BEDFORD (1080 KRLD) - The City of Bedford issues an ultimatum to a homeowner -- clean up your property, or we'll do it for you at your expense.
"The property owner has erected a lot of illegal structures that don't meet code that haven't had proper inspections," says Bedford City Manager Jimmy Stathatos, "and they also made some public works improvements on site that don't meet our requirements."
The owner has put up as many as 12 cottages behind the house at 3009 Glenwood Ct., with people living in them in squalid conditions.
Neighbors have been complaining of the house for many years.
According to the Tarrant Appraisal District's website, the house has been owned by the Gupta family since June of 1994 and has been passed around among family members several times since then.
Stathatos says the city has tried working with the Guptas for years, to no avail.
"The city has tried over the years to gain compliance, and compliance has never been accomplished.," says Stathatos. "We continue to notify them, and nothing ever changes, and it's further dilapidated."
So the city has given the Guptas until March 8th to knock the cottages down from behind the house and clean the property up.
If they don't, the city plans on taking matters into its own hands.
"We've already been ramping up contacting contractors that can come in and remove all the structures," says Stathatos, "and then we'll charge the property owner."
According to the TAD, Chandra Gupta, 66, sold the property to his son Sachin in March of 2018.
"What the city is doing is highly unlawful," says Gupta, "and the city ought to be sued for that."
Gupta, who says he moved to California, says despite that information, the property is no longer owned by anyone in his family.
"They can't give me the bill, because I am really not a party to it," says Gupta, "and I already have informed the judge several times."
KRLD asked Gupta who he sold the house to.
"It goes through an agent, so I don't have all the details," Gupta replied.
