New Kensington Council halts Tarentum contractor from buying abandoned house

New Kensington officials said they were doing a Tarentum contractor a favor by not allowing him to buy a long-vacant house in the city from Westmoreland County’s unsold repository.

Council voted unanimously last month to not consent to the sale of 304 Charles Ave. to Bryaunt Williams, owner of One Way Enterprise.

Williams told council he planned to work on the house himself, get financing to do so and have it complete in six to eight months.

However, city officials, including Councilman Tim DiMaio and code enforcement officer Pat McGrath, said others, including contractors, have bought the house before only to walk away from it after realizing it would cost too much to repair.

The house has been abandoned for more than 20 years, city Engineer Tony Males said.

Councilman Todd Mentecki said getting the property back on the tax rolls would be good, but he wasn’t sure that the city consenting to the sale was in Williams’ best interest.

A significant issue is that the house and a separate garage have been divided into seven apartments. Keeping it that way would require approval from the city’s zoning hearing board, Males said.

Parking is at a premium in that area of Charles Avenue and would be an issue for a multi-unit apartment building, Males said.

Further, Males said reducing the number of units or turning it back to single family would require the removal of many walls and plumbing work.

The sale to Williams will not go through because the city opposed it. The county, school district and municipality all must consent for a repository sale to happen, said Linda Kuchar, deputy director of the county’s Tax Office/Tax Claim Bureau.

About 350 properties countywide are in the repository, Kuchar said. They end up there after not being sold at the county’s annual upset sale, which consists of properties with two years of unpaid property taxes, and going unsold again at a judicial sale.

The house at 304 Charles was up for judicial sale Nov. 14 and did not sell, Kuchar said.

People interested in buying properties from the repository place a bid for them. Kuchar said prices are based on the cost the county incurs to get it through the judicial process.

Prospective buyers are not allowed to enter properties because the county technically is not the owner, Kuchar said.

“We always tell them to do their homework,” she said. “It’s always a ‘buyer beware’ situation.”

Members of New Kensington Council took issue with this, as it requires buyers like Williams to purchase properties without fully understanding their condition or what would be needed to repair them.

Williams pointed to remodeling work he had done on a house on Ridge Avenue. Councilmembers looked up the property and commended Williams on its appearance.

Mentecki said the city would like to work with Williams but not on this property.

The city probably will look to demolish the house and sell the lot to an adjacent neighbor, City Clerk Dennis Scarpiniti said.

McGrath advised those considering buying such properties to check with the city for information about their conditions.