HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter - 5/14/2001
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Saundra Weitz
212 Mason
Oshkosh, Wi 54902
May 14, 2001
To: Oshkosh city Manager & all Concerned,
I am writing this letter to you first of all because Senator Roessler
suggested that I first start by writing to the City Manager and secondly
because I wish to make you aware of the practices and ethics of the city
housing inspection department. I feel that my husband and I are being unduly
harrassed. I wish to make you aware of the unfair ho~sing codes as well as the
unfair and biased treatment that my husband and I have suffered.
Over the past 10 years we have slowly been forced to loose everything that my
husband worked for to try and secure our retirement years. Unfortunately
those retirement years came much sooner then either of us expected. Twelve
years ago my husband was diagnosed with MS and has been on disability for the
past 4 years. Through the housing inspections practices we have lost over
$3000. a month income and are now vertiually reduced to try living off my
husbands $800. a month disability check, of which it takes $400. a month for
his perscriptions. I do not tell you this to get your symphathy. Neither I or
may husband wants any ones symphathy or pity. I tell you this to show you
what the city can and has done to its residents. I have heard many complaints
from citizens as well as contractors and builders. Something needs to be
done. I am going to relate our WHOLE story to you so that you will have the
complete picture and will be able to see the injustice that takes place. I am
also able to provide various witnesses to the facts that I will relate to you.
This began about 10 years ago with the first property we lost. Whenever my
husband and I bought a property we would go inside, look around, then look at
each other and ask, "would you want to live here". If we both said no then we
rolled up our sleeves and got busy. This partichlar property that started
everything was located on Dove street. We painted the entire interior and
exterior and put on a new roof. Our first renter undid a great deal of that
for us. Her son took a can of spray paint and painted all the interior walls
and then took a bb gun and shot out all of the windows. So we started over.
We repainted the enterior and put on all brand new aluminum storms and
screens. Rerented it. The second renters husband left her and her child and
she wanted out of her lease. She proceeded to take the batteries out of the
smoke detector and broke out three of the brand new windows, which at this
point were only 6 months old. Then she called Bruce Luedtke. He told my
husband he was going to bE? cited for noncompliance. My husband, hot temper
that he is, argued with Bruce. He told him that she did this delibertly to
get out of her lease. He led Bruce to the curb where the garbage was and
~howed him one of the windows that she had broke out and threw on the curb.
Bruce's comment was I don't care it is your responsiblity and I want it fixed
and further more I also want that building in back torn down. Behind the
house sat a building that at one time had been a garage but had sank into the
ground to far to be able to use as thus anymore. My husband told Bruce that
the building was sound and did not need to come down that all the renters use
it for is storage for bikes, lawnmowers, grills and such. Bruce insisted. So
my husband called a builder inspector who came and looked at it and agreed
that the building was structurally sound and he saw no reason for it to be
razed. So then Bruce went back into the house. The southwest corner of the
living room floor saggedd a bit. The renters were aware of this when they
moved in. As a matter of fact he and his father were going to fix it for us
for a months rent. They knew how to do that and. had done it before. Bruce
decided it would be fixed or the house would be razed. Long and short of it
is we sold the house for what practically what we paid for it just to keep it
from having to be razed. It became owner occupied and then it was fine that
way. This started a long standing fued with Bruce Luedtke. As anyone who has
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ever dealt with Bruce can tell you do not argue with him and expect to win.
We were going to discover that.
The second property we lost was a duplex on Bent. Bruce wanted the front
steps and side steps redone. We had them rebuilt. They did not meet with
Bruce liking and he ordered us to have them rebuilt. They were built to code.
He also wanted the interior basement steps redone 'because they were to deep.
