HGTV home rehabber Nicole Curtis has won a dispute over a dilapidated house the Detroit Land Bank Authority tried to repossess even as it repeatedly claimed its foremost goal is to ensure properties are restored to productive use.
The East Grand Boulevard house (Photo: Nancy Derringer)
A judge sided with Curtis, whose business bought the 2,600-square-foot house in Islandview for $17,000 in 2017, The Detroit News reports.
Wayne Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Kenny noted in a ruling issued Thursday that the land bank was awarded the house in a nuisance abatement proceeding in 2016, yet it didn't record the title for more than a year after Curtis' renovation firm recorded its deed.
Kenny also concluded that the house "poses a nuisance and a danger to the health, safety and welfare of the community," and ordered Curtis' company to abate it by completing its renovation work.
Curtis said she already sank $60,000 into the structure and plans to spend up to half a million restoring it.
Related:
Derringer: In Nicole Curtis Vs. the Detroit Land Bank, Who to Root For? The House
