Saga of a Sagging Harbor House

A hearing before the Sag Harbor Village Board Tuesday night shed light on the circumstances surrounding an abandoned house on Union Street that is arguably the most blighted structure in village and may have started a process by which its health and safety concerns could be cleared.

The village board is demanding that the house, at 6 Union Street adjacent to the John Jermain Memorial Library, be cleaned up after going over a report by Tom Preiato, the village building inspector. The two-and-a-half-story, 4,000-square-foot, Federal-style house is about 210 years old and is known to villagers as the Morpurgo house for Annselm and Helga Morpurgo, sisters who fought over it for decades and allowed it to fall into disrepair. It was once thought that the library could expand onto the property.

“I have concerns with the structure and its condition,” Mr. Preiato, who was hired only recently, said at the hearing. He rattled off a long list of violations of the New York State Property Maintenance Code and village code, among them  an open septic tank, a front porch in “imminent peril of collapse,” gaping holes in exterior walls, compromised floor structures, and overgrown vegetation.

Mr. Preiato told the board he would like to have parts of the house either repaired or demolished and a fence around the entire property to keep curious trespassers out.

The hearing was held to put the owner on notice that work had to be started within 30 days and finished within 60 days, or the village would have the work done and bill the owner for it.

The owner of the house is a limited liability corporation called Captain Hulbert House, and village officials do not seem to know the name of the corporation’s principals.  The L.L.C. bought the house at auction in November 2007 for $1.46 million, after several failed auctions. Earlier that year, the village had deemed the building unfit for human occupancy.

The Morpurgo sisters had long argued over a sale price, but in 2006 Anselm offered to sell the house on eBay for $19 million. At the time, she claimed it was built by Capt. John Hulbert, “hero of Ticonderoga and crafter of the Hulbert flag eulogized by Francis Scott Keyes [sic] in his ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ ” The sisters had also once said the house was built around 1810 for a Captain Vail, a whaler.

Mr. Preiato said he had sent a certified letter to the owner, and to Samuel Glass and Joel Zweig, attorneys who were, at least for a time, involved in the house’s complicated legal situation, although it took several attempts to obtain the right address.

Enter David P. Fallon, a Sayville attorney representing Atlantic View Holdings, which has held a mortgage on the property since a Supreme Court Justice issued summary judgment to foreclose on the property in November. Mr. Fallon spoke at the hearing of the “tortured litigation history of this property.” He also mentioned that the house had been tied up in one of the phony mortgage schemes that sent George O. Guldi, a former Suffolk legislator, to jail, serving 4 to 12 years for his connection with $82 million in mortgage fraud.

The mortgage holder has tried to no avail to recoup “upwards of $1 million,” Mr. Fallon said, by entering into an agreement with the Captain Hulbert House L.L.C. “A notice of default was sent in December because they did not make that payment,” he told the board. He explained that Atlantic View would need Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines to sign a judgment of foreclosure before it could go onto the property to undertake repairs. 

“Can I ask, who can then?” Sandra Schroeder, a village board member, asked. Only the principals of the Captain Hulbert corporation can, Mr. Fallon said. He added that he has had contact with the owner and will try to see that at the very least a fence is put up and the septic filled.

“Our hands are a little bit tied,” he said. He said he was afraid that the village might go ahead and tear down the house, tacking the cost of doing so onto the outstanding tax bill, which would lead to more problems.

“I don’t know that the whole property would be demolished, but he raises some health and safety concerns that have be addressed,” Mayor Brian Gilbride said of the building inspector’s report. “I would prefer not to have to remedy this. I would prefer that you or some agent would remedy it, but somebody has to remedy,” he said.

Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village attorney, who is also a state assemblyman, advised the board to get an engineering report to substantiate the building inspector’s statement. 

“Hopefully, you’ll move quicker than us,” Mayor Gilbride said, addressing Mr. Fallon. Time will only tell. A possibility, Mr. Thiele and Mr. Fallon agreed, is that the owner might file for bankruptcy, which would freeze foreclosure proceedings and further prevent the mortgage holder from taking action.

Yesterday morning, however, Mr. Thiele said the process was moving in the right direction. “Just by holding the hearing last night, we know a lot more about this than we did the day before yesterday,” he said. “We want to see the property cleaned up. We don’t care who owns the property. . . . We’re willing to give it some bit of time. We’re not going to wait forever for that to happen,” he said.

Later at the village board meeting, Mr. Preiato said one of his priorities was to address other houses that aren’t being properly maintained by absentee owners. William Pickens, who attended the meeting, said there are a handful of houses in Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah that raise health and safety concerns, though their taxes may be current. Mr. Preiato said he had put together “a blight list” and an appearance ticket had been issued for the owner of at least one house. “I can assure it’s not falling on deaf ears,” he said.