PARSIPPANY —At the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council meeting on Tuesday, September 25, the council members passed Resolution 2018-159 to place a lien on 24 Longport Road, for failure to abate dangerous conditions on the property.
The owners of record, Isabel I. Kowalik (deceased), Frank J. Kowalik, Jr., and Katherine A. Kowalik are the last known owners of record of the property located at 24 Longport Road. The property is identified as Block 327, Lot 12 on the tax map of the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills.
As a result of numerous complaints received, multiple inspections of the property confirmed overgrown lawn, bushes, weeds, fallen branches, and most recently the presence of debris and rodents.
A notice of violation was sent on June 6, 2018 and June 21, 2018. There was also a previous hearing held on October 18, 2017 at Parsippany Municipal Building, to discuss the owner’s failture to abate the violations, at which time the owners of record failed to appear.
On September 14, the Parsippany-Troy Hills Police Department along with the Director of Housing and Director of Health and Human Services performed a welfare check on Frank Kowalik, who resided at the property. During this visit, it was determined that the property suffers from a severe rat infestation. A notice of unsafe structure was issued ordering the property to be vacated immediately.
The council approved the hiring of an outside contractor to have the lawn moved, the brush and debris cleaned at a cost not to exceed $2,500.00.
They further hired an outside contractor to remedy the situation by having the rodents exterminated and removed from the property at a cost not to exceed $10,000.00.
The Township Code allows that the expenditure of municipal funds to put the Property in property condition may be charged against the property as a lien and shall be added and become and form a part of the taxes next to be assessed and levied upon the property. The Council passed the resolution to place a lien on the property for the purpose of collecting unpaid charges due the Township for abatement of the Housing violations.