This was a very old house and those steps were built that way when the house
was built. He also accused us of not having the hot water heater put in by a
plumber. It was. We finally ended up selling that house as well. By the way
to our knowledge there was never a renter complaint from this property. It
was a neighbor complaint because the renters did not keep the yard clean. The
renters were told by us repleatedly to pick up the yard. If we would start to
hold the renters responsible for themselves instead of the landlords I think
we would do much better. Why should the renters take responsibility when they
know the landlord will been held responsible. By doing this we encourage bad
renters to continue to be bad renters.
The third house was another one on Dove street. A small 3 room house. It was
..rented by a single guy who was delighted with 'it. Unfortunately he was
exerdited to California. We were not aware of this. So a neighbor called
Bruce because the lawn had not been mowed. Bruce wanted the doors replaced
with solid core doors. My husband told him they are solid core. I don't care
I want them replaced, was Bruce's response, and besides that I want this house
lifted up to expose the foundation. This was a very small house that we were
collecting $250. a month from. The expense of doing what Bruce wanted done was
just not warranted. Guess what? We ended up selling that one as well. The
guy who bought it would LOVE to give you his thoughts on our housing
inspesction department. He said IF he ever gets this the way the city wants
it he will sell it and get the H--- out of this town. Can't say as I blame
him. Young kid starting out in the rental business. Bet he will find a new
business to go into now.
The fourth property was a duplex in the last blockl of 9th before main. This
property is in a redevelopment zone. It started with Bruce inspecting the
whole block. For what reason I do not know, as far as I know there were no
complaints. This resulted in us being cited for debris allover the yard,
front and side steps deteriorated, doors, deadbolts, windows, foundation,
siding, chimney, and an unlicensed truck. At this time my husband was
scheduled to go to the hospital for steroid treatments and I was transporting
his aged aunt back forth to the doctors and the hospital. I had my hands
I
full. My husband could not deal with it so I had ,to. I called Bruce and
asked him to meet me over there so I could get a clear understanding as to
what he wanted. He did not want to do that and asked me why. I explained the
situation to him and told pim that I was not cleat on what he wanted done. He
said it is all right there in the citation I received. After much pleading he
finally agreed to meet with me. I told him that i fully agreed the steps
-needed to be fixed that as a matter of fact I had just recently discussed this
with my husband before Bruce inspected the place.' I asked him why I should
stick thousands of dollars into siding seeing as how the area was sited for
redevelopment and that the city would just come in and probably buy it up. He
asked me if I could guarantee him that this would,be done within the next five
years and I told him that I could not. He said well we need to address these
other problems. Which led me to believe that he was going to put off the
siding issue for a time. I called several contractors concerning the steps
and I was not getting any results. Because of all I had to do at the time
with my husband and his aunt I then asked my son if he would please take over
and contact some contractors to do the steps and chimney. He did and met with
the same results that I had. Several contractors have said they will not get
involved if Bruce is involved. This makes it somewhat difficult to get any of
the work done. So we put it on the market. As the realator told us if Bruce
is involved the properties are also hard to sell. Which we found out. Bruce
red flagged the place, thus no one wants to buy it. My renters contacted
advocap to do the weatherization and windows. They wanted to
help us anyway they could because they did not want to have to
move and lose their home. Advocap was hired to do the work. I
made my renter my acting manager agent to deal with advocap. I
checked with him sometime later to see if advocap was getting
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started and he told me that they did show up and did some
measuring. To make this long story short advocap never did the
work. My renter called a lady in the home office of advocap in
Fond du lac that he knew and told her that the work was never
done. She told him that the Oshkosh advocap office had been paid
and received payment for the work done. T~is prompted an in
house investigation into the Oshkosh advoc~p office. Needless to
say that never went anywhere and the lady that my renter had
called is no longer employed there. The reason my renters appled
to advocap in the first place was to help keep our expense down
so that we would not have to substainally raise their rent. They
could not afford anymore than what they were now paying. In the
end we hired Jackson Glass to do the windows. We told Jim Luft
at Jackson Glass that Bruce also wanted the side door replaced
