Hilton Head Realtor who rented out car, boat got ‘very nice deal’ in court Wednesday
A Hilton Head Island Realtor who collected thousands from people living in an RV, hollowed-out car and boat on his property will face less than $2,000 in fines after pleading guilty to seven code violations from the Town of Hilton Head Island.
Tad Segars was issued the citations in January after code enforcement officers found tenants living in unsafe conditions throughout his two properties off Wild Horse Road on the island’s north end. He collected between $12,000 and $15,000 in rent from people living in sheds, RVs, a boat and a car. He maintained he was providing affordable housing.
Segars was issued seven citations, each of which carried a fine of up to $1,087.50, for allowing people to live in RVs, keeping junked cars on his properties, permitting unlawful occupations and alterations of sheds and operating without permits.
On Wednesday, he appeared in Bluffton Magistrate Court and pleaded guilty to all seven citations. His legal counsel, Terry Finger, negotiated the fine for each citation down to $100.
In addition to court costs, the final cost to Segars is around $257.50 per citation, or $1,802.50 in total, according to the court.
Magistrate Judge Angela McCall-Tanner called the negotiation “a very nice deal.”
Finger said 13 of over 30 violations found on Segars’ property last year have been resolved, although he declined to comment on which of the violations were remedied.
He said a majority of the issues on the two properties, including two permits Segars needs, will be resolved within 30 days.
What was life like on Reggies Road?
A 6-foot fence surrounds the 1.94-acre lot, and few structures are visible from Wild Horse Road.
A tree canopy and ever-changing cast of vehicles masked code violations by making it difficult to determine what was on the property at a given time, code enforcement officers said earlier this year.
Over a dozen abandoned cars littered the lots, and Segars stored RVs and boats while collecting rent from their owners — a practice that requires a business license that Segars did not have.
In court on Wednesday, Finger said Segars now has two permits pending with the town.
Amid the parking lot of rusted and un-tagged vehicles, one man was living in a hollowed-out car he owned. He paid Segars around $450 per month to stay on the property, according to the citations.
At the time of the citations, a tarp covered the back of the car, and the man had run electricity to the car to pick up a television signal.
Further from the road, another man paid rent to live in a boat he owned that was connected to a trailer, according to Segars and the citations.
The boat was hooked up to a large van, and the tenant used the single-stall communal bathroom in the nearby workshop. Segars insisted the bathroom was built in the workshop before he bought the property 15 years ago, and likened it to a family sharing a bathroom inside a home.
Two sheds, which Segars called “tiny homes,” sat toward the back of the second lot. The single-room structures were connected to a sewer line that often backed up. At least two people lived in the sheds, the citations say.
Three RVs, at least one of which was owned by a tenant, sat on the property and were rented to people who work on the island. It’s illegal to live in an RV in the town unless it is parked in a campground.
There are two houses on the property, both of which were home to several working adults.
Segars admitted he did utility work and built structures on the property without permits from the town, which is illegal.
“It’s too painful and too expensive to go through all the hoops,” he told The Island Packet in early 2020. “I knew I was not following all policies and procedures, (but) people kept saying they needed a place and I said, ‘come here.’”
But the property is not built to sustain so many people.
While Segars paid for a sewer connection for the two homes on Reggies Road, the RVs and sheds that connected to it overwhelmed the system, causing it to back up and create a health hazard.
The vehicles and sheds were also siphoning electricity from the homes on the property, according to the citations. Some used a large power cord, while others, like the hollow car, used an inverter to get electricity.
Segars and his legal counsel declined to comment on which issues on the properties were resolved on Wednesday.
Code enforcement officer Wendy Conant said town staff will visit the property again Jan. 8 to ensure the violations are fixed.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREStory tips and records requests
Here’s how we reported this story:
In November 2019, Former Ward 1 Council Member Marc Grant said in a public meeting that a man was living out of a car on Hilton Head Island’s north end. We identified the property in question and the property’s owner. We then filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the town to see if the owner, real estate agent Ted Segars, had received any code violations. We found that he had.
After reviewing dozens of pages of citations, staff narratives, photos and the body camera footage from the town, the newspapers interviewed half a dozen state and local agencies, including the S.C. Realty Commission, DHEC and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, to fact-check information provided by the tenants at Reggies Road, as well as Tad Segars.
Segars’ court date was postponed due to continuances and the coronavirus pandemic. An Island Packet reporter attended his rescheduled court appearance at the Bluffton Magistrate Court on Dec. 9, 2020.
After Segars’ court date, the newspapers filed a second Freedom of Information Act request with the town for the property’s updated case file. It included body camera footage from two follow-up site visits, and notes about what on the property has been remedied.
