Veteran Larry Murphfree from Jacksonville, FL was fined $8000 and had a foreclosure lien placed on his home for putting a small American flag in his flowerpot – even though he had a legal right to do so. If he doesn’t pay within 30 days he might lose his home.
“I want it to go away. It’s such a minor little thing and they keep coming after me,” he explained.
“They” is Murphree’s homeowner’s association. He’s lived in the Sweetwater community for years, and been at odds with the HOA for more than two. All over a flag. The veteran decided to put one in his flower pot, and has been fined as a result.
“They just sent me a letter that says I owe them around $8,000 and they put a foreclosure lien on my house,” he continued.
Action News wanted to know how that’s possible, so we took our questions to legal and safety expert Dale Carson.
“There’s an actual Florida statute that says he can display this flag,” Carson said.
Federal law from 2005 also backs that up. We reached out to the law office that reprsents the HOA and got attorney Michelle Haines. She tells me if payment is not made within 30 days, the law office can move forward with foreclosure on Murphree’s home. – See more at: http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/news/local/veteran-may-lose-home-over-flag-fight/ngRCt/#sthash.OTe76VXL.dpuf
Heads should be rolling by now
really really stupid
CALL GARY HARPER 3 ON YOUR SIDE HE WILL FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS AND PUT IT THUR THE NEWS MEDIA HE WORKS FOR CHANNEL 3 HERE IN ARIZONA LOOK HIM UP SIR.
get obama out of office and lets start taking back america one inch at a time by expelling all undesirables from our borders like illegal immigrants muslims offended by our heredity and over a half million nato troops.
Such bull$#%&!@*
What in the hell???
is his home and he can do anything he wants his country who gives the order of what to put and what not to put in his house the man in power must be a real human being not some ……..
This is AMERICA…FLY THAT DAM AMERICAN FLAG PROUDLY!!!!
That’s right fly that flag we are all in United State of America what’s the different we are in American soil that’s why people learn to shoot
I know I’m not gonna sound popular with this statement but the truth about HOA’s is that when you move in they hand you all the parameters of what you can and can’t put on the front of your house. Sound like Nazi Germany? Yep but you signed the paper when you moved in, in fact you paid for it every month. You paid to make sure you are living in a cookie cutter neighborhood. I live in an HOA neighborhood and we have a statute on how to display flags, it says we can display them attached to the corner of the front of our house, kinda out over the front of the garage. Most people I know have one so it looks nice around here and this is CA, liberal land. As far as the lien and foreclosure issue, the HOA would have had to start with a discussion about their rules about displaying flags according to their rules. Sounds nuts but when you live there you play by their rules, you get ugly with them and tell them to Go to Hell and then they say fine, here are the papers you signed, guess what we can take your house, now, wanna talk about our ridiculous fines?