DAVIE, Fla. – An armed home invasion, loud parties, speeding and garbage everywhere. Now, some Davie residents say more needs to be done to stop out-of-control vacation rentals and the two men who own them.
The owners of two houses on one street had to make an appearance before a special magistrate for violations. But are they concerned about the neighbors who live around the houses?
“It is frightening to all of us what goes on in those houses. It really is frightening to us,” said Linda Morrow.
Diego Viaza said he’s never seen an issue until these two houses.
In a special magistrate hearing for code violations, neighbors were taking aim at Albert and Moshe Wahba. The residents are blaming the brothers for turning the quiet neighborhood on Southwest 55th Avenue into party central.
Janice Olsen said she has lived in the subdivision for 54 years.
“Never had any complaints whatsoever until these two people came in and made B&Bs,” she said.
The Wahbas own and turned two houses, next door to each other, into vacation rentals.
“I counted. There were 16 college kids staying in that house this past weekend,” Morrow said.
She lives two doors down from the houses and has had to confront renters often.
She said she caught them swimming in her pool.
“They threw black beans in my pool, which took me forever to get them out,” Morrow said.
Morrow said that was their revenge for telling them to not swim in her pool.
She said another man threatened to beat her daughter.
“I asked the guy to slow down and the guy’s coming to want to beat my daughter up. He said, ‘This is a public street,’” Morrow said.
Last December, there was a home invasion robbery – three men tied up a woman in one of the homes. They stole electronics, jewelry and her dogs.
The residents said there are a constant parade of speeding cars. There are garbage cans on the vacation properties that are overflowing. There are glass bottles and beer bottles everywhere, the residents said.
“You need to control the people that move in,” the town’s code compliance director said at the hearing.
The brothers replied by saying: “We try to do what we can. To maintain the order. Maintaining the noise. We do the best we can. When there is an issue with cars speeding up and down the street, there is only so much I can do.”
One of the brothers asked, “If there are so many complaints, why isn’t the police there with a radar?”
They refused to answer Local 10 News’ questions when we saw them at the hearings.
The Wahba brothers were fined $700 for code violations, mostly to do with renovations made without permits.
Morrow speaks for all the residents when she begs for something to be done about the nuisance.
“This is a quiet family neighborhood, and this should not be allowed to go on in our neighborhood,” she said.
Other cities are cracking down on vacation rentals. In Hollywood, for instance, rentals need to be licensed and noise detection devices must be installed.
In Davie, there are no special rules and regulations.
Davie Mayor Judy Paul didn’t respond to a Local 10 News email requesting a comment.