Worst Neighbor Ever

Last month, a rotting house in our neighborhood collapsed and slipped down a south-facing hill in Sunnyside, also crashing into the house next door. It looked like this:

The Chron decided to play up the "poor young couple lose their DREAM HOUSE" angle instead of a far more accurate "unqualified asshole decides to DIY crumbling foundation with day labor, and then badly damages neighbor's home and adjoining mini-park while releasing a ton of asbestos into the air" angle.

Here's what the site looked like from the side last week. Note the plywood-patched hole in the neighbor's house.

Well, in spite of the still-too-innocuous headline ("Dream House Slips into a Nightmare") the Chron followed up with the rancid details yesterday.

Originally put on the market for $400,000 and billed as the cheapest house in San Francisco, the cottage generated many offers. No matter that the one-bedroom home was in such disrepair that cereal boxes were used to patch wall holes and prospective buyers were cautioned to "enter at their own risk."

Ben Coleman, the Century 21 broker who sold Lam the house, later distributed a flyer with a photo of the cottage. It read, "We just sold this dump for $125,000 over asking price! Imagine what your property is worth!"

To anyone thinking about buying or selling a home in San Francisco -- take note of this before you decide to work with Ben Coleman of Century 21.

Oh, and the neighbor?

Wycko estimates damage to their place at about $30,000. If their foundation is undermined, he believes the figure will jump by $40,000 more...

As they await news from a structural engineer as to whether their foundation was compromised by Zhou's excavations, their insurance company is questioning whether their policy covers damage from another structure collapsing onto their house.

 

And when Zhou called a demolition crew to clear the property...

"I told her the whole house had to go as regulated waste," Wilson said. "We are a certified asbestos contractor. We did tests. The entire pile was hot with asbestos."

A few weeks into the project, Wilson said he was told over the phone that he was fired. Lam had hired another contractor to complete the work... He said he hasn't "been paid a penny" of the $50,000 contract. His company has filed a lien against Lam's property.

"The most important thing to think of is what happened out there," Wilson said. "This is a real serious deal. This man knew nothing about foundations, but he was replacing the foundation. He was using Kragen auto jacks to jack up the house. None of the protocol was followed. He's lucky he didn't kill someone."

This just in: In California, reckless endangerment of your neighbors is legal. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some tires and newspapers to burn on my roof.

Comments

[mags]

That is SO f'ed up!

[Mags]

Oh yeah, and:

Tag - you're it!

[catherine]

I prefer to think of him as DIY Dumbass.