and/or electricity. The only nearby source of the water would be the County owned well at Middleton Blue Cypress Lake Park or electric in the park. If the owners do not have permission to tap into the County's well or electric, the court could hold them liable for monetary damages. When this matter came before the Board in March 2015, the County Attorney's Office wished to avoid being ensnarled in this ongoing lawsuit. Now that we are joined in the suit, we must defend the matter and the first step in the process is to file the answer and count claims. As was stated earlier, this does not mean that we must vigorously prosecute all of the counter claims, but they must be raised in the County's initial pleading. Funding: There is no funding associated with this matter. Recommendation: The County Attorney's Office recommends the Board approve filing the answer and include the applicable counter claims therein. 176