JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two brothers who own land in a Westside neighborhood say other people keeping dumping trash there. Now, they have a nuisance lien for thousands of dollars they say should go to the people that dumped trash on their land.
Brothers Jimmy and John Watson said they called the city of Jacksonville multiple times to stop trash that was being dumped by a neighbor on their six-lot investment property on Melba Street. However, the brothers are now being fined for their neighbor’s mess.
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“We’ve been seeing garbage on the property,” said Jimmy Watson.
“I’d say January, its started getting bad January first, of last year 2025,” added John Watson.
They filed a complaint November 14, 2025 against their neighbors that live at a property on Chestnut Street, located on the back side of their same block.
“They were putting trash from the back of their house on their property so we called the city to complain about it,” said John Watson.
The brothers say things got worse for their property when a large dumpster showed up on their land. But they insist the neighbors ordered it, not them.
“I came home that night and I seen the trash and I went berserk,” said Jimmy Watson.
By February 2026, the Watson brothers say they received a citation.
“They (the city) said there is nothing they can do because they didn’t see anyone put the trash on their property,” said Jimmy Watson.
The Watson brothers said the city gave them 15 days to clean up the trash. The brothers continued to tell the city that they didn’t dump trash on their own property.
The city cleaned it up and put a nuisance lien on their property for $7,909.64.
“The city was getting on us quick when we complained over a year they did nothing to 620 (their neighbors),” said John Watson.
News4Jax reached out to Jacksonville City Councilman Jimmy Peluso, who presides over the district. He sent us this statement, which reads in part:
“The owner of the property can file a lawsuit against the person who is dumping. They can also send over what information is available to JSO, and they can open up a criminal investigation.”
The Watson brothers filed a police report on April 17, 2026 against the man they believe dumped the trash on his property.
In the meantime, the brothers believe there needs to be more accountability for the people that are dumping illegally.
“For some reason, instead of being like citizens and dumping their trash responsibly, there are too many people in our city contractors even, fly by night contractors, they don’t want to tow it (trash) to the dump,” said Jimmy Watson.