Call 4 Action: Maintenance concerns at home in West Seneca

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Officials in the Town of West Seneca say there have been numerous calls and concerns for years about the maintenance of a home on Dwyer Street.

Residents there say the conditions are impacting their lives and they’re calling for action.

WIVB News 4’s Call 4 Action hotline got a call last week from a resident on this street complaining about unpleasant living conditions at a home that’s been impacting the neighborhood.

According to residents, rats and skunks are attracted to this home because of high grass, and they want these issues to be dealt with.

“It’s just disgusting to look at. It brings down our property values and it’s just not right,” said Mary, a West Seneca resident. “We have elderly people on our street in this section that I’m talking about and either the family takes care of their lawns because they can’t or they hire somebody.”

Our Call 4 Action team contacted the Town of West Seneca Code Enforcement Office and the Supervisor’s Office to see if they were aware of the issues and what they’re going to do about them.

Within a day or so, residents there say the town sent out a crew to take a look at the home and that some maintenance was done by the homeowner.

West Seneca’s Code Enforcement Officer Jeffrey Schieber says they’ve received numerous calls about this home on Dwyer Street for years and that letters have been sent and calls have been made for the homeowner to maintain the property — something residents have been begging for.

“My neighbor is just very concerned with the health issue that lives next door to her, I don’t know what else to do,” one neighbor told News 4. “I would think that something with the health department should be done.”

Town officials say they were very close to sending over a maintenance crew to this home on Dwyer Street and putting those maintenance costs on the homeowner’s taxes.

When a property owner refuses to maintain their property in terms of grass, weeds and brush, the town code allows, under certain circumstances, sending over a maintenance crew, from the town, to perform the work. The cost of the work, $200, is then put onto the property owner’s taxes.

That did not happen in this case because, according to the town’s code enforcement, the homeowner did take action to maintain the property to the town’s satisfaction this time around.

News 4 did make contact with the homeowner. She says she feels she’s being harassed and that there are no quality of life issues.

If you have a Call 4 Action complaint, you can call our hotline at 716-879-4900.

Jeff Preval is an award-winning anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in December 2021. See more of his work here .