Saying it “learned a lesson” from its involvement with a former auto mechanic’s shop on Hodiamont, a story first reported by SLM earlier this week, the city of St. Louis is now swiftly filing liens on properties it fixes up as part of its “Stable Communities” program.
“We learned a lesson from the sellers of 774 Hodiamont who pulled a trick on the city and the buyer,” Conner Kerrigan, a spokesman for Mayor Tishaura Jones, tells SLM. “We had originally waited to issue liens in order to give the owners some grace, but these sellers sold the property without disclosing the work the city had done before we could issue the lien. We are now issuing liens quicker to avoid new owners being surprised.”
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Under the pilot project, a joint program of the city’s Building Division, City Counselor’s Office, and the St. Louis Development Corporation, the city gives homeowners notice that they have to fix up their derelict buildings or the city will do it for them—and then bill them for the repairs.
But in this case, after the city put a Delaware LLC on notice about the former garage it owned in North City, the company waited until the city’s contractor did the work, then turned around and sold the building for $70,000. It never disclosed the work done by the city or the bill they’d sent for it.
Tony Pitale, the Shaw resident who unwittingly purchased the property, was surprised to get the city’s $109,000 repair bill three months after closing. He’d purchased the property using a standard sales contract, says his attorney, Nancy Hawes, and nothing had come up in the title search. Still, the city demanded payment, suggesting that because Pitale bought the building as-is, he was on the hook.
Lawyers who read about the case in St. Louis Magazine have disputed that assertion, saying that Missouri law requires notice to be given (such as a lien) in order for a buyer to be on the hook. The building being sold as-is, they’ve said, does not matter.
The city has reduced its demand to $25,000. But Pitale says that despite Kerrigan’s acknowledgment this week of shortcomings in its procedures, City Hall has made no attempt to forgive the bill or even discuss a settlement. “They have not reached out to me or Nancy, as far as I’m aware,” he says.
He’s frustrated to see the city continue to demand payment even while realizing he was wronged by the seller. “The fundamentals of it, from my perspective, the seller did a bad thing, but the only one with any power to right this situation is the city. I’m stuck between them and the city, and that’s the raw deal of it.”
While Pitale has been critical of the six-figure bill, saying that not all the work was done (and, he adds, much of it was not done well), the city continues to insist that the work done by the contractor it selected was adequate. It has produced photos of the building before the work was done, which show it open to the heavens. Indisputably, a roof was added, though Pitale continues to question why the contractor charged the city for fixing a staircase when there isn’t one, or for clearing out debris when there was still debris on site. (The company did not respond by press time to questions sent to its registered agent; we’ll update this story if we hear back.)
While the company is currently registered to a vacant home in North City, the city says the company remains in good standing and could bid on future projects.
Pitale isn’t focused on that. He’d like to move forward with the car-focused makerspace he envisioned for the garage on Hodiamont. He says he has one question for the city. “Why won’t you let this go? It’s $25,000. I’ll pay more in taxes on this building. Let me get on with my life.”
