The size of Hialeah Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves’ home has doubled in size in county property-tax records, just days after the Miami Herald reported that she has been fined for property code violations.
According to a Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s summary report, Garcia-Roves’ house, built in 1949, expanded on the documents from a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home with a living area of 936 square feet to a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home measuring 1,612 square feet. The property, purchased by Garcia-Roves’ parents in 1985, was transferred to her in 2019 following her father’s death, the same year she was elected to the city council.
A general view of Hialeah’s Interim Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves’s in East Hialeah on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Hialeah, Fla., who has been fined by the city for code violations.
Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomás Regalado told the Herald that his office opened an investigation into Garcia-Roves’ property after receiving multiple complaints in August about potential code violations, including alleged illegal expansions.
“Several months ago, when the campaign started, several complaints came in, and one of the complaints was that the mayor’s house didn’t have the square footage,” Regalado said.
Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser Tomás Regalado
Following the complaints, the Property Appraiser’s office conducted an aerial inspection on Oct. 10, according to David Guerra, director of the Residential Inspection Division.
When asked how the office verified the change from a 3/1 to a 4/2 layout based on an aerial inspection, Regalado said, “That was verified with the owner.” He did not specify the exact date of confirmation but noted that Garcia-Roves made a courtesy visit to his office in August, after the complaints were received by the county. Guerra confirmed that the matter was discussed directly with Garcia-Roves early in the process.
“When all this started—the complaints—she told us that what appeared on the Property Appraiser’s summary was incorrect,” Guerra told the Herald during a conference call alongside Regalado, noting that Hialeah mayor specifically stated her property was not actually a 3/1 but a 4/2. “She also said she didn’t know why the information was incorrect.”
A general view of Hialeah’s Interim Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves’s in East Hialeah on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Hialeah, Fla
However, Garcia-Roves has repeatedly denied any expansion of her property. She told the Herald on Tuesday that she met with Regalado on Aug. 8 to present information about Hialeah’s taxes, not about her own home.
READ MORE: Hialeah mayor denies building violations cited by her own department on her property
“It was an informative presentation,” she said. She noted that at the meeting with Regalado there was a reference to a Herald public-records request regarding a Hialeah candidate’s property, but said it did not involve her home. However, on Aug. 4, the Herald had requested public records from the Property Appraiser’s office specifically for Garcia-Roves’ property.
“At no point was my property mentioned” at the meeting with Regalado, she said. She added Regalado is “now lending himself to lying” about what happened because he supports another candidate for Hialeah mayor in the Nov. 4 elections.
Hialeah Mayoral candidates, from left Interim Mayor Jackie Garcia-Roves, former Councilman Bryan Calvo listen as councilman Jesus Tundidor talks during a Mayoral debate at Univision 23 (WLTV) channel ahead of the November 4 elections, in Doral, Wednesday October, 15 2025.5.
Regalado responded to Garcia-Roves’ accusation, saying, “I don’t know what I’m lying about. We investigate every complaint, and it turned out there was more square footage in her property. This has nothing to do with any political preferences. I’m not involved in these investigations.”
On Oct. 22, following another complaint to the Hialeah Building and Code Compliance Department, Garcia-Roves was fined $250 for multiple violations on her home, including an addition, awning, re-roof, fence, and columns that had been built without permits. The inspection was conducted from outside the property. She said she received the notice of the inspection days later, the same day the county Property Appraiser’s Office updated her home’s dimensions, on Oct. 27.
Guerra noted that the updated sketches and assessed values of Garcia-Roves’s property will not appear in the county’s public records until the 2026 tax rolls. He estimated that her property’s market value could increase by more than $100,000 — from the current $365,534 to as much as $550,000. Last year, Garcia-Roves paid $3,229.84 in property taxes, which could rise substantially under the new assessment.
A Google Street View image from April 2022 shows substantial exterior modifications to Hialeah Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves’s home, decades after her family acquired the property.
The Property Appraiser’s office said it did not plan to fine Garcia-Roves for the previously undisclosed additions to the property because they cannot determine the exact date the home’s dimensions changed.