One family owes Greensboro $700K in fines for housing code violations. Now, the city is taking them

One family owes Greensboro $700K in fines for housing code violations. Now, the city is taking them to court


The city of Greensboro plans to take the city’s most notorious landlord to court to collect about $700,000 in uncollected civil penalties and fines from housing code violations.

Deadbeat landlords owe the city of Greensboro about $1.3 million from uncollected civil penalties and fines accrued when the city condemns housing and orders repairs. Of that, about $700,000 — more than half — is owed by the Agapion family, Assistant City Manager Chris Wilson told a group of housing advocates on June 7.

Wilson reiterated a pledge made by Mayor Nancy Vaughan two weeks prior. He said the city will take the Agapion family and other violators to court to collect the accumulated fines.

“Unfortunately, sometimes we the city are put in a position of having to enforce — that’s not what we want to do,” Wilson said, prompting two rounds of applause during the final session of a symposium on housing and health at UNCG on Friday. “We want to help. We want to put good housing on the market. We don’t want to condemn. We don’t want to demolish. We don’t want to take. But when you leave us no alternative, we are going to push back. And that’s what this first step does. And I hope it sends a strong signal to everyone else that’s on that list that chooses to ignore, or allows people to live in conditions that they would not want to live in themselves.”

Read more: https://triad-city-beat.com/one-family-owes-greensboro-700k-fines-housing-code-violations/