August 1, 2018 –
8 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/5vE7up
August 2, 2018 –
Mayor Richard Carr’s post from private Facebook group “Maumee Residents United” –
Mayor Richard Carr’s email on Nextdoor.com:
Response from Kevin Oberhouse / Toledo Basement Repair to our review on Facebook:
August 3, 2018 –
2 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/Am3m21
August 4, 2018 –
Mayor Richard Carr’s post from Facebook:
August 6, 2018 –
9 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/3Sta7Q
August 7, 2018 –
7 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/k4075V
Toledo Blade article:
Dispute with city inspectors, contractor leaves Maumee couple in limbo
By Jay Skebba | BLADE STAFF WRITER
Published on Aug. 7, 2018 | Updated 5:33 p. m.
The white house at 321 W. Broadway St. in Maumee’s historic district stands out from its neighbors, but not for the best reasons.
More than a century ago, the home’s timbers were milled at the Maumee River and rolled up the hill to the road for construction. Today, the words “public nuisance” are painted in red on the front of the two-story residence.
It’s Tim Ide’s latest attempt to get the city’s attention.
Megan Bremer purchased the 111-year-old home with Mr. Ide in August, 2017, for $59,000, with the intention of fixing it up and living there for years. Some homes in the area are valued at more than $200,000.
The couple hired Toledo Basement Repair, owned by Diversified Group LLC to install a new foundation. Mr. Ide says that’s when problems started.
“If you look at this foundation, a 10-year-old would tell you this is wrong,” he said. “There’s nothing correct about it.”
Mark Westcott, Maumee’s assistant building and zoning inspector, inspected the contractor’s first concrete footer late last year and issued a green tag, meaning it was approved. Mr. Westcott also green tagged the wall built on top of the footer, as well as the second footer.
Mr. Ide identified several aspects of the concrete pours he believed to be wrong and complained to the city about its inspectors. On Jan. 8, Mr. Ide says Mr. Westcott and another inspector who has since left the city shut down all work on the site.
Bruce Wholf, Maumee’s head inspector, came out to perform his own inspection Feb. 1 and red tagged the entire project.
“Nothing is right about it, so Bruce red tags the whole thing,” Mr. Ide said. “Now stop-work orders are issued and the company I hired can’t work even if they want to.”
Diversified general manager Kevin Oberhouse said the red tags were issued because the project was not complete. Mr. Oberhouse said Mr. Ide insisted on inspections before completion.
“We hired an engineer to prove our work was fine,” Mr. Oberhouse said. “He did and filed a report. The report said it was fine and work needed to be completed. It would have been fine. We asked for arbitration, but [Mr. Ide] just wanted his money back.”
The homeowners had their own structural investigation performed by an engineer July 23. The report states the foundation has several issues and concludes, “It is not possible to make all the necessary corrections.”
Mr. Ide and Mr. Oberhouse both said Mr. Ide paid about $14,000, although Mr. Oberhouse said his firm invested closer to $35,000 in the project. Mr. Oberhouse said it’s unlikely he will resume the project because the city told Diversified the homeowners did not want them to return.
Mr. Ide contends he and Ms. Bremer told Mr. Wholf no such thing. Mr. Ide said he made it clear to Mr. Wholf that the city stopped work; not the homeowners.
“The note that Mark Westcott put in the pubic record of ours — he wasn’t on the phone call, but he wrote the note — and the note said I called Diversified and told them the homeowner absolutely does not want them back on their property,’” Mr. Ide said. “That’s 180 degrees from what we told them to say. So the contractor points to that note and says, ‘You told them to tell us not to come back.’”
Mr. Ide says he has been unsuccessful getting adequate answers from the city, or finding another contractor to perform any work because of the stop-work orders. Construction on his home has been at a standstill for more than six months, outside of the work he has done himself.
Documents Mr. Ide shared with The Blade show Maumee inspectors sent a letter dated Feb. 5 detailing several code violations relating to the foundation. Diversified was given 30 days to make the corrections.
A 10-day notice was sent March 15, including language stating failure to comply would result in litigation from the Maumee prosecutor’s office. Mr. Ide said he received copies of both letters in the same envelope postmarked March 16.
Mr. Ide said a subsequent letter said to disregard the threat of litigation because the city was walking away.
“The city has totally abdicated their role,” Mr. Ide said. “We have all red tags. We have open ditches. We’re an eye sore and a public nuisance. They won’t do anything. We would like minimum standards of health and safety. That’s all we’ve asked for.”
Mr. Wholf did not return a request from The Blade seeking comment. Maumee Law Director Beth Tischler referred the matter to Mayor Richard Carr, who was not able to be reached. However, he did make a statement regarding the matter in a closed Facebook group.
“The city of Maumee has met all statutory obligations as it relates to 321 W. Broadway,” he said. “We regret that the property owner blames the city of Maumee for the situation and the problems that the property owner has encountered with the contractor. This is a matter involving a dispute between the property owner and the contractor, and the city of Maumee stands behind Inspection Division as having acted appropriately and responsibly.”
