Town demolishes veteran's house while he has surgery

[sarisataka]

Town demolishes veteran's house while he has surgery

WEST HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — When a U.S. Navy veteran traveled from Long Island to Florida for a knee replacement, his house was the last thing on his mind. But now his memory of it is all he can think about.

Philip Williams' home was demolished in the spring by town officials while he spent about six months recuperating from surgical complications in Fort Lauderdale. Back in New York, officials in the Town of Hempstead deemed his modest two-story home unfit for habitation and knocked it down.

The 69-year-old has now waged a legal battle against the suburban New York town. He wants reimbursement — for the house and all the belongings inside.

"I'm angry and I'm upset. It's just wrong on so many levels," he said "My mortgage was up to date, my property taxes were up to date ... everything was current and fine."

http://news.yahoo.com/town-demolishes-veterans-house-while-surgery-160829466.html

[DonCoquixote]

1. suspicious note

"We thought the house was coming down, someone would buy the land, a new house would come up, a new family would move in. ... We don't want anyone to lose their home."

Ok, did you did know this neighbor, if not, shame on you, because the very mechanics the town used to get rid of this person will be used to get rid of you, so that the town can build something top attract Yuppies who want to "gentrify" your place.

[DonCoquixote]

2. added

"Town officials say they tried to contact Williams and provided The Associated Press copies of letters they said they mailed to the home and to banks. They also held a public hearing before going forward with the demolition. But Williams contends he never received any of the notices and said he couldn't figure out why the letters were mailed to four separate banks where he never had accounts."

In other words, his bank may have sold his account to another bank without ever telling him, which is somethign that should nto be allowed.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yeah, that's the dodgy thing - he says his mortgage was up to date

implying there were still some money owed on it, but the payments were being regularly made. In which case, whatever company owned the mortgage ought to have said "we know the account paying the mortgage is still active, so you can't just demolish it until we find out what has happened to the account owner". And that should take more than 6 months before you give up. Similarly, if his property taxes were up to date, and he wasn't in town to pay them in person, you'd think they came from a bank account, so the town ought to have seen he was still around.

Not having someone stop by occasionally to pick up important mail was a mistake, but not one that should allow them to demolish property in under a year.

[Phentex]

9. It seems like someone would have thought the same thing...

there has to be a way to see who owns the property and if the taxes are being paid. It seems so basic. In this case, it looks like many people messed up.

[Contrary1]

3. Damn...And I thought this was going to be one of those "gotcha" headlines,

and read on about how the good folks in his town came together, and built Mr. Williams a better home while he was on the mend.

It got me, alright.

[bluestateguy]

4. Busybodies who can't mind their own f'ing business

I just flat out hate people like that.

[JonathanRackham]

5. Bankruptcy and back taxes.

I've seen houses in bankruptcy and back taxes sit for multiple years, falling apart with no mantinance. I've seen burnt out houses sit for 3,4,5 years with no attempts at repairs.

I wonder if someone in the town government was eyeing the property.

At 69 this guy was young enough to still have quite a few good years ahead of him. Hope he cleans their clocks.

[hollysmom]

7. Yeah, I had a neighbor who had her house taken from her

Let's start she had a drug an alcohol problem and her son was a drug addict. She never remembered my name, so we were not good friends even though I would talk to her when I saw her outside, and she was usually drunk. She ran a rooming house in an old victorian, and a lot of people did not like it but it was grandfathered in. I didn't have too much of a problem except when I would find people were on my property late at night, that was kind of scary, I would find bottle of cheap liquor on my property the next day.

A local lawyer on the zoning board bought her property after it was taken from her ans she was confined to a mental hospital and I only heard the story long afterwards, just noticed she was not there and neither were her tenants. And one day without notice the beautiful victorian was torn down and I had to band together with my neighbors to sped 50K fighting them trying to put an apartment house in a single family neighborhood - turns out the zoning board guy got all the zoning board to approve this turn of events -yadda yada yadda long story and I am drifting off topic. I asked about could not find anyone to tell me where this woman was , I knew her son was in jail and there was no other family. Yeah, it is scary what people could do, the only saving grace is that the zoning board lawyer lost a ton of money on this, and that the entire board got voted out as we all reached out to people we knew in town. (we tired to get them all jailed for misconduct, but that didn't happen.

But I can see this happening, especially if someone in power in the town bought the property. it is bad enough when someone's property is accidentally razed, but this is ridiculous and offensive.

[mopinko]

8. dont know how they could have had proper service

if they never noticed the bank that actually had the loan.
i hope they are smart enough to just find the man another house, or cough up right now.