Housing Court and You – Lorain- Continued

As promised, a continuation of Lorain’s Housing Court.
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/the-housing-court-and-you-lorain-part-one/

Let us first get some housekeeping out-of-the-way!

This was my third time attending the proceedings. It is punishment in and of itself having to sit in a stuffy, airless room with people coughing, hacking, sneezing and other odoriferous issues , stacked like sardines in a can. Word of advice don’t try fanning oneself you will get more than a fresh breeze
.

source Obit

To be fair, those that haven’t got a seat are allowed to go and wait in one of the other courtrooms until their case is called . I think if Warren Finkel, the chief architect of Lorain City Hall, wasn’t already deceased he should be fined for poor design at the very least. Each time I have attended there has been a large number of people sometimes 90 people on the docket , hopefully I have just been unlucky.

The other issue, frustrating to all, including Magistrate Cook ,was the number of times the software went “walk about” or the computer glitched- 4 times by my reckoning in 2 hours.

Purely from the standpoint of an observer, and I may be under a misconception here,it looks to me as if the defendants who have an attorney present go first on the docket.

The people who have abated their issues seem to come next .I am pleased to say there were, on all three times I attended, a great many people who had abated their issues , the system seems to be working in that regard.

Apparently , abating issues does not save you from “Court Costs”. The mere fact the city had to go through the paperwork, sending out for inspections and going through the process( even if your violations were now abated) doesn’t save you from court costs. That is, unless the city has had their own issues- ( that happened more than once every one of those court dates- imho too frequently ) My first day in court August 12th had Magistrate Cook admonishing the Prosecutors office with ” sloppy work”.

source
http://powermylifetx.com

NOTE: A word to the wise if you get a notice from the Building Dept with regard to violations , take care of them , let them know you will take care of them in writing – ( get that all important paper trail) . In case you end up in Housing Court

1. If you have abated your issues- according to the Prosecutor- you then sign the document electronically as does the Prosecutor and you go across the hall with your paperwork and pay the court costs

If you haven’t abated – you have three choices, Not Guilty as which time you are set either for a pre- trial or a bench trial and choose a date in the future ( this also gives you more time to abate your issues before your next appearance) NOTEI have been told every time this happens the Building Dept has to once again re inspect the property again and may be required to appoint an attorney for you ( the City of Lorain that is)

2. No Contest which means you didn’t admit guilt but then again you don’t disagree- This ends up with a fine and court costs -to be paid across the hall

3. Guilty– same as above- the highest amount fined was $250 plus costs

If there are circumstances in your life where there are problems with taking care of the issues – contact the Building Dept, explain the problems and put it writing with a projected date you will be able to adhere and after you have finished call for a re-inspection and get the paper work the violations were abated .

Keep that paper trail, mistakes can and have happened.

Don’t wait until you are summoned to court because you will face a probably 3 hour punishment of sitting in that claustrophobic courtroom and I am sure the Building Dept. employees don’t enjoy sitting there session after session either .

Garage Sales Beware– People of Lorain YOU HAVE TO GET A PERMIT FOR A GARAGE SALE- I WAS TOLD THEY WERE FREE- BUT IF YOU DON’T GET ONE – YOU WILL BE OUT OF POCKET – FINE PLUS COURT COSTS

Magistrate Cook, is very personable and runs a fairly relaxed courtroom. I am not sure how I feel about that- one the one hand it did break the ordeal of having to sit there generally listening to procedure and helped with the tension. He is charming, concerned , empathetic, patient , has a sense of humour and usually deferring to the Prosecutor as to fines etc. A great deal of the defendants were less than knowledgable as to the process and it seemed he took that into consideration. Magistrate Cook certainly is not Judge Raymond Pianka

Source Scott Shaw, The Plain Dealer

Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka is ratcheting up the costs for absentee property owners who spread the damage from the foreclosure crisis. They will have to pay neighbors for economic losses caused by their neglect. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/08/cleveland_housing_judge_requir.html

BUT on the other hand this chatty chat does somewhat cheapen the due process and personally I would like to have seen a less obliging courtroom in some of the cases I witnessed, but maybe that is just me who is used to the British Courtrooms where calling out compliments and chat at least on two occasions from those waiting would have been seen as disrespectful to the process of law.

Magistrate Cook, did make it quite clear YOU not your spouse has to attend court when summoned , unless of course you have an attorney speaking on your behalf – However, the two that did feel his wrath were not penalized due to their “names not being accurate on the paperwork “ in the first place!

