ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The building structure at 27 Hancock Street that was the scene of a fatal house fire is listed as having several property issues and outstanding balances for services, such as water and taxes.
62 Code Enforcement violations are listed for the property, according to the City of Rochester’s record search map, and confirmed via phone call. The current fine balance is listed as $300, with the most recent invoices noted in fall of 2021.
Public records also show there is a current outstanding water bill of $420.29, listing the due date as January 13, 2023 and a penalty of $12.61. The bill previously hadn’t been paid since 2017.
Additionally, there is no Certificate of Occupancy found for the property, nor any records of units recently passing a lead test.
Purchased in 2012 for $105,000, the owner is named Ugar Ozturkoglu. This name is also listed as owning properties at 101-102 Vasser Street in the city, which also lists several violations for those locations. In a phone conversation, the City of Rochester confirms this is the same owner at 27 Hancock St., with officials saying that the owner has been “unreachable.”
According to officials, the City of Rochester had been “actively looking into” the property to decide a course of action, saying it was nearing a threshold of passing the case to the law department.
“We did go back and reinspect in 2022, the remaining violations are still on the list, we’ve been working with the property owner to fix those violations,” said Dana Miller, Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development. “They have not really fixed those as quickly as we would like, so we did issue tickets and fines.”
Miller said they were planning to go back in the house in the next couple weeks, to take legal action.
Additionally, there are several thousand dollars due in back taxes; $17,716.75 to be exact (which includes amount due for 3/2023). There were also three years of tax liens on the property from 2019-2021 (and an additional lien in 2011).
Last fall, the City of Rochester hired additional code enforcement officers and a housing attorney in an effort to address ongoing housing issues.
“We’re beefing up our code enforcement staff, we are installing a new system to track properties in the city,” said Miller.
Miller said they’re using that new system to create a “Top Ten” list for each of the city’s quadrant.
“For the last year, we’ve been looking at top ten properties each month, and trying to make sure we’re tracking the progress, so when we have situations like this they are not sitting,” said Miller.
News 8 reached out to the property owner and left a message, but has not heard back.
Code violations
27 Hancock Code Violations by News 8 WROC on Scribd