'I don't have anywhere else to go': Family's home faces demolition order from Bay County

PANAMA CITY – A local family doesn’t know where to go in the face of the scheduled demolition of their home by Bay County on Sept. 9.

Marcie Runyon lives with her adult son, boyfriend and five children in a mobile home off of North East Avenue in unincorporated Bay County. Runyon worked out a deal to purchase the home and the land over time from a friend, Pam Gunnels, in 2020. Although there was some damage from Hurricane Michael, she said she wasn’t aware of some of the serious issues with the property.

Gunnels retained the deed while Runyon made the payments over time. But the property had problems with code enforcement starting as early as last year.

Runyon's adult daughter, Kayla Runyon, reached out to the News Herald concerned for her mother and the children in the home.

“I don’t think they like living in a small trailer with a bunch of family, but for many its their only solution,” Kayla said. “Everyone is already struggling and then [the county] is making them homeless. Then you aren’t even allowed to be homeless here, and there aren’t many shelters.”

Documents provided by Bay County show photos of the house before a sweep of the yard when junk was strewn about, which Marcie said was there when she moved in. In photos provided later in the year, the clutter was mostly gone. There was a separate issue with a cap missing from a sewer line, which Marcie said she fixed within the deadline provided by the county. There’s visible damage to the interior and roof along with other issues highlighted in code enforcement’s documentation.

“I planned on fixing the issues with the house. I thought that code enforcement had closed their case. They saw we were making improvements,” Marcie said. “Back then, it wasn’t a big deal, they weren’t tearing the house down or anything. They just wanted to get the junk cleaned up.”

The current issue that prompted the county to mark the home for demolition was the structure’s integrity. The order issued in May gave Gunnels, not Marcie, 30 days to create a plan to repair the home.

"There is so much damage to the home that no one would do the work and [the Runyons] have no money," Gunnels said. She advised the county in April that she would prefer to have the home demolished. "The property is still in my name. I pay the taxes and the all the costs for the demolition go to the taxes."

“If I knew what I had to do to fix this place I would’ve tried to do that, but I really couldn’t understand from the paperwork,” Marcie said. “The [county] guy told me no roofer will repair the roof, because they’d have to get a permit and they don’t issue permits for these old trailers. Everything needed to be licensed, you can’t do it yourself.”

All of this is complicated by a legal dispute between the property owner and Marcie as Gunnels retained the deed. Gunnels claimed breach of contract for non-payment. Both dispute the amount of and how many payments were made. The judge ordered Marcie to pay the amount was past due. The condition of the property didn't influence the decision, and the court documents say the sale of the property was as-is.

"I did have a good relationship with [Marcie]. I feel sorry for all those kids, it's not their fault they live with a house full of non-workers," Gunnels said. She said they haven't made a payment since December 2022, which the Runyons dispute. They also say they've done work on Gunnels' property that was supposed to go toward the payments.

The judge on the case said Marcie can sell the land and use the payment to settle the amount owed. The Runyons say there is a lien on the property and they can't sell it, and they will have to go back to court.

“The county doesn’t recognize me as anything other than a tenant,” she said. “They never gave me any options, I would’ve liked to be the one who got the paperwork and got to go talk to the judge.”

Valerie Sale, Bay County's chief communications officer, said that because Gunnels was the property owner of record, only she would have received correspondence. She said the code enforcement hearings were posted on the property. A photo from May shows a posting in the yard.

The only document related to the code enforcement case provided by the county with Marcie’s name is from the abated sewer issue in May from the Florida Department of Health.

Kayla said Marcie and her boyfriend work seasonal jobs doing construction, maintenance and cleaning to pay bills around the house. She said she doesn’t think they could afford to pay for the associated costs of moving into a new place.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Marcie said. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. Everything around here is expensive. We have a lot of people, it’s not just me.”

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: 'I don't have anywhere else to go': Family's home faces demolition order from Bay County