NY1 For You: House Lifting Off Its Own Foundation Leaves Neighbors Unsettled
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Some Brooklyn homeowners are unsettled by a neighboring abandoned house, which they say is unstable. NY1's Susan Jhun filed the following NY1 For You report.Homeowners Claudette and Alban Yarde of Brownsville, Brooklyn worry that the house next door is slowly sinking and taking theirs with it.
"It's become a safety hazard," says Alban Yarde.
"The house is coming apart from the foundation," says Claudette Yarde.
The house has a clear two-inch gap, where the brick is literally lifting off of the foundation.
"The space between the cracks getting wider tells me that it's not staying stable," says Alban Yarde.
The cracks in the concrete of the Yardes' backyard are unsettling as well.
The couple says the owner of the house next door died four years ago and it's been abandoned ever since.
After the Yardes contacted NY1, the station located the deceased owner's son, Wade Jenkins.
Jenkins told NY1 he knows the foundation of the house is cracked and says he has received estimates of $100,000 to fix the foundation but claims he doesn’t have the money.
NY1 called the Department Of Buildings, which has issued 13 violations on the property. A spokeswoman told the station that inspectors will be sent to the home. If the department orders repairs and the owner is either unwilling or unable to make them, the city will step in, do the work and recoup the costs from the owner.
The Yardes pray this action will happen before it is too late.
NY1 will continue to follow this story.