Ex-Lynn slumlord center of fire furor

LYNN – A lead paint lawsuit and building code violations all but drove Timothy Klotz out of Lynn in 2001; now Klotz faces a complaint of failing to register a building for fire inspection following a deadly blaze in one of his Utica, N.Y. properties.The Utica Observer-Dispatch reported Monday that Klotz was fined last year for failing to register the apartment building where four people died last Sunday for fire inspections. Fire inspectors told the newspaper smoke alarms were not working in the building where the fire broke out.Klotz was also fined for failing to comply with a law requiring inspection registration for nearly a dozen other Utica properties he owns. The Observer-Dispatch also reported Klotz owes millions of dollars in delinquent taxes and is fighting efforts to foreclose on eight of his properties.Klotz maintains a Marblehead post office box but lives in the Utica suburb of New Hartford, according to the Observer-Dispatch. Attempts to reach him by telephone at home Tuesday were unsuccessful.Klotz owned multi-family properties across Lynn in 1998-2000 when he battled city inspectors in court over their claims of code violations and landlord negligence in his buildings.Highlands residents’ complaints to the city prompted a joint inspection task force, in 1999, including police officers, to scrutinize 5,7 and 11 Herbert St., all buildings owned by Klotz. Fire inspection records for 5 Herbert indicated smoke detectors were missing from the first and second floor rear hallways.”Trash, debris and stinking garbage were all around,” Robert Stilian, who helped spearhead the Herbert Street inspections, said in 2000.City housing officials bought the buildings from Klotz in 2000, razed them and built new housing.”This was one of the highest crime rate areas in the city. The only way to eliminate it was to get the properties away from him,” said Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development planning director Norman Cole on Tuesday.A Superior Court jury in 2000 sided with the city’s decision to tear down another Klotz building four years earlier. A city lawyer said years of neglect and complaints to police about drug dealing in 427 Summer St. prompted the demolition.Similar complaints also condemned 9 Thompson Circle to demolition in 1998. Klotz objected to the demolition, saying he planned to renovate the fire-damaged building off Chestnut Street.City collector records indicate Klotz owes the city $3,072 in excise taxes dating back to 1998.Southern Essex Registry of Deeds records list Klotz as owner of 93-95 Green St. He bought the building in 2004 for $42,000, according to registry records, and holds as trustee of Jacqueline Realty Trust two mortgages on the property totaling $455,000.Registry records indicate another Klotz property, 32 Cooper St., was foreclosed on in July.