Multiple agencies chasing slumlord

LYNN – A local slumlord responsible for ripping thermostats out of his apartments and forcing his tenants to live in squalor is on the run not only from Lynn officials, but from the Environmental Protection Agency and numerous other agencies in Rhode Island and Connecticut.Believed to have fled to China in recent months, Ping Zuo has become notorious for renting out apartments to tenants in buildings that are literally rotting out around them.Piles of trash and animal feces in the driveways, rodents running in the hallways, and no heat are just a few of the health code violations that have been found at 53 Arlington and 444 Essex streets, and 1 and 2 Haines Terrace.Chief Health Inspector Louis Picano said he has been trying to track down Zuo for several months but hasn’t had any luck.”I’m pretty sure that he took off and went to China?he’s definitely gone,” he said. “He was pretty clever though, I don’t know how he did it.”Picano said Zuo also goes by another name, Anthony Ping Zuo, and has a primary residence of 193 Boston Post Road in Weston and a real estate business, Great Wall Properties, LLC.Aside from the properties that Zuo abandoned in Lynn, Picano said a judge in Springfield recently took 19 properties away from Zuo that were all in poor condition.In 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Zuo owned and leased 49 apartment buildings and 299 rental units in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.Forty-two percent of the buildings that Zuo owned and leased were found to have lead paint and were located in low-income neighborhoods and were occupied by families with young children.According to a letter addressed to Zuo in January from Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan, 10 code violations for 53 Arlington St., were detailed including rear porches in a state of disrepair; no buzz-in entry system; a back door that doesn’t lock; dysfunctional rear hall lights; doors without apartment numbers; a cellar door unlocked and open to trespassers; dysfunctional heating systems or no heat in the building at all; rodent and insect infestation, uncollected trash and penetrations in walls were found in the back hall of the building.The letter also specifically stated that if the violations were not brought to compliance, a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment of up to one year would be brought upon Zuo.Similar letters had been sent to Zuo in October 2007, but were ignored.The city filed criminal complaints against Zuo in January for failure to comply with orders from the Board of Health, however without a social security number, Picano said there is little chance that Zuo will ever be located and formally charged.To date, Zuo owes the city $25,000 and is still being fined up to $900 a day for the rundown properties that he owns.Picano said when he paid a visit to 53 Arlington St., he was shocked to see how bad the conditions were and that a family of six was living there.”He (Zuo) knew that he was losing the property and yet he was still collecting rent,” he said. “He apparently had his sister go to the building and take the thermostat off of the wall, and told the residents that they were getting a new one. The heat is back on now, but the family never once called us to say what was going on. I just could not believe that they were so intimidated.”As of now, Picano said a bank and a management company took the property over.Picano said he hopes to have legislation approved in the coming months to have liens placed on properties so that fines have to be paid before the building can be sold.”We’ve been waiting quite a while, but if the house gets sold first, then the city basically loses,” he said.