Landlord will fix code violations by deadline

WILTON – The landlord of an apartment building the town has threatened to shut down is reassuring tenants that he will meet the health inspector’s deadline for making repairs necessary for keeping the building habitable.

Last week, Town Health inspector Rise Smythe-Freed issued an order to vacate all the apartments in the 30 Forest St. building by Nov. 3 unless a number of maintenance issues were corrected.

In response, landlord Paul Schaefer sent a memo, dated Oct. 10, to his tenants confirming that the work would be completed by the deadline.

“I want to reassure that everything will be handled between the town and us,” wrote Schaefer. “There will be no need for anyone to vacate their apartment and find a different one.”

Smythe-Freed says she hopes Schaefer follows through. “If he were serious that would be the best thing for everybody,” she said.

Selectmen are expected to consider extending the deadline at their next regular meeting, scheduled for Monday.

On Monday, Schaefer said he found discrepancies with the paperwork filed by Smythe-Freed. He said it appears Smythe-Freed is “cutting and pasting” violations for common areas and apartments that are in poor shape into paperwork for other apartments that don’t have the same problems. So far, Schaefer said he’s found 110 duplicated entries.

Smythe-Freed said she has documented problems of each apartment separately. However, the documentation of each apartment includes a standard list of problems with the common areas because these areas apply to all the tenants.