Landlord Claims Debris Was in Front of Neighboring Building

DOS issued a violation notice to landlord based on a large accumulation of bottles, cans, cigarette packs, cups, napkins, paper bags, other paper, tissues, and wrappers at the front and side of its building. Landlord claimed that the debris observed by DOS actually was located in front of the building next door. Landlord submitted statements from two tenants who said that the trash was in front of the other building, not landlord's. The ALJ ruled against landlord and fined it $100. Landlord appealed and lost. Landlord again argued that the cited debris was entirely in front of his neighbor's building, so it didn't need to prove that it made reasonable efforts to keep the property clean. ECB accepted the DOS inspector's statement that the debris was in front of landlord's building. And one of the tenants had noted in his statement that a pile of debris got pushed to the tree that's in front of landlord's building.

Formack Hooper LLC: ECB App. No. 1200330 (6/27/13) [3-pg. doc.]