A Florida man is at risk of losing his home now that the dispute over the cutting of his grass has escalated with the government.

J. Ficken is the man who owns the home and last year he says that he was away for some time, helping to take care of his late mother's estate, which is when the grass allegedly grew more than 10 inches in his yard.

Ficken had allegedly arranged to have someone cut and take care of the lawn, but that individual unexpectedly passed away and the grass was left uncut.

Once the city noticed the grass, they started issuing fines, reportedly $500 every day.

Those fines eventually grew to around $30,000 before Ficken was allegedly even notified of the problem that he was now facing.

The tall grass might not look nice to some and is something that can easily and quickly be taken care of, and might have sooner been dealt with if the city adequately notified Ficken of the problem. But at the end of the day, this is a victimless action, and Ficken having to pay these fines will significantly impact his financial well-being and life.

Ficken is retired and on a fixed income, he admits that this amount in fines that he is facing is several years of living expenses for him, it's a devastating situation that he faces, all because he failed to cut his grass.

Lawyers who are now representing Ficken have filed a lawsuit and are arguing that the fines are too excessive, describing the fines as crippling for the individual. They argue that these limitless fines are unconstitutional; citing that the U.S. Supreme Court previously reaffirmed the notion that cities are prohibited from imposing excessive fines.

The city code enforcement has reportedly decided to now move forward with actions to foreclose on Ficken's home, but Ficken has decided to sue the city in response to the ordeal, that lawsuit was recently launched. However, the city says they still haven't had time yet to review that pending litigation that has been filed. The lawyers who are representing Ficken free of charge say that they'll take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if they need to; if that is what it's going to take to pursue justice in this matter.

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