with a solid core door. Jim said that it was a solid core door
and that it met with state housing codes and could not understand
why we needed to replace it. This information was given to Bruce
but he did not care he wanted the door replaced. This particular
door was also essential to my renters health. The door had a
large window in it which made it easy for her to see who was at
the door. She suffered greatly from panic attacks and self
mutilation. As a matter of fact her doctor threatened to sue if
Bruce did not stay away from that house when her husband was not
there. This did not seem to bother Bruce e~ther he just told the
doctor that he had a job to do. The doctor told him so do I and I
will sue if my patient suffers from another panic attack. This
made me irate, a door is more important then a persons health and
mental well being. More to the point what Bruce and this city
wants is more important that a persons mental well being and
health. Sad, so sad. We were finally able to get someone over
their who would do the exterior stairs and chimney and the one
corner of the foundation. The Odd Jobs guy~ gave us an estimate
and were told to proceed. They went to get a building permit and
were not issued one because they are not city certified
contractors. They called us and told us to get someone else
because they did not want to get involved. We had a builder who
was a friend of a friend put in a ramp at our house for my
husbands wheel chair and we asked him if he would go over to 9th
and do the work for us. He went and took out a building permit
and he did fix the chimney and corner foundation and then for
some reason we have not been able to figure out he quit and did
not do the stairs. In the meantime I am getting more frustrated
by the minute and my husbands steriod treatments had to be put on
hold because his blood pressure shot up to 240 over 190. The
doctors said he should be dead and doctor Viste kept telling him
he has to avoid stress or his MS will prog~ess faster then it is.
And also by this time my renters, who have faught harder then we
did, and I are to the point of thinking there is more going on
here then meets the eye and that something is rotten in Denmark.
He came close to having it out with the guy at advocap and he
came very close to knocking Bruce on his backside for the things
he said to him about my husband.
Well, court day came. We had been able to accomplish so little
because we just could not get anyone over there to do the work.
But what little we did accomplish was not acknowledged by the
housing inspection department when we went to court. If they had
been the judge would have been able to see ~hat we were at least
trying to comply. We pleaded not guilty because we felt that
they should have acknowledged what we did instead of saying
nothing had been done. As we were leaving the court room I
overheard Bruce say to Brian, "Let's go back over theI.'e and see
what else we can find." And they did just that very thing within
the hour. They showed up at my renters front door demanding to
get in. My renter refused to let them in. , So Bruce went to his
truck and came back with a piece of paper and told the renter it
was court ordered systems check and he had po choice but to let
him in. My renter told me "It was an official looking piece of
paper and I thought what he told me was true so I had to let them
in. However, he would only allow them into the kitchen and bath
and basement. When Bruce tried to get into the rest of the house
my renter told him you said it was a systems check and there are
no systems in the rest of the rooms to check so you are not going
into them. Needless to say we were cited with a bunch more. He
even claimed that there had not been a licensed plumber doing the
plumbing work at that house. This, needless to say, infuriated
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m L 1 1__1 who we have always used. He was ticked. We hired a
lawyer, who repeatedly asked the housing inspection
department for the name of the complain tent and was told they did
not have to give him that information. When he kept insisting
they finally admitted they ad no complaintent. It was also
discovered that Bruce did not have a court ordered search because
the D.A. said he could not have gotten one that quickly, that it
would take several days or weeks to get one.
We started complying !with some of the things inside that Bruce
Gited us for. Ended up in court again. We asked the judge if
this court hearing was for the outside violations or the inside
violations and the judge said everythirrg. Bruce said that the
inside violations were already taken care Of and been signed off.
He never went back into the house to see what we had done and
those violations had not been signed off. Bruce's intent was to
drag this out. Do the outside now and then drag us back in for
the inside. One fine after another. This we know because he went
back into the house and started writing up more violations. He
also opened my renters vechicle which was loaded with trash
waiting to be taken to the dump. This to me was a violation of
his privacy. That vehicle was fully enclosed and Bruce had no
right to open it to take pictures to show the court that there
was a lot of debris around.
