High grass from a lot adjacent to the home of Chattanooga firefighter Ben Bradley on Windrush Loop in Chattanooga can be seen in the Stormy Hollow subdivision.
Ben and Korian Bradley can’t refinance their home in East Brainerd because Chattanooga erroneously placed liens against it for cleanup work done at nearby properties.
What work was done, Chattanooga public works isn’t sure. How a lien was placed incorrectly, city attorneys don’t know.
The Stormy Hollow and Gentry Road properties that required attention were owned by Crosswinds Properties LLC, a Chattanooga developer that went bankrupt and dissolved in 2006. The properties are now in the possession of a title insurance company.
The city says it performed $588 worth of labor at the Crosswinds properties around December or January to bring them up to city code. Somehow, the bill for the work — in the form of a lien — was attached to the wrong property.
“Everybody knows that this is a mistake,” Ben Bradley said Wednesday. But it’s a mistake that is holding his property — and potentially a dozen other homes in the neighborhood –hostage. On Thursday, no one was certain how many properties are affected.