City Hall Can't Find Property Owner - Why is House Still Occupied?

[Lori Allen _]

There is a side-by-side double on Marlowe that apparently has several building code violations. In May of 2015, City Hall took the owner to court for failure to correct the violations. Long story short, City Hall was apparently unable (or unwilling) to locate the owner and Carroll dismissed the case.

The property is owned by a 1278 Marlowe LLC. The tax mailing address goes to an Alliance Investment Co. on the 43rd floor of an apartment building in Tempe, AZ. Apparently, this is where City Hall sent the violation notices and sent the court summons.

Through some quick searching, I found that 1278 Marlowe LLC is owned by an Edward Plainsek. Through some other quick searching, I found that Mr. Plainsek lives here locally in Mayfield Heights.

My guess is that the establishment in Arizona is only an investment company and has no real control over the property or is no longer in business at that location.

I was able to find the owner of the property in less than five minutes through easily searchable material. According to the court docket, Butler's Law Department made no attempt to serve the defendant at an alternate address. Huh? Also, tracking down a "property manager" or "management firm" has nothing to do with it. If your name is on the deed or your name is on the LLC that owns the property, you are responsible. If you get a correction notice, tell City Hall that you have a property manager and see what happens.

Finally and possibly most importantly, it is worth noting that at least one unit in this dwelling is currently occupied. When I drive by at night, I can easily see a TV on in the living room.

If City Hall allegedly can't find the property owner, why is the dwelling still being occupied? Why isn't a "notice to vacate" being issued? Isn't this dangerous? What if there was an emergency?

Essentially, it appears that this landlord is being allowed to collect rent on a property, even though City Hall allegedly can't find him.

Huh?

1278 Marlowe LLC.jpg (96.92 KiB) Viewed 1530 times

1278 Marlowe LLC docket.jpg (146.35 KiB) Viewed 1530 times

[Bridget Conant]

City Hall can't find its own public records, how do you expect them to find absentee owners?


They should hire you as a building code compliance enforcer.

[Brian Essi]

From December 11, 2015 through March, 2016, the Law Department was busy trying delay and nullify citizens' rights to vote on a referendum by dissipation of public assets and concocting legal theories to defend CCF's perceived constitutional contract rights. The Law Director was also staring a new job out of the city.

They were clearly too busy to properly prosecute such a mundane legal matter like code violations.

Rest assured though, if anyone living there is hurts as a result of any code violation, they were working hard to preserve a state of the art emergency room right up the street while they hastily destroyed a $120M public institution to WIN!

I can almost hear Beebe whispering in the younger Butler's ear: "There are no consequences for lying, just win, win win.."

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[Lori Allen _]

Brian,

This is just one property in Lakewood. There are many more with similar circumstances. Why does our city have one of the largest housing departments, and yet, they seem to have no organization or direction. I suppose that could be blamed on management. I do agree that the city has dumped practically every employee on "Operation Destroy Hospital". Ultimately, this all falls on Summers. I find it a little one sided that Lord can send housing inspectors to people's homes that want to save the hospital and give them citations for stupid things, such as their bushes are hanging over the sidewalk by 1/2 of an inch. I believe this is total abuse of power.

Meanwhile, everybody get outside today and trim your bushes. Then you can go for a ride down Madison Avenue and enjoy the gang graffiti on the buildings put there by three gangs that have now become members of our community. Lord appears to be working his ass off to get it removed. NOT!!!! Summers = total failure!

[Lori Allen _]

I would like to offer a suggestion to those of you out there that have recently gotten a housing violation notice that you feel is not warranted. Drive around the city and obtain photos of homes that the city has neglected and REALLY need work. Take it to court. I am curious as to what would happen. I believe it probably depends on who you are. I don't believe any member of Lord's "Company" would EVER get a citation!

[Lori Allen _]

Does anyone remember that building on Madison that I posted about a few weeks ago? The one where the storefront is peeling severely and the window is boarded-up? When the police called the owner, he said that he doesn't own it and that he has no idea who owns it even though the taxes go to him.

1. If the taxes go to you, wouldn't you know who owns it?
2. Shouldn't City Hall have caught onto this?