ORLANDO, Fla. — In the last five years people have called police dozens of times about a property with two adjoining lots in an Orlando neighborhood.

Neighbors near a property at 615 East Harding Street in Orlando have contacted authorities regarding incidents on the property, ranging from criminal mischief, suspicious people, and even squatting.

Scott Paxton and Rick Sconyers are two of the residents inside the Wadeview Park community near Boone High School.

Their definition of neighborhood watch is a little different: They keep an eye on two properties, with no one living on either one of them.

“We’ve had to watch it,” said Sconyers who lives across the street from the East Harding home. “When people are on the property, when people are breaking into it … even if it’s someone looking to try and buy it, I still ask them, ‘Why are you here and what’s your purpose?’”

Corporal Rich Gregg of the Orlando Police Department used to patrol Wadeview Park from 2012-2019. He admits the unoccupied home and lot required constant attention.

In 2018, Wadeview Park thought they were welcoming in new residents to the East Harding Street home — instead it turned out to be unwanted house guests.

“We have had squatters,” resident Scott Paxton said. “We have also had people go in to the home and take it over.”

Even Gregg knew that when new tenants “moved in,” it didn’t seem right.

“One day I actually caught the person there, and they advised me that they were the victim of fraud,” Gregg explained. “Somebody had rented them the home, someone had rented them the house off of Craigslist or something like that.”

Two days later, the squatters were told to leave the premises by OPD.

“If you can imagine that whole front yard was cabinets, furniture, armoires,” Paxton listed one by one. “They moved in and had every room stocked with their belongings.”

According to an OPD incident report, it hasn’t just been squatters — 615 East Harding alone has also dealt with burglary, trespassing, and vandalism.

“The last complaint I got to that home was a complaint referenced graffiti,” Gregg said. “Someone put some anti-Semitic graffiti on the home and it looked like it was done by juvenile kids.”

What’s preventing it from being sold is an issue with encroachment. A prior owner built a pool and garage over the property line onto a second lot he owned.

He then lost the home to foreclosure but sold the other lot. That lot owner built the fence to reclaim his land.

Council Attempts to Mediate

At an Orlando City Council meeting on Monday, the lot owner of 2009 Hamilton Lane asked to split his lot in to two separate lots, one of which would be a 15-by-90-foot lot that would not be buildable.

All parties from the bank which owns the home, attorneys for the lot owner, and residents, were on hand.

District Four Commissioner Patty Sheehan has tried to help mediate between the two parties, but her attempts have been unsuccessful.

“When I asked for the independent appraisal I don’t care what’s on it,” Sheehan said at City Council.  “I asked for a land appraisal. You all are like the Hatfield and McCoys, and you are never going to agree.”

“We are not demolishing the land, we would like to sell it or buy the house to reunite it,” Jeff Aaron of Gray Robinson Attorneys at Law pleaded, who is representing the 2009 Hamilton Lane property. “Nothing changes, we just aren’t going to be held hostage anymore with our vacant piece of land.”

The city decided that these two parties were not going to be able to come to terms, and decided to allow the lot to be split into two.

Despite all the calls, all the city hall hearings and all the complaints, this neighborhood has just one simple request.

“I want to see this house turn into a home,” Paxton explained. “When I describe the word 'home,' I want to see a family living there utilizing everything around it.”

Several calls have also been made to 2009 Hamilton Lane for trespassing. In fact, on the property is a half-court basketball court. The rim of the basketball hoops was taken down by one of the neighbors, because they said people would jump the fence and make this court their own private place.

According to the attorney representing the bank, they have made an offer to pay the lot owner $40,000 for the piece of land that was encroached on. The lot owner according to his attorney offered the bank $300,000 for the house.

Both parties denied each other’s offers.

According to the attorney representing Deutshe Ban, they have a potential buyer for the house, but now do not know how that will impact the potential sale after Monday’s decision at Orlando City Council.