The owner of a Franklin home found to be unacceptably filthy hasn’t paid his property taxes for three years, causing the city to take possession of his home Monday.
Police went to the 182 West Bow St. home Sunday with a warrant to arrest one of its occupants, Joseph Herne Jr., on a charge of selling drugs. The 29-year-old was arrested, police said, after fleeing out a window and down a tree.
Inside, police found “living conditions so filthy and deplorable” that they ordered a 30-year-old woman and her three children, who also lived at the home, to leave.
The next day, in a process scheduled before authorities saw the condition of the home, the city council took ownership of the property for its more than $10,700 in back taxes and fees, City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said. The property was owned by Herne’s father, Joseph Herne Sr., and was one of about 10 the council took ownership of that evening, Dragon said.
The timing “has nothing to do with the incident itself,” she said.
Herne Sr. will have 30 days to send the city notification that he intends to buy the property back for his unpaid taxes – as well as interest and legal fees – if he chooses to do so. Then he’ll have 15 days to come up with the money, Dragon said.
In addition to the normal fees, Herne Sr. would be responsible for the cost to clean the home, which was found to be littered with trash piled in some places several feet high. In photos taken by police, a toilet appears to be overflowing with excrement.
The property hadn’t had a water hookup for more than a year, Dragon said, after it was shut off for nonpayment, “so there were sanitary issues.”
The state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families is involved with the case, she said.
Dragon said city employees are working to bring in a cleaning contractor to clear the place out. She didn’t know how much that would cost.
State law gives the city council the option not to take a piece of property if there’s, for instance, hazardous material involved, she said.
But “that’s a difficult judgment call to make, because when you don’t take a piece of property, there’s really no incentive for them to pay their taxes, and really that tax burden gets shifted to the rest of the city,” Dragon said.
Franklin police didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The home’s former occupants aren’t allowed back in, except when they’ve coordinated to do so with the city, Dragon said.