Raising Cane
By Rob Perez
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Ownership red tape turns
Mililani home into eyesoreThe weeds are almost as tall as the house, the growth so thick you can't see your way around the yard.
The interior walls are punched through in numerous places, leaving gaping holes. Graffiti mars what's left.
The windows are gone, frames and all. Someone carted them away long ago. Doors and exterior walls are missing, too. Other parts of the home are heavily damaged.
Two junk vehicles, stripped of anything of value, including engines and wheels, rest on blocks in the carport, which likewise is in sorry shape.
In short, the property is a mess. A major, hard-to-believe, do-a-double-take mess.
It's hard to believe because the mess is in Mililani, that planned community known for tidy neighborhoods, good parks, well-kept facilities and a homeowner's association quick to pounce on even the slightest violations of property rules.
But this dilapidated shell of an abandoned house at 95-183 Alaalaa Loop has fallen into disrepair despite the efforts of the association, neighbors, the fire department, building inspectors, the prosecutor's office, legislators, city council staff, attorneys and police.
Vacated roughly six years ago, it became the focal point of a complex legal battle that raised questions over who owned the property. That ownership cloud, in turn, stalled multiple efforts to force someone to fix the home and maintain the yard.
All the while, Alaalaa Loop homeowners with immaculately kept yards have had to suffer through this prolonged neighborhood nightmare. For nearly six years, they've put up with rats, vandalism, encroaching weeds, popping fireworks, kids hanging out on the property and an occasional vagrant making himself at home there. A few years ago a pipe bomb exploded in the carport, blasting a hole in the carport roof.
This is easily the worst-kept property in Mililani, a community with about 13,000 residences and the decades-old distinction of being named one of the nicest towns in America.
The property has been in such sad shape for so long that the Mililani fire station developed a plan specifically to fight a blaze at that address.
"It's been terrible," said Jane Stamm, who lives across the street from the Alaalaa disaster zone. "When you see it, you'll drop your jaw. It's that disgusting."
Richard M. Crabbe, who purchased the home in 1997, is listed as the current owner, according to court documents and state records. He could not be reached for comment, and phone calls to the attorney who handled one of the lawsuits involving the property were not returned.
Questions about Crabbe's ownership arose after his lender, Associates Financial Services Co. of Hawaii, initiated foreclosure proceedings on the property later in 1997, allegedly because Crabbe didn't make any loan payments.
In that litigation, Crabbe maintained, and a state court upheld, that the mortgage document used in the 1997 transaction was invalid because the property deed was not signed until the day after the mortgage was executed. That meant that technically Crabbe had no interest in the property when he signed the mortgage, the court found.
Yet the deed still is in his name, and property violations cited by city building inspectors and the fire department over the past several years have been in his name as well.
But enforcement of those violations has stalled because of the ownership issue, according to city officials.
So have Mililani Town Association efforts to get the property in compliance with Mililani homeowner rules. The association has cited the property for numerous violations, mostly having to do with the terrible condition of the house and yard.
The situation got so bad that the organization asked the city nearly two years ago to condemn the property. But the city, after inspecting the home, declined the request, saying the dwelling was not beyond repair. It instead has cited Crabbe twice for a variety of violations, such as failing to repair a damaged dwelling and storing derelict vehicles on the property. In one case the city fined him more than $6,000, so far uncollected.
"We sympathize with the community," said Randall Fujiki, the city's director of planning and permitting. "But this is a very unusual situation."
The Honolulu Fire Department likewise has cited Crabbe for a variety of fire-code violations, including failing to secure an abandoned building and creating a fire hazard through an accumulation of waste materials, according to Tedmund Cheong, an inspector for the department.
The department referred the case to the prosecutor's office, where it remains in limbo.
"We ran into a stone wall because the prosecutor's office couldn't determine who the owner was," Cheong said.
The homeowners association, trying to get someone to take responsibility to fix the property, earlier this year filed a lawsuit against Crabbe, Associates Financial and several other parties with possible interests in the property. The lawsuit is pending.
Calvin Maeda, head of the town association, said the Alaalaa case underscores an occasional problem the association has dealing with abandoned properties involving uncooperative owners or lenders.
"This is a prime case of how bad things can get," he said.
Maeda said the association has done all it can within the legal system to try to get the property in order but has been stymied by the ownership question. Legally, the association can't go onto the property without exposing the association to potential liability, he added.
"The problem is there's a loophole in the legal process," Maeda said. He said a law is needed to allow associations in planned communities to be able to secure and maintain such properties until a new owner enters the picture.
In the absence of such protection, abandoned homes become easy targets for vandals and thieves. Just a few weeks ago someone carted off the four wheels on the pickup left in the Alaalaa carport. Others have left with pieces of the home.
Maeda and police officers who patrol Mililani say they know of no other home in that community that is in as bad shape as the Alaalaa property.
Several neighbors say they are shocked the home can't be condemned.
"When you take a look at it, you really question the integrity of the walls," said Leonard Carlson, who lives three houses from the property. "It's probably a situation where termites are holding hands keeping the home together."
Carlson and others believe the home represents a health hazard. Rats with bodies the size of a brick have ventured onto neighboring properties from the abandoned house, according to one homeowner.
The state Department of Health set rat traps on the property for two nights earlier this month but caught no rodents, a spokeswoman said.
That bit of good news could portend even more to come.
Robert Chapman, an attorney representing Associates Financial, the lender, said a judge recently approved a judgment resulting from a February jury trial that concluded Crabbe's loan agreement (as opposed to the mortgage document) with the company was valid.
The judgment was for roughly $500,000, Chapman said.
Now that the judgment is in hand, the Alaalaa house is expected to go on the market within the next 60 days, with the proceeds going toward that debt, he said. Crabbe, though, has the option of paying the judgment through other means, Chapman said.
If the house is sold, a new owner likely would repair the home or raze it and build a new one.
In either case, the Alaalaa Loop nightmare finally would be over.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.
