A “ Lemon“ House ? Improper zoning and build

[Melanie Z.]

My mother bought her home 18 year ago, it was a new build- down to the foundation. Within a year little things began to occur within the property - nothing too concerning - over the next 9years .... the roof collapsed in the back of the house , the neighborhood is so riddled with crime that the front of her home has about a dozen bullet holes from about 3-4 separate shootings (which the police only responded to 2). The house next door was built in the 1920-40s ? It was occupied by a family , and then abandoned and left for drug dealers to deal drugs out of, calling the police did nothing - ever. Eventually the “home” was FIRE BOMBED by rivals ? I’m not sure the situation but someone did in fact throw a Molotov cocktail at the other side of the adjacent house , which thankfully did NOT actually catch on fire! That was the official beginning to the end for that property- the rear of the house and the wall that was fire bombed collapsed within 6 months of each other. During that time we noticed a small vertical crack in the front stucco facade in the “fire wall” coming from the top of the adjacent house toward ours as if the house was leaning - we called the city to come and inspect -The city came out within a week or two of the final collapse (and about 3-6 months after we began calling about the exterior condition of the home which became very worrisome) they finally demolished the home. - I cant say I was sad to see it go! We were excited for the fresh start that we were about to experience - for the first time in 15 years !

The house was fully demolished within 3 days - after the demo the “fire wall” went from about 5-6 inches to a whole 11 inches because the side wall that is connected to our house from drug den was NOT taken down. They left the remnants of what looks like 2 chimneys and atleast a 4inch thick brick wall (our house is wood. This was stuccoed with some type of cement or stucco that stays wet after it rains FOR DAYS. And since the demolition - the crack of course went from seemingly superficial to “oh no- that looks bad”. My mother struggles with her health , and over the last few years since the demolition I recently came into some extra cash - literally as I’m waiting for the check to clear in the bank , license and inspection put a notice of “unsafe structure” on my mothers door and told her she had 30 days to get the crack fixed or her home would be demolished ! Now here comes all the crazy stuff! In order to get the violation up to code - the city suggested that we “brace” the wall - in order to do anything to that wall ... we in essence would have to brace from the neighbors property - I looked into who the owner was and a year before it was demolished it was bought for less than 10k. I’ve never seen a for sale sign or any indication that the property was no longer abandoned -The property as a lot is now worth more than the home was. And since the property was demolished the lot has NOT been tended to or cleaned by the owner, we had to call the city for help because the weeds became too unmanageable and rodents were rampant. My issue comes in when we go to get permits and actually begin the construction - I DO NOT FEEL LIKE WE CAN PROPERLY SECURE THIS “FRONT WALL” that the city says is unsafe , without 1 of 2 things happening or even both- destroying the wall that was left behind (that is not on our property line) I fear this janky property owner learns we are doing construction / destroy his adjoining wall that was left behind and seeks some type of legal action against us. OR even worst - our contractor figures out a way NOT to touch that wall and in 5 years we encounter the problem again but in a different area.

Now on to what the city is doing to help - nothing. Absolutely nothing, they won’t give us any information on the demolition plans or even the company - I had to research that information myself and am just testing out how many hoops I will have to get thru to just get a name of the property owner and demolition company. They told us that NORMALLY we would have been notified of the demolition and given info about it but since it was an “emergency demo” they did NOT have to notify us of anything and that if we had damage from the demoed property we had two years to submit a complaint... being completely honest - We did not have any complaints about that crack because we have NEVER considered that to be a part of our property and are now being told that it IS in fact our responsibility to essentially rebuild and secure this wall. When we asked about any programs or funds to help home owners to rehab their homes ... they told us no - not for things like this. And literally the district councilman’s lawyer - came out the back office and told my mother that she should just get a loan to fix her wall and then get a lawyer to figure out how to get some of her money back .... did I mention my mother is STILL paying off the loan from the roof damage ? - this is a mess - after looking over the zoning plans for MY house ... the zoning plans don’t match my home , it says our driveway is in the front (it’s in the back) it says we have a patio (we do not) it also says we don’t have a crawl space under the house (we do) AND ALSO - it says our house of 16 feet wide - the crack begins at 16 feet 2inches ...I feel bullied and lied to by my city... I really have no clue what to do from here - this is a long read but I hope to connect with anyone with advice or experience with this type of thing ...

thanks so much in advance !

MZ Philly ,Pa