Jan

15

Historic Home sold by the piece.

January 15, 2008 |

Homeowner in hot water over taking apart historic home and selling the items online, fixtures, baseboards, tile, grates, a sink, almost the whole house. Oops!
Seems an Ontaio woman was advertisng and selling so many items that a local resident began to get suspicios and alerted autorities.
It may not seem as the owner did much wrong, however in this cas because her home is under a Mills Act contract with the city since 2003, which reduces property taxes on the home in exchange for the property’s preservation and rehabilitation. This house, known as the Swenson House was built in 1935.

The Mills Act allows historic homes a tax break as a result of the contract, the house went from an assessed value, for tax purposes, of $244,746 in 2003 to $139,000 in 2004 - a substantial tax savings for the homeowner.

Officials said a resident whose historic home on the 400 block of West Armsley Square had fallen into foreclosure was literally ripping apart the city’s architectural history.
A Superior Court judge granted the city a warrant to vacate and secure the property Tuesday, locking the owner of the classic Mediterranean Revival home out of her house for stripping it of historic fixtures to sell on on the Web site craigslist.com, officials said.


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