Hearing Officer Lawrence Clifford on Monday set deadlines for action to be taken on two Warsaw properties by their owners.
In the first case, if the garage at 1027 E. Market St. isn’t secured by April 10, Clifford ordered it demolished.
During the Feb. 21 Warsaw Code Enforcement Hearing, Clifford ordered demolition for the East Market Street garage, owned by Charles Hartley. Since the property had a $59,135.66 judgment against it and was scheduled to be part of a sheriff’s sale the following week, Clifford set a hearing on the matter for Monday for the new owner and/or bank.
Then on Monday, Fred Johnson told Clifford he was with RE/MAX and was hired by Specialized Loan Servicing (SLS), Highlands Ranch, Colo., to market and liquidate the property. SLS was hired by the foreclosing company/bank that bought the property and wants to sell it, but Johnson couldn’t identify who now owns the property. Johnson said the property was foreclosed on and Hartley has until April 3 to vacate the premises.
“(SLS) represents more than one client. It could be Chase, it could be Wells Fargo, it could be a number of different people that they represent,” Johnson said.
“Who is it?” Clifford asked. “Who do they represent?”
“I don’t have it,” Johnson replied. “They won’t give me that. I’m hired strictly with (SLS).”
“Then how do I know they have an interest in it? Could you tell me?” Clifford asked.
“Do a title search I guess,” Johnson answered, saying he had a copy of SLS’s relocation agreement with Hartley and an email stating SLS was hiring him. “All we are doing is representing them to sell the property, get somebody in there who’s going to fix it up and take care of it so this issue goes away. That’s all we are here for.”
Clifford told Johnson it was strange that he didn’t actually know who owned the property. Johnson said it wasn’t strange at all in his world.
“I’m hired by different companies that represent a number of clients,” Johnson said.
County property records still show Hartley owns the property, which isn’t uncommon, Building Department Administrative Assistant Zannie J. Powell said. Clifford asked Johnson for his plans on the property.
Johnson said he’d list and sell the property once it was vacated and deemed able to be marketed. He said RE/MAX hasn’t been in it yet because Hartley is still occupying the property and they can’t go in it until Hartley vacates it, which he has until April 3 to do.
Clifford then asked to hear from the city on the property.
Building Commissioner Ray Behling said that on March 8 RE/MAX asked that the demolition be held off until they could get the current owner out and the property up for sale in case the new buyer would want to fix it instead of demolishing it. Behling said RE/MAX was asked to keep the Code Enforcement Department posted about the progress.
As for the garage, Behling said it was falling down, only getting worse and was not secured and anyone could get in and out of there. The garage is detached from the house, which also is on the lot. Clifford asked Behling what the condition of the house was, but Behling said he’s never been inside it. There has been some issues with the yard.
Clifford then asked Johnson for his opinion on the garage. Johnson reiterated the plan was to get Hartley out of there so the property could be cleaned up and secured and someone else could get in there who would take care of the “eyesore.” Clifford said the city’s estimate of repairing the garage was $25,000. “That would build a pretty nice garage,” Johnson said. Behling said that estimate included demolishing the old garage and rebuilding a new one, and that was just an estimate.
Behling said his concern was that the longer the garage sits, the worse it will get. Even if it’s secured, it’s still falling apart. “Unless we put a time limit on it, it has to come down,” he said.
Taking into account that Hartley has until April 3 to vacate the premises, Clifford ordered the garage to be secured by the new owner on or before April 10. If the garage is not secured by then, Clifford ordered it demolished as of April 10 and a lien set against the property for demolition costs.
Clifford told Johnson, “You’re responsible for scheduling and passing the inspection by the Department of Code Enforcement on or before April 10 to show that it’s been secured. If you fail to schedule that inspection, or if you fail to pass that inspection, then the property will be demolished as of that date.”
He reset a hearing for 1027 E. Market St. for 1:30 p.m. May 15. He also told Johnson he wants to know who the owner of the property is by then.
The other scheduled hearing before Clifford was for the property at 507 N. Lake St., owned by Alan and Diana Kado through a trust. Alan Kado and their attorney, Richard Helm, spoke at the hearing.
The Kados were sent a letter Nov. 18 of 11 violations on the property. Behling said Kado was in pretty good shape with the timeline of repairs that he provided to the city since then. “He had an engineer go out and look at the flooring issues, the foundation issues, and they’re making those repairs right now,” Behling said. He stated about 75 percent of the work needed was completed.
The property has an upstairs and a downstairs unit. The upstairs is occupied, but the downstairs is vacant, Alan said.
After going through the list and Behling and Kado discussing which issues were repaired and which ones were still being dealt with, Helm questioned the need for the hearing since he and Kado had been working with the city’s department on the issues in a diligent matter. Behling said the department just wanted a record of the progress Kado was making on the property.
“Frankly, we’ve had multiple communications with a couple of deferrals of hearings, based on progress, and I consider it not particularly a useful thing to spend all of our time and money to come in and do a formal hearing when a communication between the city building department and an attorney suffices as an agreement,” Helm stated.
Clifford said Helm was entitled to his opinion, but he was there for a different function.
“No, I think we’re here for the same function,” Helm said. “I’m saying there’s two attorneys on the case and they agreed on something and it be done. If they want to have a formal hearing, that’s fine. I’m going on record to say that’s a considerable waste of man hours and time when it can be done by an agreement. We haven’t had any disputes on anything up to this point. I was told I had to come in, my client had to come in, and establish for you how far we’re done. ... Again, a conversation would have done it. It could have been confirmed in writing.”
Clifford said he wasn’t sure what Helms’ point was, to which Helms replied, “Rational people who are not disagreeing on making progress don’t have to have a formal hearing to establish a timeline. They can agree on it.”
Clifford went on to modify his demolition order to a repair order on the Lake Street property. All the repairs must be completed by May 15. The hearing was reset to that date at 1:30 p.m., with the understanding that Kado should schedule an inspection of the property with the code enforcement department by that date.