Lynn cracks down on code violators

LYNN – A house perched above the East Lynn commuter rail tracks heads up a list of properties owned by individuals city officials claim owe thousands of dollars in code violation fines.City inspectors wrote 1,333 tickets totaling $135,900 in fines so far this year, according to Parking Department executive assistant Mary Wright, for code violations ranging from improper trash disposal to the unsafe structure fines levied against 99 Chatham St.The two-family residence tops off a Lynn Parking Department list with $15,000 in fines, but city Chief Inspector Roger Ennis estimated fines against property owner Crazze House Real Estate could top $24,000 once the city proceeds with a District Court case against 99 Chatham’s owner.Ennis said the city has taken enforcement action against the property since last year but the property’s fine history dates back six years.”The initial complaint was the building was being operated as an illegal rooming house with non-compliant use of the attic and other areas. In plain English, it’s not safe,” Ennis said Thursday.City property records state that former 99 Chatham owner Ademir Perdona faced foreclosure in November 2006 and Mark Geohagen acquired the property a month later from the Bank of New York in a foreclosure resale. He sold it to Crazze House in 2009 and Gemoline Stewart of 33 Revere Ave., Lynn bought the house in February.View a map of properties that owe more than $2,000 in fines. Click on each one for more informationView Lynn properties to pay unpaid fines on tax bills in a larger mapCity Councilor Darren Cyr said 99 Chatham has been a source of neighborhood complaints and inspector visits for five years.”It’s been on my radar for over a year,” Cyr said.City records list 33 Revere as Geohagen’s address and a telephone number listed for Geohagen in city records rings at Crazze House’s office. Geohagen could not be reached for comment Thursday.Ennis said the tickets written against 99 Chatham also include working without a permit violation.”We’ll be in front of a judge in a matter of weeks,” he said.The city in 2012 adopted ordinance changes allowing it to shift unpaid code violation tickets to property tax bills in an effort to collect fines through property liens.Wright said the number of tickets written by inspectors so far this year is on pace with 2012 fines even though some tickets have been placed on tax bills in an effort to collect fines.Inspectors, according to Parking Department records, wrote 4,247 code violation tickets in 2012 totaling $340,310 and 3,286 tickets in 2011 totaling $317,240.Although inspectors wrote violation tickets against 99 Chatham in 2007 and 2008, city efforts to crack down on the property’s code violations intensified, according to city records, in 2009 and 2010 with more than a dozen tickets written against Geohagen.More than 40 fines were levied against the property this year and in 2012 with most of the tickets written against Crazze House Real Estate.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].