It All Started With a Garage Sale!

Hi Alley

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:35:43 PM
In desperation, Nikki decides to send an e-mail to a former co-worker. She is worried (needlessly–we totally believed her, because we have all been through the lies, and attempts to discredit us, that she is now going through) that Florida F.A.C.E.OFF. will not believe her story, and she wants someone who knows her, and who knew the details of her case, to be aware of her plight. These are her words from that e-mail:

From: Nikki Lally 
To: Scott Ellis/Brevard County Clerk of the Court
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 12:56:09 PM
Subject: I need your assistance, PLEASE.

Not sure if you remember me but this is Nikki Lally. I do not know if you will remember some of the stories that I used to tell at the birthday luncheons about all of our troubles from the hurricanes (2004 Hurricanes and Hurricane Wilma in 2005) and then all of our trouble with State Farm (took 13 adjusters and 2 engineering company reports) paying us our insurance money. I do not know if you will recall how we got scammed out of our insurance money to rebuild and after the insurance trailer was taken away, how we moved into the studio apartment above our garage when our house was torn down after it split into 6 large pieces.

All of our recent trouble started with a garage sale the weekend of 3/21 and 3/22. Our neighbor owns the land the driveway is on but per our deed, we have legal use of it and it is our access to State Road 520. Our neighbors threw a hissy fit because of all the traffic even though it was the first garage sale we have had here in almost 10 years. In fact, the son even stopped in the driveway and yelled at my wonderful husband about all the traffic and all the junk in the yard. They called Code Enforcement about the garage sale and even stated I was having a continuous garage sale which is my FreeCycling where I give stuff away for free and people come and pick it up. Code Enforcement then gave it to Building who said that according to code we cannot have a garage without a house. Per their recommendations, we even let them inside and they took pictures (yeah, we are still too trusting) and we submitted a building permit so we could get our studio apt. on second floor/garage (it was like that when we bought property almost 10 years ago) rezoned/recoded as our house then get a variance when we rebuild. We got letter regarding our permit on Saturday 5/16 and on 5/19, Permitting and Code came out and served us with violation stating that we have to vacate where we live by 6/18 because “This structure is declared to be a public nuisance and a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the neighborhood and the building official or designee has prohibited its or occupancy.” We have survived so much and endured so much more and am paying a mortgage on a house that does not exist, have paid our property taxes and have NEVER lost our Homestead Exemption and because of a CODE, they are making us and our 3 teenage boys HOMELESS!!!! I even asked about pitching a tent to stay on OUR property and the agent Thomas Sullivan told me we would be fined. How can Brevard County make us move out of our home???? And to pay a mortgage on property and NOT ALLOWED to live there. The agent tried to tell me he understood. NO WAY ! I asked him if he had lost his house to the hurricanes, if he had EVER been flooded and under water then I told him not to say he understood. I told him the whole office HAS NO EMPATHY! 

…our story has been picked up by Florida F.A.C.E.OFF. They have been trying to get a meeting with our District 1 Commissioner Robin Fisher. I found out today that during a commissioner/council meeting…another member of FACEOFF got up and started to talk about the Lally situation…

I already told Thomas Sullivan that I may be shooting myself in the foot but we were not leaving our property. I refuse to allow a code to make our family homeless even though we have paid our taxed, have never lost homestead exemption and are still paying a mortgage on a house that no longer exists. After I got laid off in Feb, Rich got laid off in March. He finally found a job…So, it is just me doing all the phone calling and meeting people who are coming out to our house and so forth.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Nikki Lally

Friday, May 29, 2009 1:00:18 PM

It is still so amazing that all of ‘this’ started with a garage sale back in March…this turned into 2 cases. When our neighbor called to complain about the yard sale (first one in almost 10 years) and ‘continuous yard selling’, the agent John Fecteau said that there is a code that says you cannot have a garage on your property without a house. So he forwarded the info to Permitting and Enforcement.

Originally code enforcement also cited us for having farm animals, litter/junk in yard, failure to maintain, junk vehicles (talking about our 69 Lincoln and we let some friends store their Ram Charger while they moved out of state) and having a commercial vehicle…They want me to give up my baby, Snowflake, my pygmy Nubian. It just about breaks my heart since I bottle feed her and have had her since she was a baby. And we are only allowed to have one chicken!!! They are taking food out of our children’s mouths…

And we even brought all the proof to Viera to show Mike? that the State of Florida says the box truck is NOT a commercial vehicle, the Brevard County Tax Collector says it is NOT a commercial vehicle and our insurance company says it is NOT a commercial vehicle. But when we brought this info to Code Enforcement including the request from the Brevard County Tax Collector to call them, all we got from Mike ? was “There’s more to it than that.”

We did find out that the continuous yard selling is actually our FreeCycling where we post FREE stuff on Yahoo groups and people come and pick it up. I cannot believe that I am being accused of selling when we try to help others in Brevard County by giving them stuff that they need. Mothers who cannot afford to buy clothes for their sons. Women who need clothes for work. Parents who have been laid off and and have lost so much who need sheets for their kids to sleep on.

I have also been trying to contact my District 1 Commissioner Robin Fisher to make an appointment to meet with him in person. I voted for the man…in that council meeting…The gentleman with FACEOFF who got up to speak was told…that I had not told the whole story to the group, that I was lying and accused of ‘illegally selling’. Thanks again for listening.

Nikki and Richard Lally

6/6/2009 2:50 AM EDT
Traumatized by everything that has happened to her, Nikki Lally turns to blogging to try to reach out to more people and make them aware of her heart-wrenching story. To read Nikki’s Blog:

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Nikki

Sunday, June 14, 2009

An Open Message to the

Thank you for your concern for the homeless, as shown at the beginning of this Brevard County Commission Meeting:

Brevard County Board of County Commissioners Meeting Video

Yes, it’s sad when a Government Unit does that.

So please don’t throw Nikki and Richard Lally out onto the street. Let’s not leave everything up to Pastor Dan!