Partial collapse of Dupont house shows cracks in District’s inspection system

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - An illegal, dilapidated Dupont Circle rental property known to its tenants as the “Demon House” partially collapsed last weekend, forcing six people from the home and raising the question: How did no one see this coming?

“We all knew it should have been condemned,” said Mike Corcoran, a former tenant of 1841 16th St. NW. “It was collapsing.”

At 2 a.m. Saturday, a portion of the second-floor interior brick wall fell in on itself, and the third floor started to topple. The six residents of 1841, and six others in two neighboring properties, were evacuated.

Residents of the neighboring buildings returned within a day, said Michael Rupert, spokesman for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. But the tenants of 1841, a three-story row house valued at more than $1 million, are out for good — several are living in temporary housing organized by the Dupont Circle Citizens Association.

The home’s owners, Amy Mazur and Joe Liberman, a professor and neurologist, respectively, did not return calls for comment.

DCRA’s inspection system is complaint-based, meaning tenants must report a code violation before the government will react. In the case of 1841, and other properties like it citywide, a history of problems failed to draw the agency’s attention.

“This is a perfect example of where a complaint-based system doesn’t work,” Rupert acknowledged, adding that DCRA is examining how to broaden its inspection program to identify problem properties.

The 16th Street home, dubbed the “Demon House” by its residents, suffered from obvious defects such as cracking walls, exposed wires and leaking sewage, current and former tenants said. Those issues were never corrected.

DCRA spent $9,000 to repair extensive defects to the home’s exterior in 2004. The agency was later reimbursed by the owners, but the permits and licenses that Mazur and Liberman needed to rent the home were revoked. The couple illegally continued to rent rooms.

The most recent tenants, who range in age from 22 to 35, did not have signed leases, said Stephanie Larsen, 29, a third-floor resident. They complained to the owners about the conditions to no avail, Larsen said, but they feared a backlash, including eviction, if they blabbed to the government.

“I’ve lived in lots of different places with plaster cracking, with molding falling off,” Larsen said. “For all we knew it was not in imminent danger of falling down.”

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com

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