Northwest Indiana Discussion

I see that this house, according to the Assessors web site, has a mortgage and homestead exemption. Also, this house is listed as having just under 3,000sqft, which I cannot believe, seeing the size of it. Interesting.

If the owner has claimed tax exemptions he isn't entitled to, the county will bill him for all the years he received those deductions,along with penalties. It is a two story home with 966 sq. feet per level, giving it a total finished square footage of 1932 sq. feet. The assessor also adds the basement to the total square footage for the property.

Matt, should we call every one that defaults on a mortgage (for any reason) or files bankruptcy a dead beat?

As to the Homestead deduction, Sparks, you know, Tom has had his people play with adding and removing them now for some time. Someone interested in how that happens.

Maybe this property owner is taking the play book out of a politician who had five homestead exemptions?

Isn't this the lake county way?

My daughter had her exemptions mysteriously disappear also. It tripled her taxes last year. Fortunately, even though there is nothing she could do about last year, she was able to go down to Crown Point and refile for the exemption. Her tax bill should be back to normal this year, I hope.

You are welcome to call me anything you like ..... it doesn't matter to me.

Plenty of people had their houses stolen from them during the financial crisis. Sadly many of these houses have been picked up on the cheap by slumlords in Hammond and elsewhere.

As long as you are fine with the title of slumlord .........

So are you now accusing McDermott of having an illegal homestead exemption added? I posted about 3 hours after the fire that he had an illegal exemption. At least 2 more of his properties have them as well. I also posted that he was already being investigated for those exemptions.

Everyone that has an illegal exemption should be investigated and charged as it is costing the county valuable tax money.

problematic properties are problematic properties... you can identify them by driving by.









these certainly appear to be problematic properties, you agree?

they are evidently in some form of distress.

Are they landlord owned properties?

No clue, but if people are living in them, well don't you think their condition mandates a code enforcement inspection to assure they are safe for habitation or should we just focus on slum lord properties?

Are they owned by slumlords? I don't know, nor do I care. The condition of these properties need to be addressed.

Consequences of such properties devalue others in the area, make the area less desirable for families or persons interested in renting.

Then the city spends north of $60,000 in a property and it turns out looking like the picture below?



So let's divert our focus to slap someone with a label of financial dead beat or slumlord, it solves no problem.

Fix the problem, deal with the property. No one wants to live in the homes pictured above, do you?

The title Slumlord fits no purpose other than to in one broad brush paint an investor as evil. Not everyone can purchase a property, not every one wants to purchase a property. Some prefer to rent.

If your disdane is someone being a slumlord, ask questions of Jr on how the property below has sat like this for 4 to 5 years...



This property is owned by the city, is the city a slum lord or did they buy the property to scam money out of the feds for a friendly contractor?

Solve the problem.

So I found another address used by our friend Joseph "Slumlord Kill-ionaire" Wittig ......... to go with the rest.

4 homes under his "One Source 4 Homes LLC" front are listed to 115 S Broad St in Griffith. Only that address is an empty lot ........

Other addresses he uses for One Source 4 Homes are:

One Source 4 Homes LLC
P O Box 308
Schererville IN 46375

One Source 4 Homes LLC
5205 W 125th AVE
Crown Point IN 46307


I also found another Front company .......this is 8 .....

One Source 41 Homes LLC
P O Box 308
Schererville IN 46375

My daughter bought a repo on the cheap. She has made it her home. While investors did gobble up a majority of these homes, some did take the opportunity to buy their first home for a fraction of what it would have cost on the open market.

Apparently Tom McDermott was in Indianapolis giving testimony (I guess he wants the practice) about the registration of rental housing. As written in a Times story, Tom teared up as he used the deaths of three young children for his political purposes. What does he want? To continue to charge fees as he sees fit. He lamented that the city was just days away from possibly finding the unit where the children died, uninhabitable. See, an inspection would have shown the unit was without gas and electricity, a condition the city would use to bar occupancy of such a unit. But the city could have known that condition without an inspection. The city already knew the unit was without water, but they didn't act on that either. And how would inspection matter if a unit is inspected in April and utilities are shut off in May? No, Tom is using the deaths of children to lobby for 80 dollar registrations. Money it seems is not only the cause of, but apparently the solution to all problems in Tom's eyes.

And I understand Kantar is seeking a pay raise, reducing her hours and doing more work with another group of attorneys.

Hammond needs a competent full time attorney, not someone who has a history of working outside their role of city attorney. I believe Hammond Ordinance requires a FULL TIME CITY ATTORNEY. Then we have an issue of competence.

I believe more issues will arise on this story. Hammond had notice at each of the two utilities disconnects (gas and electric) and the Hammond Water Department cut off the water to the unit. The father re installed two electrical meters, I can believe NIPSCO would not have notified the city of this latter action.

One buffalo box provides water service to the unit. If Hammond never did gain access to the property, how did they turn off water to one of the two units? Why were both units, if with out water, allowed to have human occupants?

Then we have the ineptitude I wrote about in another post. Hammond Code Enforcement failed, failed to use other government agencies to attempt to remove the occupants. Failed to call County Public Health Department (Hammond doesn't have a Health Department Thanks To Mayor Tom), failed to call Family Services, failed to use police and as I stated, if there is one emergency order to condemn or force tenants to vacate the premises, the city failed in its obligation to keep its citizens safe.

This is why you have not heard the slumlord mantra out of Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr.

Litigation against the city will not be what they did, but what reasonable people failed to do. When you discuss the concept of reasonable, this eludes Code Enforcement under McDermott's administration.

I know for a fact, during the previous administration, it was common place to assure an uninhabitable properties residents were forced out of their unfit abode. The subject property was then boarded up.

Unfortunately, This will NOT be the End of the ineptitude coming out in this tragic incident.

At least someone in the Region is telling the story. Some political figures are quite successful leveraging, keeping honest news coverage off the air or out of the papers by withholding advertising money.

http://nwigazette.com/ the story will eventually come out.

Shame some regional news outlets fail to accurately report the news.

1349

It's amazing that the NWI Gazette can't even follow the timeline in their own documents, let alone do any real investigative journalism. But then again thats not what it's really about is it?

Their own documents show that Joseph Wittig sold the house on contract to Edwin Feliciano in May and then bought it back from tax sale in September. My isn't that convenient? All while rental management was run thru one of Joseph Wittigs companies!

I've shown previously that Wittig uses at least 8 different holding companies sent to at least 4 different addresses and does use the name Real Estate Solutions (Whether it is registered in Indiana or not).

His lawyer says they asked for a continuance because they were not properly notified in September, due to a deed that was not recorded. So how can NWI Gazette claim he was never served when his lawyer was all over it in 2 different newspaper articles?

Did the gazette edit their story? Matt, could you help me find the timeline mistakes you mention? Where is there any mention of a taxsale? Also, the recording dates are not an accurate indication of any timeline. Is there any indication of a foreclosure like court filing to void the contract for sale?

Lubu ... look at the dates of the attached files. They have a contract for him selling the house on contract in May. Then him purchasing the house for $19 (plus back taxes) in September.

In the Chicago Sun Times Article and the Hammond Times article, it mentions that his (Wittigs) lawyer said they requested a continuance in September because the house had been sold but the deed had not been recorded.