January 23 - Code Enforcement

Non-Conforming Uses and Equitable Defenses

After receiving a notice of violation from code enforcement, many homeowners respond by claiming, “But it’s been there forever!” This presentation will take a closer look at when such a defense is viable by analyzing non-conformities and equitable defenses like estoppel, vested rights, laches and impossibility with the goal of giving practitioners some takeaways on how to respond to or manage these defenses or raise them on behalf of a client.

Speaker: Jerrod Simpson

Jerrod Simpson is an Assistant City Attorney and the Municipal Prosecutor for the City of Tampa. He handles the city’s prosecution of ordinance violations in the Hillsborough County Court, both civil and criminal divisions. He also provides transactional legal assistance to the Code Enforcement Department as well as the Construction Services and Natural Resources divisions of the Development Services Department. Mr. Simpson has published articles regarding code enforcement in the International Municipal Lawyers Association’s Municipal Lawyer Journal. Mr. Simpson attended law school at Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School at the Riverview, FL campus. He was a member of the Law Review and graduated Cum Laude.