This house at 185 Coleman Ave. was under renovation, but had slid off the foundations and become a danger to homes around it. So the city ordered it to be demolished at a cost of $100,000.
City orders home demolished
September 16, 2008
STAFF REPORTER
A two-storey home in the city’s east end was torn down today after foundation repairs left it in danger of collapse.
“The building is in dire need of being taken down,” said Jim Laughlin, deputy chief of the city's building department, before the demolition. It took about two hours to demolish the home.
Laughlin said the owners of the home, at 185 Coleman Ave., in the Victoria Park Ave. and Danforth Ave. area, were excavating the basement and dug too deeply.
“They were doing some work in the basement and undermined the foundation,” he said. The owners Jason Carey, whose sister owns the property, and his wife, Kyla Prashad were in the process of renovating the home using a family member as a contractor. Carey said they had applied for the permit but were waiting for it to go through.
“We are not going to dispute that the house could have been undermined in a way that had been more safe,” Prashad said. “We did file for a permit and we were under the understanding that once we paid for the permit, we were free to go ahead.”
Carey said the city called them on Sunday to inform them there was a problem with the building.
“Basically, things happened so fast,” he said, adding that the couple didn’t have time to arrange for an engineer to do their own independent inspection. “It’s a big accident it happened.”
Carey said the couple had been planning to renovate the house, hoping to sell it for between $350,000 and $400,000, and had already invested $50,000 in supplies and building materials.
He said city officials told them they would be responsible for the demolition bill, which could top $100,000.
Carey said they would fight any attempt by the city to charge them for the demolition, and added they are not convinced the building is unstable.
“Can you imagine spending over $100, 000 in building a house and watch the city charge you $100,000 to tear it back down?” Prashad said.
This morning, a large crack was visible at the left side of the house where its wall meets the sidewalk.
Workers from Murray Demolition and police officers were at the site since early this morning, waiting for work to begin.