By Eric Spivack
Here’s a fun one for you that I think is a good indicator of how things don’t work the way they should be in the city: The house next-door to us is a vacant property, and has been vacant for almost 10 years. It is listed on the city’s vacant property list. On a regular basis I have to contact the city to complain about tall grass and other maintenance issues to get it addressed.
A couple years ago the property changed hands and was purchased by a new owner. Haven’t spoken to the new owner, I know that she has no intent of doing anything to it and needs prodding to maintain the property. I have continued to complain to the city during this time in order to get the same issues addressed.
Today, instead of submitting the same complaint I decided to call it in and see if I could have it more proactively addressed. I also want to know if the property was consistently an issue, could there be a stronger resolution to it. The person I spoke to said that they are aware of the multiple issues and currently had a summons for court in June to address it with the property owner. All of this sounded great, except for a ‘minor’ detail that this department had missed.
I had a hunch that they had not updated their database so I asked who they showed as the current owner. As I expected, this department still showed the previous owner, having not updated their database over the last 2 years. BTW, that person is deceased, having passed in 2012. This meant that all notices, including the court summons, were being sent to a deceased person, which obviously wasn’t going to help address the issue. I provided this person with the new owner’s contact info, which should hopefully improve the situation.
In short, clearly departments should be regularly updating databases to reflect changes of ownership and if relevant parties are deceased.
A couple years ago the property changed hands and was purchased by a new owner. Haven’t spoken to the new owner, I know that she has no intent of doing anything to it and needs prodding to maintain the property. I have continued to complain to the city during this time in order to get the same issues addressed.
Today, instead of submitting the same complaint I decided to call it in and see if I could have it more proactively addressed. I also want to know if the property was consistently an issue, could there be a stronger resolution to it. The person I spoke to said that they are aware of the multiple issues and currently had a summons for court in June to address it with the property owner. All of this sounded great, except for a ‘minor’ detail that this department had missed.
I had a hunch that they had not updated their database so I asked who they showed as the current owner. As I expected, this department still showed the previous owner, having not updated their database over the last 2 years. BTW, that person is deceased, having passed in 2012. This meant that all notices, including the court summons, were being sent to a deceased person, which obviously wasn’t going to help address the issue. I provided this person with the new owner’s contact info, which should hopefully improve the situation.
In short, clearly departments should be regularly updating databases to reflect changes of ownership and if relevant parties are deceased.
How much wasted time/effort has gone into sending a dead person these notices?
How much farther would this have gone?
Would the court have issued an arrest warrant when the party didn’t show for court in June?
Where would it stop?
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