cheap
Westgate
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nothing will happen to this slumlord.
not a thing.
Columbus loves them.
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City: House Where Three Died In Fire Should Have Been Vacant
Tuesday December 27, 2011 6:26 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The house in which three people died in a fire on Christmas Eve was supposed to be vacant, City of Columbus officials said on Tuesday.
READ MORE: http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2011/12/27/columbus-city-says-house-where-three-died-in-fire-should-have-been-vacant.html
leftovers
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Unfortunately there is a lot of very, very, poor quality, unmaintained property in Franklinton. This is rented to very poor people who do not have a lot of options or much voice. It is the dark side of the cheap housing. It looks like the landlord was cited and ignored the order. Hopefully criminal charges will be brought up. I also hope the family brings him to civil court if this fire was related to the issues.
I recall reading multiple stories such as this from that area of Franklinton, where gas been shut off for one reason or another and a space heater combined with poor wiring has lead to tragedy.
A lot of these distressed Franklinton properties really should be torn down. Issues such as this really should be brought up more often.
cheap
Westgate
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when the environmental court first got cranked up almost 20 years ago,i assisted the DA at the time in pursuing charges against a prominent slumlord in the WD district.
this dirtbag was signing people up for welfare and taking their welfare checks for their rent payment.
his houses were dumps.code enforcement practically lived at his houses writing up citations.
if a renter complained about the property,this dirtbag would go to the property,call the cops,and tell them the renter tried to rob them.
he carried a gun on him,and the cops in the WD knew it,and didnt care.
he eventually went to court,and the judge sentenced him to live in one of houses for a month.what a frigging joke.
i had the distinct pleasure of punching this asshole in the mouth on the elevator in the courthouse,while my girlfriend at the time threw a full cup of blazing coffee on him.
and he was charged with assault.
labi
Weinland Park
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To my understanding, code enforcement officers have been expected to cover larger and larger areas over the past few years, and despite the income tax increase, additional officers are not being hired.
I was aware that the mechanisms for prosecuting code enforcement offenders are ineffective in cases where property owners were non-local or hard to identify, but I think someone in city government ought to be accountable for why this landlord wasn't pinned to the wall months (if not years) ago.
It's a sickening thing when properties are allowed to degrade to this extent - and all the while some landlord has been living in a nice suburb far away collecting the rent each month. It makes me completely crazy when everyone just throws up their hands years later and says well, those properties are crap and should be removed, when periodic maintenance should have been enforced all along and simply wasn't. (And obviously the loss of buildings is nothing compared to the horrible loss of life in this case.)
For better or for worse, under our current system this is a responsibility that starts with the neighbors. When there's a collective giving-up about code enforcement, this is the result. Given how much we discuss neighborhood revitalization on this site, I'd think this case might cause someone to pause for a second the next time they start casting "gentrifier" aspersions on those who complain about physical conditions in our neighborhoods.
leftovers
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Part of the issue is also that this plays into constitutional grounds with the rights of search and seizure and also probable cause. It is much easier to enforce code violations on the outside of a building, but getting inside the building requires probable cause and usually a warrant. In most cases this would be due to a tenant complaint or that of a utility worker who discovers issues when on the scene.
I agree that nieghbors are important. I also think that there is a very large gap in understanding tenants rights of the poor - especially those in section 8 housing. The renters need to be the first line and the first to be unafraid to make a call when an unsafe situation becomes apparent. The relationship between slumlord and slum tenant still has facets reminiscent of mindsets in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.
SusanB
Hungarian Village, Columbus' fastest growing Gayborhood!
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In my experience it is the poor without section 8 vouchers who live in deplorable conditions. The folks with vouchers generally are savvy enough to know that the vouchers tend to pay higher than market rents and can be quite demanding and choosey. Also voucher housing is inspected before occupancy. I am sure that in this horrible instance there was not a voucher.
