Getting Hosed: Waterlogged Avalon Park house where owner died is stuck with $34,000 water bill

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A house in the South Side's Avalon Park neighborhood is now unoccupied and in bad shape.

There is a push to sell the house – but there is one major roadblock, in the form of the city's Department of Water Management. This is another case of someone getting hosed – as we have documented numerous cases of in our Getting Hosed series.

When the owner of the house, Dora Smith, passed away, she owed $107 to the Water Department. But four years later, no one had turned off the water – and the buckled hardwood floor was clear evidence that the pipes had burst.

Meanwhile, the house now has a bill $34,000 to the Water Department attached to it – and that is despite neighbors asking for help.

From the outside, time stands still at Smith's bungalow.

"She's been gone for a while," said neighbor Darryl Thomas. "She was a good neighbor; kept the house up real good."

Smith died in 2019. Her gas and utilities were eventually cut off, but her water not.

And while she wasn't alive to use the water, Smith apparently had a pretty bad leak.

Thomas: "They just recently, this year, turned the water off."

Hickey: "So you were calling the Water Department - the neighbors were the calling he Water Department to tell them to shut the water off?

Thomas: "And no body never did it."

Now, the place is waterlogged and in poor shape. In came developer Scott Rosenzweig, who specializes in turning blighted properties on the South and West sides of the city into new, affordable housing.

Rosenzweig is trying to buy this place to rehab it - but one thing is stopping him.

"It's not feasible whatsoever with a water bill like that," said Rosenzweig. "We're waiting to close. That's all we're waiting for is some adjustment from the city on a water bill that went to a dead person."

Thomas would love to see the Smith house cleaned up. It has already attracted uninvited guests

"You can see people have gone rifling through, looking for things in the house," he said.

In addition, the house has mold - and mushrooms literally growing out of the ceiling.

If the house is demolished, or if it goes to a tax sale, Rosenzweig explained that the water bill would be wiped out anyway. Thus, he is just hoping the city would negotiate a lower water bill.

But the city's policy is not to do so.

"No one will return your call," Rosenzweig said. "No one will talk to you."

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) says developers like Rosenzweig are trying to do exactly what the City Council has been asking for – invest in underserved communities.

"What are we going to do to remedy this?" Villegas said.

The alderman said this case in Avalon Park — and others like it — need to be reevaluated.

"These are case-by-case, and we've got to understand; we've got to be sensitive and compassionate in making sure that we're working; we're in partnership working with our residents of the city of Chicago," Villegas said.

The alderman said this will be one of many topics at an upcoming City Council Finance Committee hearing in July, looking at how the Water and Building departments can better serve its residents.

"It just doesn't make sense," Rosenzweig said.

We are still waiting for scheduling details from the Finance Committee chair, but we'll let you know when the hearing is set. And of course, we'll be there.