I built my house 30 years ago, but now I’m trying to have it condemned – I live in a death trap and the officials won’t help
A MAN is trying to demolish the house he built more than 30 years ago after learning he was living in a death trap.
When Frank Besednjak’s walls began to crack and his doors would no longer open, he began to investigate, but discovered that his house was built over a hole in the ground.
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Two years ago, Besednjak wanted to renovate his home in Louisville, Kentucky, but just a few days later the work had to be redone.
That’s because his home is slowly being swallowed up piece by piece.
“When the construction workers built a drywall, a few days later it would crack,” Besednjak said Wave 3.
“So I would call them back and say something is wrong, you’re not doing a good job, you have to do this again. Then they would come back and do it again, then it would happen again and they would come back and do it again and they tell me there is something wrong with your house.
The problem still exists as Besednjak frequently discovers new cracks.
During the renovation, Besednjak noticed something strange on the floor in his basement.
When he ripped out the carpet, he discovered a huge tear and drilled holes to see what was underneath.
“The concrete of the basement ends and a few inches below that are the stones,” he told the outlet.
“So basically this concrete is floating on top of the actual earth and stones that were placed there for the foundation.”
Besednjak already had sinkhole insurance and filed a lawsuit when he made the discovery. However, he says the agency did not agree with him.
“I didn’t believe it, so I hired a geologist,” he said. “And he said they never should have built this house here. He found that the hole in the ground was about 15 meters wide and the house was 20 meters wide.”
Besednjak explained that the property had to be mortgaged so that his insurance company could pay off the house.
He’s waiting for the city to do so, but until then he’s living in a house on temporary borrowing.
“Every now and then my cats look at something, I hear a little noise and I’m like, ‘Okay, should I run out the door with my cats?'” he said.
For safety reasons, Besednjak bought an earthquake detector that warns him if the house suddenly shakes or starts moving.
He also uses a laser to measure how much the house is sinking.
“So on April 23rd the situation will level off,” he said.
“Then I tagged it again on May 21 and it went down about half an inch. And then I did it again yesterday and I noticed that it’s actually gone down a little bit since then.”
According to Besednjak, the house has fallen almost an inch since April 23.
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