One of the bidders who won a residence in the city's tax lien auction appeared at Monday's city council meeting and accused the city of violating the terms of the purchase contract.
Daniel Lang's father is actually listed as the winning bidder on 20 Franklin St., but Lang said he was planning to pay for the house and move in with his family.
However, he said, the city failed to honor its purchase contract with him by not closing the deal within 30 days of the Jan. 29 auction.
"We want to pull out of the contract and have our $10,000 deposit refunded," Lang said. "The contract is no longer valid."
City Attorney George Van Nest demurred.
It would be inaccurate, Van Nest said, to say the contract was no longer valid or that the 30 day period had been violated because the purchase cannot be approved until the council has a chance to meet and review the purchase.
"This is the next opportunity for the council to act on real property sales," Van Nest said. "To the extent that the council does move forward, the purchase can be finalized."
The winning bid was $36,000.
As Van Nest spoke, Lang and his father were nearly coming out of their chairs wanting to speak again, but under meeting rules, their time to speak was over.
The contract reads:
TERMS OF THE AUCTION: The property is sold subject to confirmation and approval by the City Council of the City of Batavia within thirty days (30) days hereof.
After a closed session to discuss the real estate transaction, the council voted to approve the sale.
After the meeting Lang, who moved back to Batavia recently from South Carolina, said he and his wife, along with their children, have been living with his parents. With the sale now approved, he said he doesn't know what he's going to do, whether to insist the contract was voided by the lack of action for 30 days, or just accept the approved sale.
He said he and his wife just want to get into their own house as soon as possible.
"We just want to get back to being a normal family again," Lang said.
In all, the council approved the auction purchase of four properties, including 507 Ellicott St., which was won by a company owned by Jeremy Yasses.
Council members Sam Barone and Bob Bialkowski objected to the sale of the property to Yasses, but a motion by Bialkowski to consider the property separately from the other purchases was defeated on a 7-2 vote.
Diana Page was approved to purchase 308 Washington Ave. for $1,800 as well as 48 Riverview Parkway for $100. Tom Englerth was approved for purchase of 21 South Lyon St.
In the city report on past landowner code violations, Englerth was allegedly cited for putting on a roof without a permit. He did eventually get a permit, according to the report.
That alleged violation came on 9 Willow Ave., the same property Englerth was able to purchase after a bid from local landlord Michael Pullinzi was rejected last year by the council for allegedly having too many code violations on his existing properties.
Congratulations Jeremy!!! I
Congratulations Jeremy!!! I know you'll do a great job on this property.
Congrats Jeremy! You will
Congrats Jeremy! You will turn that house into an improvement for sure. :)
Howard: Just one request. I appreciate your using "alledged" citations on my case, but would appreciate it if you could also note that there were only a total of 13 alledged "citations" on my five properties in the City in seven years. (Even 4 of those were not actually for my property and were sent to me in error for neighboring properties, but still counted). By any measurement that is an EXCELLENT record and deserving of an A+. While some on Council cited this as the reason for denying me the purchase, it really makes no sense as none of my citations were for anything substantial and were mainly issues of tenants putting out an extra bag of trash etc. Jeremy has told me he had hundreds of citations in that same period I recevied only 13. Makes you wonder on the real motives in my situation. My position is that no one should be excluded and any issues should be dealt with through the proper avenues. In 20 years of renting I have literally only been contacted a hand full of times by anyone with any concerns. My phone number has always been published in the phone book and I even hand out refrigerator magnets with my name, email, and home/cell phone numbers to all my tenants and neighbors encouraging contact on any concerns. Glad to see City Council get back on track with Jeremy. No one is perfect, but he will improve that property and that is what everyone should be focused on.
Mike Pullinzi :)
good point mike, I think that
good point mike, I think that going back to last years discussion (if i recall correctly) some citations should be against the tennants IE garbage left out, while problems with the physical structure should be against the landlord.
I totally agree Bill, and if
I totally agree Bill, and if they did that, I would have no citations ever. The worst I ever got was for some peeling paint and that is in 20+ years of being a landlord in the City.