Heritage House Condominiums were inspected by City of Greensboro housing inspectors every year until 2014 when they were deemed unfit to live in by the Greensboro City Council. Strangely enough, Greensboro housing inspectors had deemed Heritage House Condominiums safe to live in that very same year. It was only after the residents of Heritage House Condominiums were evicted from their homes that a third party inspector was called in to deem the building structurally unsound.
And yet four years later the building still stands while City Council tries to figure out how to sell a perfectly usable building they have not yet paid the actual owners for.
Our volunteer staff here at EzGreensboro.com has requested the housing inspection records for the owners of Heritage House Apartments from the City of Greensboro so that we might compare violations between Heritage House Condominiums and Heritage House Apartments. How long will it take for the City of Greensboro to reply to our public records request?
Well allow me to put it this way. In previous attempts to get public records I successfully sued the City of Greensboro after waiting over a year and still waited months. Seems they like to give things time to blow over before they let the facts be known.
But here are the facts we know thus far:
From Fox 8 Smoke alarms not working in apartment where deadly fire happened in Greensboro:
"The Greensboro apartment where a deadly fire happened early Saturday morning had smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms but they were not working at the time of the fire, according to a press release from the N.C. Department of Insurance."
The N.C. Department of Insurance, lead by elected representative Mike Causey, is the State level agency who investigates these sorts of things. Their opinion will stand up in any court in North Carolina.
Also from Fox 8:
"They weren't getting the attention they needed as it related to home repairs," said Walker.
She said the father of the family complained about small fires around the stove three days before the fatal fire."
Now if this can be proven we have the beginning of a criminal case, possibly for negligence or 5 counts of manslaughter. Does anyone know what became of 3 year old Marissa Ayun who got lead poisoning at the hands of the Agapions in 2004?
Greensboro Fire Marshal Timothy Henshaw confirmed there were no working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors in the unit. Also, from the Winston Salem Journal:
"Henshaw said some of the fire extinguishers, which were left on hooks outside the buildings, were missing and that others had faded labels, which he attributed to damage from the weather."
And while Irene Agapion-Martinez, whose family owns the property, claims the property was up to code just 18 months ago the history of the Agapions in Greensboro tell a very different story.
From Eric Ginsburg at Triad City Beat on February 18, 2015:
"A similar cycle occurred with 2335 Floyd, which was also continued from June, July and August before being upheld in September. It was later rescinded in December after repairs to the entire building, and Irene said all but one unit are rented.
But even though the entire building was supposed to be cleared at the same time, and the inspector’s notes in the city’s online code compliance tracking system says every unit was in compliance, both windows for Apt. F — a unit in the back corner of the building —are currently boarded up."
Were all the apartments in compliance 18 months ago? Were they all inspected? How many of the Agapion's 400 plus properties are death traps, baited and set to kill innocent children?
And then there is this:
"By the end of 2014, 11 entities or individuals each owed the city more than $1,000 under the new fine structure. Some were larger institutions like Fannie Mae, that owed $1,475, while others were limited liability corporations or individual property owners. Three owed the city far more than anyone else. With $346,775 outstanding, the Agapion family is at the top of that list, and they have no intention of paying."
The Greensboro City Council has failed to act against the rich Agapions, the owners of Heritage House Apartments and hundreds of other slum properties here in Greensboro in collecting what is now in excess of $439,000 but had no problem stealing 177 private residences at Heritage House Condominiums over a $49,000 water bill.
"The Heritage House Homeowners Association owes nearly $49,000 on its water bill."
Now do you understand the problem? It's not just the Agapions, it's a complicit Mayor and City Council who bend over backwards to help the rich steal from the working classes.
And the new law suits are soon to start rolling in with your tax dollars paying for every bit of the damage except for the pain in a mother's heart. I can tell you from personal experience, nothing will ever compensate the loss of your children.
