The Atlanta City Council has come under fire for wrongly demolishing a resident’s home and is now suing the resident to recover the demolition costs. In March of this year, the council sparked outrage by misinterpreting its ruling and demolishing a century-old home owned by Everett Tripodis and his family. Before bulldozers unexpectedly leveled the entire structure, the family hoped to rebuild it.
Despite Tripodis’ family’s adherence to legal procedures by listing the property on Atlanta’s unoccupied property registration, city inspectors declared the structure unfit owing to clutter and a vulnerable entrance. Lawton Avenue zip code 30314 was the official demolition hearing notification. However, Tripodis’ house is on Lawton Street, which is about 1.4 miles away in the 30310 zip code.
Tripodis is now in a new predicament. City officials have demanded that he pay the $68,000 demolition expense. He claimed that when he was served with the papers, he mistook them for an apology letter and a decision to recompense. However, according to WSB-TV, the Council was taking legal action to compel him to pay, stating that it intended to foreclose and remove the property.
Despite public uproar, the council has not corrected the situation and has repeated the error, adding to Tripodis’ aggravation. He had already filed a lawsuit against the city for the initial demolition error, which is still pending in Fulton Court.
He is also facing a foreclosure complaint, which requires a response within a few weeks. The mayor’s office has yet to explain why they took this measure, merely stating that they are looking into it.