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Written on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 1:30pm by Christopher Smith | 12 Comments

Dreams Demolished On The East Side of Buffalo

Not much on this issue across the Buffalo blogosphere so, I figured I’d kickstart the conversation…

A Shirley Avenue couple were surprised when they lost their home to an emergency demolition following the Oct. 12-13 snowstorm.

They were even more surprised when they got a bill for about $40,000 from the city.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Isabelle Carrington, “It’s a tragedy. It’s like you have nothing. You’re homeless, and then you get hit with this enormous bill, and it’s like, “Where does life begin again?’ ”

We know there was a fire and the building was determined to be unsafe for entry but, it seems that the demolition order was handed down and executed upon in an inordinately expedient manner. This is Buffalo, after all.

A fire marshal at the scene declared the home structurally unsafe to enter, said Richard M. Tobe, commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, Permits & Inspections. Tobe’s office then bid out the emergency demolition the day after the fire and got two responses – one for about $35,000, another for around $60,000.

“Within 48 hours, a neighbor called and said our house was being torn down. Days later, we get this other bill from the city for $40,000. It’s just unbelievable.”

Richard M. Tobe, commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, Permits & Inspections, claims that the demolition order was given in the midst of the state of emergency declared after the October storm and that was the source of the confusion and lack of communication with the owner. However, the city didn’t seem to have a problem finding the owners within a few more days with a $40K demolition bill.

It seems to me that all across the east side, there are homes that are unsafe to enter while posing a significant risk to public health and safety. However, those homes don’t always have owners with insurance policies that can reimburse the city for demolition costs.

Now, the family has no home, no clothes, their belongings were destroyed during the demolition, and an empty lot where their home once stood. Their insurance policy is balking at the exorbitant demolition costs. If their insurers pay the tab for the demolition, they won’t have any money with which they can rebuild their home…they still have a mortgage and a home equity loan on the property. While the city is promising help on finding a new home, they will still have to borrow to pay for it. Thus, they would have two mortgages on their demolished property and a third on a new home.

What do you think about the city’s action on this demolition order? Were they too hasty? What should these people do now that a fire and the Buffalo bureaucracy have destroyed their lives?

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12 Comments

  1. Paul Wasiewicz says:
    November 15, 2006 at 2:21 pm

    They hire a good lawyer.
    It’s a travesty that the city drags its feet on taking on absentee owners, yet jumps up on this one without even notifying the owners

  2. LC Scotty says:
    November 15, 2006 at 2:34 pm

    I’d look for a connection between Tobe and the firm that did the demolition.

  3. C. Byrd says:
    November 15, 2006 at 2:35 pm

    Geek you beat me to it…’twas on my list of things to write about…

    Considering the storm, you would think the city would have at the very least held off a day or two…

    These people deserved better…

    Wouldn’t be refreshing if Tobe or Lord Byron would simply come out and say…hey look, we made a mistake and we are going to eat the cost…

  4. eac says:
    November 15, 2006 at 2:41 pm

    clearly, sadly, they sue the crap out of the city & Tobe personally, if that is possible- which I doubt.

    Does the “city” deserve it? No, we can ill afford to pay for the mistakes of our administrators- but so it goes. But I think the family and Tobe should be trading houses. It’s clear that the order was given with way too much haste- if you take the “accident” view. The cynical view, already expressed, is only worse: crass opportunity at the expense of some folk who clearly already suffered enough at the hands of Nature.

    What heartless mf would order a demo of a house still containing salvagable, personal belongings? Couldn’t just throw a fence up and resolve it, I don’t know, later? Pretty sad.

  5. Lildub says:
    November 15, 2006 at 4:32 pm

    Was what the city did wrong? Oh yeah. But what is getting me is why did they bill them for 40 grand when the bid was 35? And why do so many other obviously dangerous properties not get demolished in a timely manner when their’s was gone within, what, a day or two? It was just wrong on so many fronts. But what can they do now? Lawyer like Paul said or become one of the many people trying to get Fema aid.

  6. Square Peg says:
    November 15, 2006 at 6:01 pm

    If that house had been owned by the City it would have been demolished for 7,000. There wouldn’t have been any rush to do it either.

    Exactly what do we have insurance coverage for anyway? Never having had to use it, I thought in event of that magnitude it would have paid off the mortgage (and a reasonable amount of demo, to be negotiated with the City). I thought that way banks insist on insurance. I realize City is usually re-build only, but this would not have put money in the insureds pocket except for any coverage they had on belongings.

    Plus, I’m pretty sure that the demo will be a lien on the property, right behind the liens from both banks, which now have no equity. It won’t be a personal lien unless they sign on it…of course, it would kind of mess up ever having a mortgage in their names ever again.

  7. bflogirl74 says:
    November 15, 2006 at 8:19 pm

    Mayor Brown
    You promised a “new Buffalo”/ SO GET INVOLVED SIR!!!!.
    The arrogance of your spokesman who did nothing to promote Buffalo”s “supposedly new image”with you as mayor. Shame on you!!!!
    Crack houses abound on the east side and are never demolished until they are torched or there is a murder with media coverage.
    But a hard working family in a good neighborhood WORKING HARD AND LOVINGLY CARING FOR THEIR HOMEgets abused by the city like this.
    Unbelievable!!! Get your task force out thereand to find out what happened and why and stop this sort of thing.
    Re-election comes quicker than you think sir.

  8. Unstable Isotope says:
    November 15, 2006 at 10:41 pm

    The demolition was completely outrageous. It’s hard to believe that Buffalo can’t build a new Peace Bridge in 20 yrs., but can get a house demolished in a few days. Didn’t the city have problems with condemned houses being left as vacant eyesores for months, even years? I just wonder who was profiting in this case.

  9. Dick Kern says:
    November 16, 2006 at 1:07 pm

    This is one of the more dramatic outrages I have seen or heard about in decades of watching abandoned, derelict housing.
    The house at 46 Shirley was sold to the Corringtons for $49,475 in 1997 & is assessed at $52K.
    It is across the street from Councilwoman Bonnie Russell & her Judge husband (Robert) at 25 Shirley.
    Simply boarding the house to insure “safety”, then negotiate with the family when they returned seems so obvious as to be absurd. Then any necessary demo would likely have cost $10K . . after the family’s personal effects had been rescued.
    The speed of many costly “emergency” demo’s has long raised suspicions of kickbacks.
    This demo screams “FRAUD”!

    Dick Kern (in Mpls)

  10. joel otta says:
    November 29, 2006 at 7:24 pm

    that is boring did not read it all to long and smells like poo make shorter

  11. mark says:
    February 1, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    so whatever happened w/ this?