Preventing Another Tragedy

44 East Oak

Here's one other thing Norristown needs to check out in the light of last weekend's tragic fire at 825 Dekalb. The fire killed 4 residents, 2 children. The house was registered as a single-family dwelling, yet according to the Times Herald, had no rental license and was housing perhaps as many as 16 residents.

So I was curious about the couple who owns that house. 

Since Montgomery County has its property records online, it was easy to find that this couple owns at least 4 other properties in the county. Possibly more, if their name was spelled slightly differently on the deeds. Most are listed as single-family dwellings. One, 44 E Oak Street, is here in Norristown.

They've owned 44 E Oak since 2010. It's a two-story rowhouse with only 1606 square feet of living space. The old photo in the property records shows a business had once occupied the first floor. So presumably there might have already been an apartment on the second floor. Yet the house is listed as single-family residential, not commercial.

I googled "Who lives at 44 E Oak Norristown" (which doesn't always get results but it was worth a try and I lucked out).  Spokeo.com listed 6 different people having that address. Possibly 2 are the owners. 1 other might be a duplicate.

That leaves at least 3 people with separate surnames. Still that doesn't necessarily mean that those people still live at that address. But given what we know of the couple, 44 E Oak ought to be checked to see if there are tenants occupying the house. If so, does the couple have a rental license for the property and are they renting to more than one single family? Or at least, are there separate apartments?

There you go, Codes Department, I did half your work for you for free. You're welcome.