Cary sues landlord to demolish 3 buildings

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Cary sues landlord to demolish 3 buildings

By Keeshan | Daily Herald Staff

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=98165 & src=4

Cary officials are suing a local landlord to force the demolition of

three downtown apartment buildings they say are infested with mold,

inviting to rodents and unsafe for humans to call home.

In a lawsuit filed this week against building owner Telis Pappas,

the village asks a judge to order him to demolish the buildings at

362, 374 and 404 Crystal St. or allow the village to do it and then

seek reimbursement from the owner.

The litigation comes about six weeks after village inspectors toured

the former houses that have been converted into apartments. Inside

they found mold, rotting wood, broken windows, inoperable plumbing,

exposed wiring and a host of other health and safety problems,

according to inspection reports.

" We went in there to look at them and they were in really bad

shape, " said Nowak, Cary's director of building, planning and

zoning. " If he's going to provide residential dwelling, he has to

keep up the property. "

On Tuesday Pappas called the lawsuit a waste of everybody's money,

saying he is in the process of removing his tenants and hiring

contractors to level the buildings. Village officials, he said, have

been kept apprised of his efforts in recent weeks and earlier this

year agreed to re-zone the property so he could replace the

apartments with a strip mall.

" I'm working on it, " he said. " Two of them are empty and the other

one will be soon. Then I'll demolish them.

" These things don't happen overnight, " Pappas added. " I told them

just to give me some time. "

Nowak, however, said Pappas has been promising to demolish the

buildings for about a year -- without much follow through.

" We want him to move on his commitment, " he said.