At this point my renter contacted a lawyer and told him they were
being harassed. His lawyer told him that if it continues to let
him know and he would file a harassement su~t against the city.
Long and short of it is we ended up selling the property to our
renters on land contract because we could not sell or see the
expense of everything Bruce wanted done. B~cause he was not
going to quit. After my renter bought the property Bruce came
into the house and my renter said he just laughed and said
"Nothing they have done now needs to be done." They can even put
the old exterior door with the big window back on. This to me
smacks of either harassement or discrimination. At any rate this
property went on for over a year in and our'of court. We were
fined.
Now they are started on two more of our properties. One is a
commercial building at the corner of Fox and Oshkosh Ave. This
bullding houses a tavern downstairs and apa~tment upstairs. We
lease that whold building out to General Lee. He rented the
upstairs out and collected the rent from that unit. He had a
problem with collecting the rent. The rent~r was on probation so
General Lee called his probation officer tO,let him know he was b
eing evicted. The renter in turn and our of retaliation called
the housing inspection department thinking he would get even with
General Lee. At that time we had a contract?r out of Berlin over
there to paint the place. He had gotten as far as power washing
the building and notifying us that there were a couple of boards
that would need replacing. We told to replace them and continue
on. Bruce and Nicole Krahn show up. They told him to stop all
work because he did not haved a building permit. He informed
them that he did not need a building permit to paint. They told
him that no permits would be issued till th~ place was inspected
and that it would probably be razed. Bruce also told him that he
better and be sure to get his money. When our painter, Kevin,
asked him why he told him that Gaylord was hot know for paying
his bills. My husband has never owed anyone. He has always paid
his bills. He doesn't believe in living on credit. The only
bills he has ever had were mortgages. This ~as out and out
defamation of character as far as I am concerned. He had no
cause for making such a statement.
Well, they decided they wanted the building razed. The
violations were: electrical, roof, chimney and a sagging back
end. Our new lawyer, _ -- - ~J ~ f had an independent building
inspector who is retired, go over to look at the building. He
said that the backend does need to come off but that the main
building proper is solid. The problem with taking off the
backend is that is where the mechancicals for the building are
housed. The building inspector met with Nicole Krahn the day
before we went to court. According to the inspector she agreed
that it might be possible to go along with taking the backend off
and building a little shed in its place to house the mechanicals,
if we would also shut off the upstairs, board up the windows and
side the building. The inspector informed us that that would cost
us more then the building is worth. We would need to hire an
architect for that small shed on the back in order to satisfy the
city, plus the cost of the siding. We were more then willing to
put a new shed on the back, board up the windows and finish
painting and do the electrical, roof and chimney. The siding we
could not see. There are other buildings in that block that just
plywooded over windows and did not side. Wh~n we went to court
our lawyer could not be there because he had to be out of town
that afternoon. The day before we went to cburt he tried to get a
continuance and was denied because it had b~en continued once
already when we switched from our old lawyer to our new. So the
afternoon before we went to court our lawyer turned it over to
one of his partners. We went to court and t~at lawyer asked to
dismiss himself from the case because he wap not equipped to
defend us seeing as how he just received the case the afternoon
before. The judge dismissed him and continued on with the case
even though we had no representation for wh~ch we were paying.
Classic example of how the housing inspection operates. At the
beginning of this property I listed the violations, those were
only the ones we have been to court for so far. In actuality we
were issued 15 violations. One of which was to build a 3'x3'
platform at the upstairs entrance with step's leading up to it.
Anyone who knows where this property is knows that it sits on the
side walk. Where do you think the steps to that platform would
be when it was all built. You got it, in the street. But they
only gave the judge the sheet with the five violations on it that
I mentioned before, roof, chimney, electrical and 2 backend
violations. When we went to court theelec~rical, roof and
chimney violations had already been addressed and taken care of.
We hired someone to do the roof and chimney. General Lee hired
someone to do the electrical against our wishes. By the way most
of the electrical violations were created by General Lee in the
first place. A building permit was taken out for the roofing. We
told the judge that and that the roofing, chimney and electrical
had all been done. Nioole Krahn claimed no permits were taken
out and that none of the violations had be~n taken care of.
Without our lawyer present we had no proof. As far as the
backend was concerned we were still trying to reach a
satisfactory solution on that. We were al~o not aware that
Nicole had met with our building inspector the day before. She
did not admit that she agreed that it might be possible to just
tear off the backend and rebuild. When I asked her about the
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violation I had listed on my sheet concerning the platform and
steps leading to it the judge said that is not in issue here that
all he had was a sheet of 5 violations. I told him I had sheets
with 15 violations and asked him if he would like to see them.
He said no. Needless to say we lost the case and were fined
$4500. and the building is to be razed which is what they
intended before they even inspected it.
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Nicole know what he intended to do and see if she would agree to
it. He told us that she more or less told him she would not go
along with so he saw no point in doing up formal plans and
layouts. His estimate was for $4500. We called 3 other local
contractors and could not get a call back. So we finally called
Sure n Dri out of Appleton. They came and looked at it and gave
us an estimate. They said there are two ways that they could do
it. One would be cheaper "($6500.) and would mean they would not
have to tear out that new concrete we just put in 3and half years
ago. The other way means they would have to tear out that new
concrete and it would be more expensive ($lOOOO.). Joe from Sure
n Dri contacted Nicole several times before he was successful in
getting a reply. He told her about the fir~t method and told her
that that is the method they use about 80-85% of the time and
that they also give a lifetime warranty. She wasn't buying it
she wanted the second method, tear up that new concrete and pay
more. She and Bruce have also stated that the house may not be
habitated because it is unsafe. Needless t~ say we had to pull
it off the market, who is going to buy with that order on it. We
asked Joe from Sure n Dri about this and he. said that the walls
DO NOT present a hazard. Anyone could live there now without any
fear and they could also live there while they do the work. My
daughter is getting a divorce and she and her two little ones
need a place to live so we thought as long as we have had to pull
it from the market we would just let her move in there. The City
Housing inspection department won't allow, because they know
better then someone who fixes these walls for a living. They
said she could move her furniture in there but not set up the
beds or move themselves in. We were given 30 days to comply.
Well it took us two weeks just to line up someone to do the
walls. My lawyer wrote and told them that .30 days for this was
unreasonable that a contractor had to be obtained and contractors
usually have other work scheduled before they can schedule you.
My lawyer has never gotten a reply to that letter either.
All of this has created such stress on my husband that his health
has really deteriorated. He has fallen 4 times in the last 2
weeks, something that only took place maybe 1 or 2 times a month.
We have lost over $3000. a month income anq have been reduced to
try a live off his $800 a month disability check. It can not be
done. He is also stressed worrying about me if something should
happen to him. He thought I would be well taken care of and now
he is afraid I won't be. Some smart mouth I am sure would suggest
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that I go to work and earn some money. Well, my husband needs me
at home to take care of him, he can't do a lot of things for
himself and if I went to work I would merely be working to pay
for some nurse to come in and do what I can do for him. Does
that make sense.
There was on other thing I wanted to mention in regards to our
city and their codes. My husband wanted to have a ramp built at
my church because there are several elderly people there who
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The second building they are working on at this time is a single
family dwelling onl 5th avenue. This house. was our home up till
about 3 years ago this June. I rented this house out 3 years ago
this September. It was a rent with option to buy. The renters
rented it for 6 months with option to buy. I informed them that
if they were not buying it within the 6 month period that I would
put it on the market. They agreed and said that they definetly
wanted to buy it. Well, I have worked with them this whole time
because I knew they really loved the house and wanted it and were
seemingly having problems getting a conventional loan because
they had just filed backruptcy a while back. Finally they fell
behind on their rent 3 months and we were running out of time to
sell this house so we could avoid paying capital gains tax on it.
