Georgia father Eric Arnold sues county who demolished household dwelling with out court docket listening to: ‘They took my dignity away’

A devastated home-owner in Georgia is suing Macon-Bibb County officers after he claimed they demolished the house he was fixing up for his household and not using a court docket listening to.

Eric Arnold purchased the property in Macon, Ga. – positioned 90 miles southeast of Atlanta – in February 2022 for simply $15,000 for himself and his kids, in line with native information station WMAZ.

“It’s like they only took all of it away from me,” Eric Arnold the outlet. “They took my dignity away from me, like I wasn’t even an individual. Like ‘You don’t even exist, we simply going to do what we wish. That is our city.’”

The house was purported to be a “fixer-upper” that Arnold was renovating and ultimately deliberate to reside in, however the plans modified when a dumpster ended up on his property and his dwelling was labeled an “imminent risk to the group.”

The county had already listed the house for demolition when Arnold bought the house.

Nonetheless, Arnold’s legal professionals allege that the daddy was not conscious and that there have been no liens on the house and no public document of Code Enforcement.

It was ultimately demolished in November 2023.

The demolition was a part of Mayor Lester Miller’s Blight Battle launched in 2021, which aimed to take away harmful constructions from neighborhoods however Arnold insists he paid his taxes and acquired the permits wanted so as to save the house earlier than it was torn down.

“I did all the pieces I used to be purported to do. I assumed I used to be okay. I wasn’t okay. They nonetheless knocked my home down,” Arnold mentioned.

“Whereas he nonetheless had work to do, the yard was neat, the outside was clear, the home was locked up, and, most significantly, it was in a vastly improved state of restore in comparison with when he bought it,” Arnold’s lawyer Christie Herbert wrote in an announcement on her web site.

Herbert claims the county “secretly sped up the demolition” after Arnold requested them to cease and take away his dwelling from the demolition listing.

All that’s left on the property now’s a concrete slab on the finish of a driveway and a publish the place the mailbox was.

Arnold requested to be paid again the price of the home and the price of renovations, in line with The Macon Telegraph.

Arnold’s house is the newest casualty of renovation tasks that had been abruptly stopped as a result of keen bulldozers within the neighborhood, in line with neighbor Jerry Collins.

“There’s numerous of us which might be doing their greatest to convey these previous homes again to life and revitalize the neighborhood. I see good issues but when this retains up, these good issues could not occur and that’s what actually considerations me,” Collins advised the outlet.

“Eric’s lawsuit isn’t about only one man’s home, it’s about defending the constitutional rights of all property house owners in Macon-Bibb county,” Herbert mentioned throughout a press convention on the empty lot the place the house was.

In accordance with WMAZ, the county mentioned they haven’t seen any lawsuit but however did launch an announcement in regards to the demolished home.

“We’re conscious of the demolition on Sunnyvale Drive. A letter designating it as a Nuisance Per Se and blighted and that it might be torn down if not repaired was supplied a number of years in the past,” Macon-Bibb County wrote.

The assertion from county officers claims the property was marked as blighted earlier than being bought to Arnold in February 2022. They are saying the brand new home-owner had 20 months to “pull any building permits or repair it up” however they weren’t made conscious of any so a demolition moved ahead.