Experts debate cost to raze Myers Park home addition

A dispute over the remodeling of a million-dollar Charlotte home, which has pitted neighbor against neighbor and already reached the state Court of Appeals once, may come down to a simple bit of algebra: how much demolition and at what price.

But experts who testified for neighbors Pierce and Cindy Irby and the owner of the remodeled home, Elaine Freese, couldn’t agree on how much it would cost to demolish and rebuild a half-million-dollar addition Freese built on the front and side of her home in Myers Park in 2008.

The Irbys sued Freese, seeking to have the addition demolished. They argued in a lawsuit funded by the Myers Park Homeowners Association that the addition obstructs their view of the neighborhood.

Charlotte attorney Roy Michaux, who represents Freese, argued in court Aug. 12 that to suggest that the addition to Freese’s home has had any negative impact on the Irbys is absurd.

“This doesn’t have any impact on the Irbys’ house at all. Zero. It’s a nonevent,” he said.

But the Irbys’ effort to get Freese to comply with deed restrictions has been anything but a nonevent. Freese’s addition oversteps front building setback lines by 28 feet and side setback lines by 7 feet.

Superior Court Judge Jesse Caldwell dismissed the Irbys’ lawsuit with prejudice after a 2009 trial, ruling that they waited until the addition to the property was already nearly finished to sue and by that time it was inequitable to allow the suit to proceed.

The Irbys appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal a year ago and remanded the case to Mecklenburg County for a new trial.

After a second trial in May, Caldwell asked Michaux and Charlotte attorney Ken Davies, who represents the Irbys, whether any permitting issues with Mecklenburg County or the city of Charlotte would render an order to demolish the structure unenforceable.

After Michaux and Davies met with Mecklenburg County code enforcement manager Wendell Dixon in June, they reported to Caldwell that there were no administrative or permitting impediments to removing the structure.

But Caldwell also wanted to receive a more neutral evaluation of the estimated cost of demolition than the one he received in May from John Morgan, president of Urban Design Group. Morgan, who built the addition for Freese, had said the cost of replacing it would be $232,417.

Another builder, Joddy Peer, who estimated in May that the cost of demolition would be significantly lower, is associated with the Myers Park HOA. Caldwell said it was important to hear estimates from builders uninvolved with the parties.

At the Aug. 12 hearing, Trent Haston, vice president and CEO of Charlotte-based builder Andrew Roby, estimated that the project would cost anywhere from $66,563 to as high as $185,660, with at least six variations depending on the extent of the demolition and remediation. He said the work would take about seven weeks.

John A. Tammaro, manager of Alan Simonini Homes, testified that the demolition and remediation work would cost $151,676. But he also said patching Freese’s roof presented some potential issues that could drive the cost much higher. He estimated the job would take from four to six months.

Bill McInnis of Bottom Line Construction Services, an expert in construction analysis and remediation, estimated that demolition of the structure would be in the range of $58,015, while reconstruction would cost $61,583.

When challenged on his estimates by Davies, McInnis said comparing the builders’ estimates would not be comparing apples to apples.

“We all took different factors into account in coming up with those estimates,” he said.

Morgan stood by his earlier estimate. “We’ve heard four different people give four different numbers,” he said. But he said he’d built the structure, spent months on the site and had a better handle on what it would take to remove the addition.

Paul Finnen, a Charlotte real estate appraiser, testified that removal of both the front and side encroachments would cut the market value of the Freese house in half. As the structure exists today, its value, Finnen said, is $1.3 million.

Removal of only a portion of the front encroachment would diminish that value by $100,000 to $125,000, Finnen said.

Citing the various estimates — from more than $66,000 to more than $200,000 — Davies said removal and remediation would still cost far less than the addition cost to build, and removal of the front encroachment would represent a less than 10 percent diminution in value.

Michaux said Caldwell had to do what was fair, but Davies said it was not appropriate to balance the equities.

“There is not one reported case in North Carolina in which a mandatory injunction has not issued to enforce covenants in the residential context,” he said.

Davies said the Irbys were not trying to place the court in a black-and-white situation and they could live with the front encroachment being torn down. That would allow the 7-foot side encroachment to stand.

“We’re not trying to play hardball,” Davies said.

Caldwell said he would do all he could to render a fair and just resolution which, he added, will be subject to appeal.

“I may be reversed again,” he said, “but I will do the best I can. I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

Tharp can be reached at [email protected].