My trip to the court on October 21st was due to the fact Kaja Holdings were up before the bench one more – Readers will remember Kaja Holdings
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/the-follow-up-a-tale-of-two-houses-city-council-loraine/

However apparently their attorney Lei Jaing is no longer acting for them and a new attorney is in place therefore a continuance until December 9th, these properties have been in the hopper now for how many months- since the first of the year on some of them – ( the beginning of the process)

All was not lost because there were one or two people I recognized from previous blog posts on my mega landlords and their impact on our neighborhoods.
1st up Gustav Krause POS foreclosure–
1621v E.36th Street-

but we know Gustav Krause and his LLC -FGSK PROPERTIES LLC of old from the September 2012 post, before the death of George Schneider.

Gustav Krause looks to own 12 parcels and the tax bills are sent to a PO Box number 395 as well- along with property owners of David W Carter/ Red’s All American Recycling fame.

https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2014/09/20/george-schneider-a-property-legacy-what-now/

And I had my issues with Judge Mihok and leniency that same September 2012
George Schneider (Appeal)ing Properties- or where’s the judgement? Pity the system didn’t do something when they had the chance because we would be left with the mess we have now
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/george-schneider-appealing-properties-or-wheres-the-judgement/

https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/who-holds-the-key-george-schneider-david-carter-gustav-krause/

Imagine my interest when another landlord – multi property owner and holder of “thatwoman blog fame” Jerrod Biebrick –
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/trash-to-the-treasurey-time-to-pay-for-your-garbage/
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2015/03/30/lorain-county-habitat-humanity-seeking-new-home/
Biebrick, owner of Patriot Property Management, said he owns about 80 rental properties in Lorain and has been buying building materials at the store for two or three years.
Landlording in Lorain is a big business ( Housing Choice Vouchers alone)
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/freedom-of-speech-usa-really-pt-4/

For instance according to Ms. Carter of the LMHA
“housing choice vouchers alone pump 1.4 MILLION A MONTH
into Lorain County but The City of Lorain gets 64% of that money EVERY MONTH or approximately $900,000.00 PER MONTH COMES INTO THE CITY OF LORAIN-!!!

and Mr. Biebrick apart from his 80 properties certainly has a plethora of LLC’s

A quick check on just 4 of Biebrick’s many properties he owes on just those 4
over $23,000 dollars – I would hate to see what his tax bill is like on all 80 odd- I went through picking out randomly and every one had taxes owed that I checked – including the one for which he had to appear

4095 Laurel
Annual Real Estate Tax: $908.54
Current Special Assessments: $0.00
Delinquent Special Assessments : $0.00
Unpaid Taxes: $2,105.41
Full Year Tax(includes any unpaid taxes & special assessments): $3,196.89
Total Taxes Paid to Date: $0.00

4332 Laurel

Annual Real Estate Tax: $260.06
Current Special Assessments: $0.00
Delinquent Special Assessments : $412.14
Unpaid Taxes: $2,957.42
Full Year Tax(includes any unpaid taxes & special assessments): $3,737.32

Those names just keep cropping up and unlike most of the people who were homeowners, some having no clue how the process works these multi- property owners have appeared before and KNOW the system– the excuse of “didn’t know” and the “post office is at fault” excuse left one wondering what would have happened in Judge Pianka’s courtroom

Last up was a Mr. Dessie Cheers– he had sat there right from the beginning and seemed to have at least 5 separate issues on his properties and it seems he has more than building violations!

According to the Auditors site his property of 419, Kentucky , 1530 Fillmore, and 1538 Fillmore he owes a cumulative amount of $19,588.04 in unpaid property taxes, that is not the case on his “own home” – just saying- this court of public opinion finds this “IFFY”

419 Kentucky

Annual Real Estate Tax: $1,186.76
Current Special Assessments: $0.00
Delinquent Special Assessments : $1,137.02
Unpaid Taxes: $5,152.10
Full Year Tax(includes any unpaid taxes & special assessments): $7,785.61
Total Taxes Paid to Date: $0.00

1530 Fillmore
Annual Real Estate Tax: $1,223.06
Current Special Assessments: $306.00
Delinquent Special Assessments : $375.89
Unpaid Taxes: $4,037.42
Full Year Tax(includes any unpaid taxes & special assessments): $6,220.21
Total Taxes Paid to Date: $0.00

1538 Fillmore

Annual Real Estate Tax: $867.16
Current Special Assessments: $306.00
Delinquent Special Assessments : $993.91
Unpaid Taxes: $3,196.81
Full Year Tax(includes any unpaid taxes & special assessments): $5,582.11
Total Taxes Paid to Date: $0.00

Something very wrong here Lorain-

To Be Continued…………

Source
http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk