MORGANTOWN — James Giuliani stood on Forest Avenue Sunday morning, watching the Morgantown Fire Department put out the blaze that destroyed one of the five homes he owns along the street.
“I said this would happen. I told everyone something like this was going to happen,” he said. “It was only a matter of time.”
The homes once contained more than 30 bedrooms rented to WVU students.
That changed in early 2017, when multiple slips below Forest Avenue caused the street to collapse, closing it to vehicle traffic for nearly six months.
It’s been a complicated downhill slide from there.
Due to structural concerns with the houses following the slips, insurance demands and the fact that the tenants could no longer drive to their rentals, Giuliani let all the tenants out of their leases. The last moved out in May of 2017.
A short time later, squatters and vandals began moving in to the structures, which are a short walk from the downtown and secluded at the top of the street, just before it dead ends at Whitmore Park.
According to Giuliani, he routinely had the houses boarded up, but the obstacles served as no deterrent. He said multiple security systems were stolen from the houses and public requests to the city to help secure the structures with increased police presence or other means went unanswered.
Forest Avenue was reopened to vehicle traffic in late fall of 2017, and included a new guardrail that blocked access to one of the houses, at 488 Forest.
It would be months later before water was restored to the houses. When it was, 460 Forest was immediately flooded due to a lack of a proper meter stop, Giuliani said.
He said the houses were also left without proper drains.
By that time, appliances, fixtures, copper wire and pipes and anything else of value had been destroyed or taken from the houses, which were significantly damaged on the inside and full of trash and drug paraphernalia.
Ultimately, in December of 2017, James and Karen Giuliani filed suit against the city and the Morgantown Utility Board, claiming the city was negligent in maintaining Forest Avenue and MUB undercut the hillside in 2014, causing the slips that closed the road and damaged their business.
While the city and MUB refuted those claims, the details of a combined $1.5 million settlement from the city, MUB and their respective insurance providers were made public in February. That settlement would have transferred ownership of the five structures and 22 lots owned by the Giulianis on Forest Avenue to the city.
However, due to issues with the deeds, the settlement has never been finalized.
“Basically, at some point in time, around January 21, language was added that was the equivalent of saying I would provide them general warranty deeds, which they knew I couldn’t provide,” Giuliani said. “So all the sudden they wanted marketable deeds on property that has been left unusable by their own actions. So if you want to know why there is no settlement, ask them.”
The city said it will not comment on the settlement as it is an ongoing legal matter.
Giuliani said this issue has had a huge financial impact on him over the last two-plus years. He said he’s still on the hook to the bank for more than $11,000 a month for the properties, which previously generated nearly $20,000 monthly in rent and parking fees.
Further, he said multiple requests to the city’s code enforcement office, including a request to condemn the structures, have gone without response.
In July of 2018, during routine rental inspections, the city condemned two of the five houses — the flooded house at 460 and another, at 500 Forest.
According to the city, the Morgantown Police Department has responded to six open-door complaints on Forest Avenue, resulting in multiple trespass warnings and citations in the last six months, during which police have noticed “an increase in activity at the properties.”
Giuliani asks why the police have only taken note in the last six months when he’s been unable to keep people out of the empty houses for two years.
“It’s because it’s gotten so bad. The drugs and everything in there have gotten so bad that they’re forced now to pay attention to it,” Giuliani said. “You think they’ve been doing this all along? Do you think those houses would be full of people every day and full of drugs every day if they thought the police were going to show up?”
As for the rest, the city says Forest Avenue has been open since fall of 2017 and Giuliani has had access to his properties.
“The city has not allowed this to persist. Under the city’s property management code, property owners are required to ensure that vacant buildings are secured to prevent this type of situation,” Morgantown Communication Manager Andrew Stacy said.
Further, Stacy said the city’s public works department has made efforts to secure the condemned structures by removing steps and boarding up doors and windows.
The fire that destroyed 485 Forest Avenue on Sunday is under investigation.
It is believed that two people escaped the blaze uninjured. Giuliani said the fire marshal is looking into whether a third person was in the house.
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