I have news for you. The contractor worked for the city. The city is responsible for them. So get ready tax payers. You'll pay for it. Glad I don't live there. Taxes already going up.

If the house was worth 50K, just call your insurance agent--Woops, fo-got to pay dat in-sho-ance. the place was not even liveable and in the heart of the ghetto, take the $2,000 and thank the man

I feel sorry for this contractor...mistake...dammmmm....I remember back in the day out in the Hall High neighborhood...they built a whole finished house on the wrong lot. hahaah

The contractor has probably already moved all of his assets to his wife, and they can't be touched. The home owner is $cr#w#@. Not the city's fault, but he deserves compensation. His property, not yours, not the city's. As long as it's not a risk or threat, he should be allowed to do what ever he wants with his property.

why just not give him the crack house next door????? and 2000.00 he could fix it up and make a rental property in no time :-)

LOL Neighbors cheering or not looks like this crack house is going to pay off well. Do your work right or pay. It's the law. Like they said it's up to attorneys now and the contractor is likely to have pay both of them. LOL.

My guess is the responsible homeowners that live around him were all cheering.

LOL protector it might have been a crack house but it's going to be funny when this dumb butt pays for it. Be careful you might be his next victim. But OH well it's just a house right. 2000 should cove you.

The house was "unsafe vacant" in April 2012 and it is now Sept 2012. The man has had 6 months to work on the property to restore it and obviously did nothing to improve it even a little. He does need some compensation for the property, but not what he is asking. As for the city, why fire the contractor when he did a job for free they would have probably had him do in the next 3 months?

Whether or not he "thinks" the house was a "crackhouse" is irrelevant. You cannot judge a book by its cover just because its not up to your standards of what a "real" house should be, or look like. It was a house... and was going to be a rental house. He destroyed it, and now he needs to pay for it. He should pay for the damages, plus the loss of possible rental income. Or he can pay to rebuild the house completely. To say what he said was callous and uncalled for. He destroyed someones property. All he needed to do was to apologize, and pay for it. $2,000.00 is not an okay settlement for being a careless idiot. He owes the guy a lot more than that, and without the snarky half-wit insults to.