A little known sanitation law left one Bronx homeowner with a hefty violation. NY1's Susan Jhun has an update on his situation.
A tiny piece of trash was no throw away for homeowner Richard Garey who received a $300 violation for litter on the street in front of his house.
"We do our best to maintain the sidewalks and our properties, but as far as the street, it's never really been a focus," Garey says.
That was until Garey got ticketed by the Department of Sanitation which we told you about back in July. Garey said trash would blow from overfilled garbage cans onto the street often underneath cars where it couldn't even be seen.
"It's seems like we're being ticketed for an issue which a homeowner cannot reasonably be expected to address," he says.
Under city code, Sanitation can issue violations to homeowners not only for dirty sidewalks, but also for failure to clean 18 inches into the street.
At the time, we contacted Sanitation and asked why instead of ticketing homeowners, the agency doesn't focus on catching the individuals who are actually doing the littering. Sanitation did not respond to us.
After our first story aired Garey had a hearing at Environmental Control Board and the ticket was dismissed.
"It was determined that the ticket was invalid basically because of a clerical error. It didn't really solve the issue which we feel is that our neighborhood is getting targeted for these tickets," Garey says,
NY1 reached out to sanitation, and a spokeswoman said anyone caught littering could receive a summons.