I am one of three owners of a property located in Big Prairie Township,Newaygo Mi Other owners are Steve Feys and Uldis Meiers. Steve and I originally bought the property from an investor that lives in San Francisco( Theodore Cruinshank) on land contract. The property when we purchased it consisted of 5 acres with two functioning houses on the property. The houses and land needed substantial cleaning and repairs when we purchased it in 2010 it had set vacant and was used as the neighborhood dump.Since we have moved in we have done considerable cleanup of yard and both houses also considerable repairs to both houses including putting in new wiring and electric pole in second house. When we first moved in the Township building inspector stopped by saying he had to inspect the property even though the property had always been lived in until it was foreclosed on and he had already been in the houses to do the appraisal for the bank. The township supervisor than stopped by to see us informed us he was stopping by to see who bought the property. At first we did not get the proper permits we needed we were ill informed about permits but eventually we did get the permits we needed. The house next door we rented out but was told by township supervisor that we couldn't rent it out even though it has been taxed as a rental/income property and still is and that we had to evict tenants and gave Steve a fine for renting it out. We did evict tenants who was upset because they really liked the house and location because they were both full time college students at Ferris State and both worked full time jobs in Newaygo. Since that time the house has since sat empty in total compliance with the order to evict until we can afford to go in front of the board for a variance but unfortunately it sitting empty as ordered has not been good enough for Township Supervisor he has again taken us to court saying we weren't in compliance and he wants it torn down this was included with 6 other infractions each that he gave us. At the formal hearing the judge said he did not see why we should tear it down but than at the sentencing he changed his mind and said we have 45 days to tear it down just to make sure we don't ever use again. The other tickets the Township Supervisor wrote us was for cleanup of property which we have cleaned up since we bought property he took pictures of kids bikes by shed and said it was junk on the property the bikes work the kids ride them all the time not junk just not brand new. We do have pictures from when we bought the property and current pictures of property. Unfortunately we did let our permits expire because we had stopped all remodeling not to sound ignorant but at the time I did not know they expired I do now but after 5 1/2 years of living here we are now told it isn't livable and we have to move out. This is only some of the things that have happened since we have moved into this house. I guess my questions I don't understand is why after being here for this long and doing tons of improvements to the homes he now finds it unlivable and why didn't he send these tickets right away to the person that sold it to us? Why wait until he is off the deed? They never contacted him when he was the owner that he had to clean it up why not?He would not answer these questions when I asked him and unfortunately we didn't have our own lawyer for hearing Also we are not the only ones the Township has done this stuff to if you asked for peoples feedback on Big Prairie Township it would not be good at all.
Big Prairie Township Hall Reviews
I am one of three owners of a property located in Big Prairie Township,Newaygo Mi Other owners are Steve Feys and Uldis Meiers. Steve and I originally bought the property from an investor that lives in San Francisco( Theodore Cruinshank) on land contract. The property when we purchased it consisted of 5 acres with two functioning houses on the property. The houses and land needed substantial cleaning and repairs when we purchased it in 2010 it had set vacant and was used as the neighborhood dump.Since we have moved in we have done considerable cleanup of yard and both houses also considerable repairs to both houses including putting in new wiring and electric pole in second house. When we first moved in the Township building inspector stopped by saying he had to inspect the property even though the property had always been lived in until it was foreclosed on and he had already been in the houses to do the appraisal for the bank. The township supervisor than stopped by to see us informed us he was stopping by to see who bought the property. At first we did not get the proper permits we needed we were ill informed about permits but eventually we did get the permits we needed. The house next door we rented out but was told by township supervisor that we couldn't rent it out even though it has been taxed as a rental/income property and still is and that we had to evict tenants and gave Steve a fine for renting it out. We did evict tenants who was upset because they really liked the house and location because they were both full time college students at Ferris State and both worked full time jobs in Newaygo. Since that time the house has since sat empty in total compliance with the order to evict until we can afford to go in front of the board for a variance but unfortunately it sitting empty as ordered has not been good enough for Township Supervisor he has again taken us to court saying we weren't in compliance and he wants it torn down this was included with 6 other infractions each that he gave us. At the formal hearing the judge said he did not see why we should tear it down but than at the sentencing he changed his mind and said we have 45 days to tear it down just to make sure we don't ever use again. The other tickets the Township Supervisor wrote us was for cleanup of property which we have cleaned up since we bought property he took pictures of kids bikes by shed and said it was junk on the property the bikes work the kids ride them all the time not junk just not brand new. We do have pictures from when we bought the property and current pictures of property. Unfortunately we did let our permits expire because we had stopped all remodeling not to sound ignorant but at the time I did not know they expired I do now but after 5 1/2 years of living here we are now told it isn't livable and we have to move out. This is only some of the things that have happened since we have moved into this house. I guess my questions I don't understand is why after being here for this long and doing tons of improvements to the homes he now finds it unlivable and why didn't he send these tickets right away to the person that sold it to us? Why wait until he is off the deed? They never contacted him when he was the owner that he had to clean it up why not?He would not answer these questions when I asked him and unfortunately we didn't have our own lawyer for hearing Also we are not the only ones the Township has done this stuff to if you asked for peoples feedback on Big Prairie Township it would not be good at all.