TomOver
lovecause.org
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(From Jonathan Meier)
In January, a group of concerned residents of Franklinton have begun organizing for housing justice in the neighborhood. The group is starting by calling for the prosecution of Sam Vazirani for three counts of reckless homicide to ensure that tragedies like this never occur again. The group is also actively interviewing residents of the neighborhood and working hand-in-hand with other landlords to improve living conditions.
This video is an interview of a man living on Princeton Ave in Franklinton and staying in another one of Sam Vazirani's properties. This, too, is an illegal home and is uninhabitable, and yet Vazirani continues to rent it out without any intention of repairs being made.
As you will hear, the furnace has not worked the entire time the family has been there (6 months), there has been and continues to be standing water (at least 4") in the basement, and the household electrical wiring is in violation of code.
Join us in protest Wednesday, January 25th from 8am-11am outside the Franklin County Courthouse to push for Vazirani's prosecution and to work to improve housing for our community. For more information or questions regarding the protest: Contact Jed at jeddearing@gmail.com
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christylwilliams
Olde Towne East
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What happened at the court house this morning? Any updates?
News
Columbus Underground
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Landlord enters not-guilty plea to code violations at Franklinton house
By Deanna Pan
The Columbus Dispatch
Tuesday February 28, 2012 10:49 AM
Landlord Sam Vazirani entered a not-guilty plea in Franklin County Environmental Court. The misdemeanor charges against Vazirani are for allowing people to live in a Wisconsin Avenue house after city building officials ordered it vacated in 2009 for safety hazards. A landlord accused of code violations at a Franklinton house where three people died in December entered a not-guilty plea in Franklin County Environmental Court this morning.
READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/02/28/landlord-enters-not-guilty-plea.html
mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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labi said:
I don't understand how he can enter a not-guilty plea to allowing people to live in the house, when clearly people were living in the house and he was aware of it (interacted with them about getting the furnace fixed). Can anyone explain this?
Speaking from my own minor brushes with the law (not housing related) that is just how the system works. If you plead guilty, you never get to plead your side of the case. I have no idea what his side may be, but I agree it seems the facts are against him. I am guessing he will try and come up with some mitigating factors in order to lessen the charges (which unfortunately appear to be minor) or cut a deal. My thoughts are he is worried about possible future civil litigation.
melikecheese
Merion Village
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This guy should be forced to live in one of his homes...but I guess the city can't force someone to live in a home it claims is not livable.
Clearly taking advantage of people here. Not cool.
groundrules
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"In a series of experiments, University of California at Berkeley researchers showed again and again that upper-class individuals were more prone to unethical behavior than people from more deprived backgrounds, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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Yeah, I can imagine him telling the judge that he made some repairs, forgot to notify the city, and rented it out by mistake.
gramarye
In Exile
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Does anyone know what the specific degree of misdemeanor is for this charge? Or even what the formal name of the charge is? I'd be interested in knowing how much time he's looking at if convicted.
Of course, for any misdemeanor, sentences and fines tend to be reasonably small. The primary value of a sentence here would be a warning to others--the simple fact that a slumlord can be sent to jail would have meaning. The difference between 30 days and six months isn't massive.
The not guilty plea may be intended to allow some room to negotiate lesser charges or some other deal, but if the crime is already a misdemeanor (particularly if it's a third-degree or weaker misdemeanor), there isn't that much lower that the prosecutor can probably go.
Incidentally, I approve of the prosecutor's decision not to push for a bigger, more dramatic-sounding crime in the initial charges based on weaker evidence, just to use as a bargaining chip. In other words, I'm glad they didn't charge him with homicide if they didn't think they could actually make that charge stick, hoping instead to use it as plea bargaining leverage. I also hope now that they stick to their guns on the misdemeanor charge if they do think they can make a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt case that they have him on that one.
bucki12
wp
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This is pretty horrible stuff.
Here is the complaint from the news.
http://www2.nbc4i.com/mgmedia/file/467/vazirani-code-enforcement-complaints/
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