CAPE CORAL, Fla. - It was just a matter of time before the City of Cape Coral caught up with her. We first told you about Robin Speronis last month... and her alternative lifestyle, called Living Off the Grid. She lives without running water or electricity -- by choice. But her off-the-grid home is now on the radar of Cape Coral code enforcement. "I'm going to bring this to the attention of anyone who will listen until justice is served," Robin Speronis tells 4 In Your Corner's Liza Fernandez as both sit outside her home.
And Speronis says -- what the City of Cape Coral did the day after the story about her "Off the Grid" lifestyle aired in November is -- unjust.
"A code enforcement officer came, knocked on the door then posts a placard that says uninhabitable property, do not enter," says Robin as she reads the sign.
A Cape Coral code enforcement officer posted a "notice to vacate" one day after our story aired.
"Putting a woman who lives by herself, who is a widow, out on the street without any due process of law is unfathomable," says the outgraged homeowner.
The notice cites international property maintenance code and states the property is unsafe to be lived in, but Robin wonders how code enforcement would know without ever having been inside the home.
The city code compliance manager tells 4 In Your Corner he tagged the home because it doesn't have running water or electrcity, although neither modern comfort is mentioned as a requirement in the code cited by the city on the notice.
While Robin won't say whether she's been living in the home since the notice was posted, she does say the city is overreaching and threatening to take away her home -- which she owns free and clear with taxes up to date.
"Where is the justice? Why did they choose me," she asks. "…because I was exercising my First Amendment rights of free speech in discussing living off the grid."
A local attorney has since agreed to take on Robin's case for free. And the city says if she can prove she can sustain herself and her home without water or electricty both parties might be able to come to a solution.