Preserved?

By Charles Sowell  

JANUARY 27, 2011 3:55 p.m. (0)

A house in the historic Hampton Heights neighborhood restored by the now-defunct Preservation Trust was found to have black mold, crumbling framework and deteriorating floor joists and roof rafters.

Earl and Sharon Troglin, owners of 144 W. Hampton Ave., sued the trust and the city of Spartanburg and reached a mediated settlement with the trust, the contractor and the home inspector.

The city settled with the Troglins before the settlement was negotiated, City Manager Ed Memmott and Councilwoman Linda Dougan said.

“It was far less expensive to settle,” Memmott said.

The settlement amount cannot be determined because Judge Mark Hayes sealed it and placed a gag order on all parties.

Hampton Heights neighbors believe the trust went out of business to avoid more lawsuits alleging shoddy craftsmanship, but Linda Bilanchone, a former chairwoman of the trust board, said that is not true. The trust closed because it didn’t have enough money to keep operating – home sales did not meet expenditures.

The Preservation Trust, established in 1998, was involved in the restoration of 40 homes, mostly in Hampton Heights, one of which was its former office.

The city provided pass through federal funds for much of the trust’s history and Memmott, in his previous role with the city as community development director, oversaw the disbursement of those funds.

A letter signed on Nov. 15, 2001 by Memmott, as community development director, shows the trust received a $150,000 float loan through federal sources administered by the city and approximately $207,800 in project and operating funds from the same sources between 1999 and 2002.

The Trust was started with funds from the National Preservation Trust, Mary Black, Spartanburg County and Mary Reynolds Babcock foundations and the city of Spartanburg.

According to officials with the national Preservation Trust in Washington, D.C., the Spartanburg trust was the only local trust to close in the wake of the recession.

City officials give the trust credit for increased home ownership rates, lower crime and increased property values.

And overall, owners of Trust-restored homes say they are satisfied with the quality of the work, however there have been reports of problems. Sally Quinnelly is 78 and is recovering from surgery for a broken hip. She lives on Hampton Drive where the Trust did work on her roof and on the interior a few years ago.

Sitting amid pieces of fine furniture inherited from her family in the Mississippi Delta, she pointed to a new floor furnace and to the old furnace left in place in the next room. Work done to a window is rotting away and the paint and plaster beneath the window is crumbling.

Her home needs re-roofing now, too.

“When that crew came here they piled the old shingles on top of my marble-top table in the backyard,” she said. “The weight of the old shingles broke it.”

Quinnelly said she was told at least some of that work was paid for with a forgivable loan. She later found out this was not so and had to pay the debt.

Detria Jones, a former member of the Preservation Trust board, said, “Preservation Trust didn’t save this neighborhood, we (the people who live there) did.”

The Trust purchased the Hampton Avenue home, which the Troglins ultimately bought, for $26,000 in October 2001. The city reimbursed the trust with federal housing funds.

The trust took out a $70,000 construction mortgage with Regions Bank. The contract between the trust and the builder shows he was to be paid $69,540. The document was signed on Sept. 27, 2001.

The construction loan was paid off with the first sale of the home to Michael Smith and Emily Ardt in 2003.  Records show Smith and Ardt paid $115,000 for the property.

An inspection report done for the couple by a Spartanburg commercial inspection company listed low spots around the foundation and walls; noticeable paint peeling around the windows and trim; damaged and loose shingles on the roof; problems with flashing around the chimney; fungus and mold on framing members; elevated moisture content in crawl spaces; the ground under the house was wet; loose, leaking fixtures under the sink.

“All work specified completed,” said a note on the report under the signature of a trust official.

The Troglins bought the house in June 2006, according to documents obtained by the Journal. When the couple started having health problems associated with mold, they asked for an inspection of what was behind the sheetrock.

Scott Cantrell, a contractor hired by the Troglins, said when he tore out the sheetrock in the front two rooms he found rotten two by fours and wet insulation covered in black mold.

“It wasn’t exactly what you’d call a healthy situation,” he said.  “It took us two weeks just to tear out and replace the insulation and two by fours. You could crumble the (existing) two by fours in your hand.”

As to the floors and ceilings, Cantrell said, “You were in danger of stepping right through the flooring in several places and in the attic it was just a mess. There were support beams that were not even connected to anything just new two by fours tacked into place with a nail or two.”

Pictures taken by Cantrell showed light seeping through the roof in the home’s attic and shots from beneath the floors showed a hodgepodge of tacked-together timbers, rotten wood and poorly reconstructed footings.

The leaking plumbing fixtures noted in the 2003 inspection were still leaking.

Memmott said city building inspectors had no reason to look beyond the work listed on permits.

All city inspectors were called to examine, Memmott said, was work done on the roof and floors.

“We have no way of knowing what kind of work was done there if we aren’t called. It is the contractor’s responsibility to call for inspections.”

City inspectors also passed on work done to the home’s electrical and plumbing systems, documents indicate.

So far as Spartanburg officials know there are no problems with the six homes they took over after SPT closed in December, said Memmott.

Those properties were part of a $2 million federal program that targeted foreclosed or condemned homes. They are located at 312 Alexander Ave., 193 Brookwood Terrace, 539 Hampton Ave., 215 Briarcliff Rd., 620 Irwin Ave., and 591 S. Converse St.

Renovations at three of those homes have been completed and the city plans to market them this year and manage the remaining renovations to completion and sale.

There are no other lawsuits pending over renovations done by the trust, according to records on file with the Spartanburg County Courthouse.