So I had to evict them. They were given a couple of days to be
out. She told me she had health problems and started to cry so,
soft hearted fool that I am, I told her I would give her till the
end of March, this gave her 2 more weeks. They were still there
on the 3rd of April when I hired a moving and storage company to
go and forcefully move them out. The sherriff's department sent a
man over to see that they gave no trouble. She did, but not the
kind the detective was looking for. She retaliated and
immediately left and called the housing inspection department.
This by the way is the ONLY renter we personally rented to who
ever called and complained. Our renters w~ll all tell you that
we are good landlords. When they call with a problem we are on
that very day. Well, our renters would tell you that if we had
any renters left.
At any rate Bruce and Nicole went over there. Violations:
handrail going to basement pulled loose from wall, cracked sink
in bathroom, numerous electrical violation~, leak in cast iron
plumbing under sink, no building permit taken out for partion in
basement wall & gazebo in back yard, no heat in downstairs stool
room, bad basement walls.
We will address these one at a time. Handrail loose from wall is
renter caused, who I am still in litigation with over monies.
Crack in bathroom sink is a hairline crack. The plumber we sent
Qver looked at it and said I don't understand, it is not cracked
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thru and it doesn't leak. He also said there is NO cast iron
pipes period, let alone any leaking. The numerous electrical
violations were listed just as that. They did not bother to tell
us what those violations were. My new lawyer, yeah the 3rd one,
Kathleen Deidrch with Yakes, said this is ridiculous, how are you
suppose to know what to have fixed. That is like going to the
house and saying there are numerous violat~ons, fix them, but
they don't tell you what they are. She wrote asking them to
detail what the electrical violations were and they never
answered here letter. The basement walls I'will concede need to
be fixed. (See I agree when something needs to be done that is
not beyond reason). We contacted Neimuth and he went and looked
at the walls and gave us an estimate. We told him he had to let
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would benefit from it. My husband doesn't ~ttend church he was
just doing this from his heart. He contacted the Lions Club who
puts in portable ramps allover Winnebago County to see if they
would put one in at my church he explained that there was a man
there with parkinson disease and an elderly gentleman with MS and
his wife who gets around with a cane and the pastors wife who
looses her balance because of a tumor. They told my husband that
they couldn't put one in in the city of Oshkosh and explained
that the city wanted it permanent and in th~ ground. My husband
contacted Mrs. Bloechl to try and get something done about this
and was not successful. In the end one was, put in according to
this cities specifications at a personal expense to someone who
does not wish to be named. An elderly gentleman once approached
one of the council memebers and complained about the rise in
property taxes. He told him that he was on a fixed income and
~hat with the rise in property taxes, gas and electric, gasoline,
and water rates he was slowly being pushed out of his home
because he could no longer afford to live there. He was told by
this council memeber that he should have planned better when he
was younger. The elderly gentleman told hi~ that not everyone
was lucky enough to have a $70000. a year job. You have heard of
the City of Angels well Oshkosh is the City of Cold, Hard Heart.
Something must be done. I feel we are slowly loosing all of our
freedom. Such as with the partion in the basement that my
husband built. It was our house, we lived there at the time, why
do I need permission to fix up my house the way I choose. Next
will we need permits to paint our living rooms?
This letter is being sent to the following:
Oshkosh City Manager
All 7 council memebers
Rep. Underheim
Senator Rosseler
Gov. McCallum
Oshkosh Northwestern
Head supervisor of the housing inspection
Senator Rosseler asked me to send her a coPy after suggesting
"that I write to the city manager. I as well as she will await a
reply from you.
Respectfully
Saundra Weitz
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