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Judge Patrick Carroll makes his point!

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 10:58 pm
by stephen davis
United Press International, Inc. wrote:A Lakewood, Ohio, landlord has been ordered by a judge to house arrest in one of his derelict buildings until he makes the proper repairs.

Lakewood Municipal Judge Patrick Carroll ordered Richard Naumann to live in his Lake Avenue apartment building -- which has no heat, hot water, operable stoves or ovens -- until proper repairs are made to the two buildings he owns...


Full Story at:

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/200 ... ding/3736/

Too bad it's not February.

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 1:02 am
by Mike Deneen
Wasnt' this a Joe Pesci movie?

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 1:48 pm
by Jim O'Bryan
Yes it was aJoe Pesci movie.

I had the oppotunity to speak with his honor, Judge Patrick Carroll this weekend about this.

While it seems like a fair judgement, it is not the slums that Jow was sent to.

This is actually a nice building in Lakewood that this landlord has let go without paying the heat.

He has done this in other buildings in Lakewood, and is behind in taxes and gas bills nearly $1 million.

There has to be a way to do all of this better.

I would like to suggest a group of Lakewood citizens and rental owners getting together to buy up some of these properties, and managing them possibly through a co-op for the betterment of Lakewood.

Another idea though not feasible is to see the city landbank these apartments, make money, bank the money and use it to buy more buildings.



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Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:17 pm
by Suzanne Metelko
Jim O'Bryan wrote:He has done this in other buildings in Lakewood, and is behind in taxes and gas bills nearly $1 million.

There has to be a way to do all of this better.


How does it get this far?

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:29 pm
by Jeff Endress
How does it get this far?


a good question for Dominion East Ohio or Rokakis to address. If your gas bill was 1 month past due, you'd get a shut-off notice.

Jeff

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:31 pm
by David Anderson
All -

Aside from tenants getting screwed (along with the hot water, I would imagine their security deposits are going, going, gone), the obvious problem here is the fact that the owner is way behind in property taxes. This is a HUGE red flag for any real estate investor and is the primary issue in making these properties attractive to the market or city. Any new owner would want total relief from back taxes.

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:38 pm
by Jeff Endress
Any new owner would want total relief from back taxes.


Indeed. In fact, they are a lien on the property, as much as a mortgage. Unless satisfied in the the sale, there is a "cloud" on the title, and hence, no bank would ever consider making a mortgage loan, until they are paid. In some instances, it isn't a problem. It merely reduces the net proceeds that would be realized by the seller. However, When the property is mortgaged to the hilt, and there are significant taxes owed, it becomes impossible to find a buyer willing to pay enough to cover all that is owed. And thus begins the foreclosure process.

Jeff

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 1:40 am
by Dan Lotz
I had the recent experience of living next to one of Nauman's buildings at Lake near 117th for 5 years. His are the conspicuous buildings that often have shopping carts and other litter on the treelawns, and last year had one vacant unit's broken casement windows literally hanging out wide open for months before it was replaced--it looked like an abandoned building. I had to call the police on his tenants several times for nuisance-type issues, such as loud music, young children out late at night, illegal parking, etc.
It appeared that about 3 years ago the quality of tenancy at his buildings steeply declined. He owned 4 buildings between 117th and Cove for some time, and recently sold at least 2 that I know of--Winwood Properties is now managing them. I have heard he is a nice guy. Unfortunately, it has been his buildings that have been among the few blemishes on this otherwise charming prime rental strip.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:08 am
by Justine Cooper
Why isn't something like this prosecuted criminally? It sounds like white collar crime-theft is theft is theft and if we are working our tails off to pay property tax and some slum lord owed over a million, that is criminal to me. Why doesn't he lose the properties immediately at that abuse and neglect?

Cheers to the judge!

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:42 am
by Kenneth Warren
Justine:

I don't know the exact answer to your question about justice. Now I am speaking broadly without knowledge of the facts in this particular case. That said, I think it is accurate to say that in the Anglo-American system of law and capitalism there is, generally speaking, a structural bias toward financed investment and risk taking that favors property and corporations over renters and individual laborers.

When one recognizes this structural bias one gets a better understanding of the tipping action on the scales of justice.

It's the system, I believe.

Kenneth Warren

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:47 am
by Justine Cooper
Thanks Ken. I do recognize the bias for sure. I see it clearly as the landlord has stolen from the city. Quite frankly I don 't care too much about Dominian because I swear they are taking from us, but if the landlords who don't pay gas raise our rates, that is a different story. I hope the buildings get seized but I don't know how that works. We have so little industry here and we are all paying such high taxes to make up for it, it infuriates me that these landlords can get away with owing so much money to the city. If they all paid we might not need any more levies!!!

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:37 am
by Jim O'Bryan
Justine Cooper wrote:...We have so little industry here and we are all paying such high taxes to make up for it, it infuriates me that these landlords can get away with owing so much money to the city. If they all paid we might not need any more levies!!!



Justine

To build on your point. Dan Slife and others have been floating the idea of the city grabbing these properties and others, becoming landlords. Using the rents to offset taxes, while land banking the lots for future use.

This could also play heavily into bringing police, fire and teachers back to the city to live. City grabs property or buys, and offer them to those groups with low rates.

I think the landlord, got off easy. I also think the UPI story was very unfaor to Lakewood's housing stock.

FWIW


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Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 10:10 am
by Justine Cooper
Jim,,
It sounds like a great plan BUT what is really needed to seize the houses? If the one guy owes a million, how much more before procedures start, and then how long for procedures? How many more landlords like him owe great amounts of money that truly hurt the city and what can be done sooner to stop that?

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:08 am
by J Hrlec
On a related note...Lakewood really needs to crack down on landlords when properties to not meet acceptable standards. I remember 4-5 years ago when they wrote my landlord a citation for having a faulty railing on the back porch... and my landlord actually keeps our place nice and updated everything. Now I see decrepit doubles all around and no action taken (that I know of) to force them to clean-up and beautify Lakewood.

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 7:59 pm
by David Lay
This was picked up by Consumerist.