Ms. Bremer said the response from neighbors and residents has been all positive.
“People pull in, give Tim hugs, and say, ‘We support you.’”
Our comments on: http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2018/08/07/Maumee-couple-disputes-with-city-inspectors-over-foundation/stories/
What this story does not tell you is that the city of Maumee has never ever sent a legal notice as required by Ohio law.
The inspection with 6 RED TAG / STOP WORK ORDERS was done on February 1st.
On March 19th we received our first written word of any kind from anyone associated with Maumee. The ’30 day notice” was dated Feb 5th.
The notice failed to contain all required language such as we have a right to an attorney, we have the right to appeal the charges,
This is an egregious “mistake.”
The notice says ‘file’ copy at the bottom indicating that the same letter is sent to to other residents, denying them their right also.
The city of Maumee is either unwilling or unable to follow Ohio Law.
The Mayor has taken to Facebook after ignoring every single appeal we have made to him.
He has never responded to us in any way, yet he is emailing our neighbors and lying to them and he is posting willfully ignorant lies on Facebook.
Mayor Richard Carr has got to go, the chief building official Bruce Wholf has got to go. The assistant building inspector Mark Westcott has got to go!
RESIGN NOW!!!
***
It also has been 12 days since I painted on our home and we have yet to hear one single word about it. no one from the city of Maumee has contacted us in any way shape or form.
The city is stuck. We have pointed out so many lies and errors of both omission and commission and they have not responded to a single concern. We get no response to our emails or our phone calls.
We receive no code enforcement at 321 W. Broadway.
The city did contact us some time back March or April and tell us they needed us to put a fence around the exposed trenches.
We tried to be good citizens and we put the fence up while I advocated for a court date. I then thought the fence may be standing between us and the judge so I took the fence down, took pictures and emailed them to the city letting them know that we no longer thought the fence was appropriate.
I also told them we are pumping water from the foundation ‘drain’ through a garden hose into West Broadway.
No response of any kind.
They simply do not care!
RESIGN NOW!
flickr photo set: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmcQFppW
***
What the story also fails to tell you is that we did a freedom of information request on July 3rd 2018 and asked to see any and all email sent or received from any employee of the city of Maumee, elected or otherwise from August 9th, 2017 through July 3rd, 2018.
Law director Beth Tischler responded on July 27th:
“Please know that the City of Maumee does not keep email records for the length of time you are requesting. I am working with our external IT firm to determine what emails are available and potentially responsive to your request.”
Please note that we are asking for email in and open active case, less than a year old.
On August 2nd, 2018 Beth Tischler emailed again:
“Further, as Law Director, certain emails from my office among myself and council and staff are attorney client privilege and not subject to open public records. Reviewing emails to make this determination can only be conducted by the law department which is a very small department and is done between other work requirements.”
One kind of wonders what a city law department would be trying to hide in a building code case.
***
This next comment was truncated for some reason. This is the second half, which makes little sense without the first half.
(continued)
(B) – Additionally, like I told you at the meeting that you know we just can’t get involved with any disputes between yourself and the contractor. So.
(M) – Sure. Yeah.
(B) – Um, but you know I, I feel the need to call him back and say you know this is, this is where were at and I can’t do anything more and you need to wait for a call from Megan. How about that?
(M) – OK, yeah, and just so that.
(B) – OK?
(M) – Yeah, just so that they’re aware that you know that um, you know, we didn’t really shut the job site down, it was more um, that they did work without being approved, so yeah.
(B) – Right
(T) – Maumee did.
(B) – No, It will be explained.
(T) – Say that.
(B) – …literally that they went above and beyond what they were approved.
This is the end of the recording. Megan hung up the phone right after stoppage.
**
The city of Maumee’s public record response to this phone call:
“Notes: Phone Consultation. Chief Building Inspector Bruce Wholf and Building Inspector Mark Westcott called home owner Meagan and were informed that she plans to hire a structural engineer to assess her property at 321 W. Broadway. She also requested that we inform the contractor that they should cease all work at the property untill she informs them otherwise. We then called Diversified Group and informed them of the home owners decision.”
WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE!!!
LIES ALL LIES!
August 8, 2018 –
5 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/iXKnk6
August 9, 2018 –
11 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/d9uRKX
August 10, 2018 –
19 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/d907vg
August 11, 2018 –
15 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/3d7y44
August 12, 2018 –
17 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/214717
August 13, 2018 –
7 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/nA5r7a
August 14, 2018 –
15 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/d726W1
August 15, 2018 –
9 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/3Umq82
August 16, 2018 –
36 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/13He8W
August 17, 2018 –
27 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/5C6K79
August 18, 2018 –
2 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/Y0E725
August 19, 2018 –
2 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/P2Y4iG
August 22, 2018 –
1 Photograph -https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/07x30B
August 23, 2018 –
2 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/49D85L
Maumee Mirror article, page 5-A
August 25, 2018 –
4 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/B81DPy
August 27, 2018 –
2 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/LfKE6Y
August 28, 2018 –
2 Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/photos/timide/shares/u23166
321 W. Broadway Maumee, Ohio 