Incompetent City Crew Demolishes The Wrong House

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Fort Worth, TX:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/17/wrong-home-demolished-fort-worth-texas_n_3610466.html

David Underwood was having a hard time finding his house over the weekend.

He and his wife were searching everywhere for the Fort Worth, Tex., property that had been in their family for years. They thought the home had vanished -- and they were right, according to KDFW. The city confirmed Monday that its demolition crews leveled the wrong house.

"We came around Silver Creek looking for the lot and my wife said, 'David, I think the house is gone,'" Underwood told the station. "We looked up there and sure enough, it's gone!"

The three-bedroom, ranch style home, which sat on a lake, was once owned by Underwood's grandmother. It was nearly empty but not condemned like the house next door -- the house that was actually due to be demolished. Instead, crews took Underwood's home, valued at $82,000, which he planned to fix up and move into, the New York Daily News reports.

All that's left is a cement foundation.

The city's code compliance office confirmed the epic blunder with an oh-so-apologetic statement to reporters:

On July 12, 2013, contractors demolished the wrong property on Watercress Drive. The property to be demolished should have been 9708 Watercress Dr. The property that was demolished was a vacant structure located at 9716 Watercress Drive.

[kittensaver]

There are incompetent people everywhere.

[mmhmm]

*chuckle*  Mistakes happen.  This one might be just a bit costly.

[Deleted]

Paul, did you just link to the Huffing and Puffington post

[Sum Dum Gai]

Incompetent City Crew Demolishes The Wrong House

Another purposely misleading headline... or another failure of our public school system that doesn't teach reading comprehension anymore.

On July 12, 2013, contractors demolished the wrong property on Watercress Drive.

Contractors, private ones.  You know, the ones who can do everything better and cheaper than stupid, lazy, government workers.

[Peace Of Mind]

They were wanting to remodel anyway so I think a new  house would be even better.      The question I have is what are they going to do about their blunder?   Would the only recourse be to hire a lawyer and sue the contractors and/or the people who hired them?

[Tennesseer]

If it's Friday (or Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday), it must be misleading thread title day.  

[EVT1]

Have to say it is better than being woken up and shot by the police with the wrong address. 

[djAdvocate]

oh, sorry.  i thought this was another thread about the Detroit City Manager.  my bad.

[ZaireinHD]

A similar incident happened in Pittsburgh in 2011, when a man returned home from the holidays to find that the city mistakenly tore down his house.

If this was in New York - they would still deny they are not at fault!

[zibazinski]

Brand new house courtesy of boo-boo!

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 19, 2013 13:18:25 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

There are incompetent people everywhere.

That is true.  But they exist in an especially large concentration in government entities.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 19, 2013 13:44:52 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

If it's Friday (or Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday), it must be misleading thread title day.  

You mean misleading post day.  

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 19, 2013 19:52:03 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Have to say it is better than being woken up and shot by the police with the wrong address. 

I can't deny that.

[fairlycrazy23]

He scoped it out two days before he placed his bid. "I came back two days later and the City of Tulsa had knocked the house down,"

[zibazinski]

Thank god no one was living in there or animals weren't home while their people worked.

[Opti]

Given that banks have had people trash the wrong homes later finding out they weren't foreclosed on or REO, umm not buying the city governments screw this up overall any more than lenders have been. Some people get lazy and don't double check. These stories haven't been rare since at least 2007/2008.



The amount of teardowns might be less as they need to be REOs before the lender legally should be able to do that. I think I'd prefer a total teardown instead of that one couple who I think came home from a vacation to find pipes had burst because the bank had turned them all off and perhaps even the contents of the home had been sold.

[thyme4change]

Jul 22, 2013 16:06:33 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Thank god no one was living in there or animals weren't home while their people worked.

Actually it is too bad that someone wasn't home.  I'm not sure what kind of house it was, but when they took down the houses so the freeway could be built, they didn't come in with a wrecking ball and just plow through them.  It was more like disassembling them.  They also knocked on the door and did several safety checks.  They would have figured out it was the wrong address if they showed up and a dog was in the back yard, or if some guy was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal.

[zibazinski]

I suppose but what if they didn't bother to check or they thought the other guy checked?

[thyme4change]

The first thing they would do is remove the door, or try and remove the windows.  That would probably alert someone - even if they were sleeping.  Meanwhile, if they were removing the windows and noticed that the dishwasher was running and today's newspaper was sitting next to the couch, they might stop and question their decision.  The fact that this house was empty didn't throw up any flags.  It was just that one guy who said "This is the place" - the workers wouldn't see any paperwork or anything, and wouldn't have any reason to confirm the address.  But, when disassembling the house, if someone lived there, they would likely question why this condemned house had clothing in the closet and a clean floor and a family portrait on the wall that wasn't covered with dust.  

[Opti]

Most of these mistakes are with houses people are gone from like on vacation, etc.
I think it is as Thyme says, if it looks abandoned they assume they are at the right one.

[thyme4change]

Actually, the first thing they would probably do is check to make sure the utilities were off.  That never gets overlooked, because it is a huge safety thing - you could get yourself really hurt/dead if electric is hot and you start chopping up wires.  The fact that all the utilities were off made it seem like the right house.  If the lights were on and water was running, they might have to call the utility company.  At that point, they would double check the address, or something.