A group of Raytown residents wants help to get rid of a dilapidated house in their neighborhood.
Dayna McDaniel has lived in her Raytown neighborhood in the 9400 block of E. 68th St. for almost 20 years. She noticed that a nearby property was vacated about three years ago and has been left standing empty. McDaniel says she and other neighbors have called the city about the problem, but there has been no change to the property.
"We're not high-income, but we're people that are are very respectful to one another, and we believe in taking care of our property, and this property is not being taken care of," said McDaniel.
John Benson is Raytown's director of development and public affairs. He says they have complaints on the property that date back to 2008.
"We've cited the property owner for the violations over the last two to three years. Unfortunately, the property owner had been non-responsive to us and we found out last fall that she passed away," said Benson.
41 Action News has learned that the property, valued at more than $53,000, belongs to Katherine Carty.
According to Benson, Carty died in October, so now the city cannot use the years of code violations to pursue legal action against the owner or take possession of the property.
Benson says now they're waiting for the property to go through probate court to identify the new owner.
"The next step is to either work with that owner or potentially go through the legal process to demolish the house," said Benson.
This news leaves McDaniel and her neighbors with even more questions as they lobby to protect their neighborhood.
41 Action News tried to contact the owner's surviving family members; our calls were not returned.
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Lisa Benson can be reached at lisa.benson@kshb.com.
