Family decries abandoned house fine
The family whose home partially collapsed down a crumbling embankment last spring said that the town is exacerbating their loss by demanding they pay a $1,500 fine for owning an abandoned house.
Terry Murphy, who built the house at 1A Weaver Ave. where the backyard and deck fell onto a private road below, said he and his wife, Mary, feel that the town didn’t help them recover and is now punishing them for their loss.
“We didn’t abandon anything,” said Terry Murphy, whose mother had been living in the Waterford house until the slide forced her to move into costly senior housing. “No one can live there. It’s just the town’s way of getting money out of us.”
Town Supervisor John Lawler said he
didn’t know that the Murphys received a notice. But he said about a dozen residents did.
“Like every other community in the Capital Region, we have a vacant building registry,” Lawler said. “If you leave your building vacant, there is a fee for that. I don’t know why it is $1,500. I don’t have a copy of the letter. But it’s designed to encourage home property owners to keep them in good shape and occupied so they don’t become vacant eyesores in the community.”
When asked how the town could consider the property abandoned when the town itself ordered the family to evacuate the house because it was too unsafe to occupy, Lawler said he understood, but he added, “the Murphys need to take some action to demolish the house.”
The Murphys don’t yet know what they will do with the house. For one thing, it continues to slide over the edge, making the entire property unsafe.
They have also hired an attorney to determine the cause of the collapse to help them get some compensation. A topographic survey submitted to the town in July blamed excessive rain for causing the May 3 landslide that left their home perched on a ledge.
The Murphys don’t believe that was the case.
Whatever the cause, their collapsed hillside and deck landed on a private drive below, leaving a second home inaccessible, blocked by 25 feet of debris. A third home, on Middletown Road, also lost some ground. But only the Murphys, who have lived in Wilmington near Lake Placid since 2017, lost everything.
The new bill comes after another town action that also aggravated the Murphys. A sign was posted on a birch tree in front of their house notifying them to secure the property in 60 days.
It notified them that they were “required to erect a fence or barrier upon the premises, which in the opinion of the town building inspector, is sufficient to safely secure the premises against unauthorized entry by the public.”
If they didn’t do that, the notice read, “the town board is authorized to provide for its securing, demolition or removal to assess all expenses thereof against the land … And institute a special proceeding to collect the costs of such securing, demolition or removal including legal expenses.”
“They literally went down and tacked a notice on the tree,” Mary Murphy said. “What the heck? Not one of us, Terry, his brother or my mother-in-law got anything in the mail. We just got a sign tacked on a tree.”
“It’s like the wild, wild West,” Terry Murphy said.
The Murphys complied with the notice, which was found by their sister-in-law, by putting up a gate. One of the pillars holding up the gate was then torn down, they said, by town plows during the season’s first snowstorm. The Murphys have since repaired it.
“To me, this is another form of harassment,” Terry Murphy said. “They are sticking the knife in and twisting it.”
The Murphys admit that they haven’t been paying their property taxes on land that partially no longer exists. What land is left, Terry Murphy said, is not usable.
Lawler said that the county could foreclose on the Murphys if they don’t pay their taxes. Therefore, he said they should come to the town to grieve their assessment.
“We are happy to work with them,” Lawler said. “They need to follow the process.”