The trouble began with Carpenter’s previous tenant. “He did some work. I hired him off the Internet, and he became a friend,” Carpenter said of his prior tenant. “He and his girlfriend wanted a bigger space, and we agreed on $750 a month for rent.”

The friendship held steady for awhile, despite some monetary concerns right off the bat. “He wanted to come in at $600 instead of $750 claiming money was tight,” Carpenter went on to say. “I accepted the $600 and he paid in cash, (so) I didn’t keep a receipt book. More or less, he wasn’t paying (full) rent five, six months in there and he only stayed in the house seven months.” Carpenter added, “We started exchanging jobs for rent. For example he’d work for me and earn $300, I’d keep that and just kept track of it that way.”

Eventually, Carpenter’s generosity to the tenant caught up with him. “(He) stopped paying anything, or working, and we started talking about him moving out,” Carpenter elaborated. “It turned into a big fighting match.”

According to Carpenter, the tenant “declared war” when Carpenter took a brief trip to Tennessee. “He changed the locks, screwed doors shut, and stole my lawn mower and air conditioner because he knew I was out of town.”

Submitted Photo The front of 6737 Main St. in Cherry Creek. The rental property belongs to John Carpenter.

Carpenter decided against breaking in and took a friend’s advice to make the house look abandoned. “I didn’t break anything to eventually get in,” Carpenter said, “I got in the crawl space in the garage, took all of his belongings outside, and left an eviction notice.”

That’s when Carpenter says the threats began. “I got threatening texts and phone calls from the guy,” Carpenter said. “One of the threats told me he’d contacted the town code officer.”

Some time later, the tenant made good on the threat. “I got a call from my neighbor one day, and he said, ‘Your house has yellow stickers on it.'” Carpenter went on to say, “I went there and saw them. (They said) ‘condemned.'”

Carpenter immediately called the Cherry Creek Code Enforcement Officer, Dave Crossley, to get things straightened out. “Crossley told me that my tenant said I have mold,” Carpenter stated. “That was the first I’d heard of it.”

Two weeks later, Carpenter had the mold test done by Environmental Air Solutions. Carpenter said, “when the technician approached (the house) he looked over the condemned sign, and asked me, ‘Why is this here?’ ” According to Carpenter, “the (technician) said they normally wouldn’t even be allowed in a house that was already condemned, but Crossley was demanding an air quality test.”

Carpenter called Crossley to confirm the test that needed to be done, and said of the call, “he was still demanding an air quality test, and that was what was done.”

That phone call was the last time Carpenter alleges that Crossley accepted any of his calls.

Messages for Crossley were not returned by the OBSERVER.

Cut to a few weeks later when the test results come back. “The test results said the house is great,” Carpenter stated. “It was livable, the air was good, and the paper I got said it was good.”

Carpenter, hearing the good news after months of conflict, began the process of sprucing up the house and putting it back on the rental market. “A lady even gave me a down payment to rent it,” Carpenter confirmed. “Someone took down the condemned sticker during this time though.”

“I turned in the paperwork to Crossley on Oct. 19,” Carpenter continued. “On Oct. 20, a new condemned sticker was back on the house. (Additionally,) Crossley told the renter that the house was full of mold, and she could not live there.”

Carpenter refunded the infuriated renter her deposit and went to Cherry Creek Town Hall to sort things out once more.

“When I got there, I was told the paperwork was received, but hidden,” Carpenter stated. “Someone told me Crossley thought it was fake and wanted to do research on the company.”

Without access to his own documents, Carpenter began assembling what he could on his own, only to be met with another obstacle. “They (the town hall) turned EAS against me,” Carpenter claims. “They (town officials) claimed to EAS that I was out to ruin their reputation with my report. EAS won’t work with me anymore.”

During all of this, Crossley allegedly refused to contact Carpenter over any matters relating to the house. “Eventually, Cherry Creek Town Supervisor Bill Young told me Crossley wouldn’t accept the paperwork because what he got was the copy,” Carpenter elaborated. “There was no official state of New York seal.”

According to Carpenter, this was also the last time Young assisted him. “Bill lives in Florida all winter. He handles everything over the phone.”

When contacted for comment on this article, Young was unavailable, and it was indeed confirmed by a town of Cherry Creek employee that “Bill is in Florida for the winter.”

“I looked it up,” Carpenter went on to allege, “the new sticker appeared on my house Oct. 20, a Saturday, which is Crossley’s day off.”

Carpenter also pointed out, “I haven’t been contacted in four months about anything. Every time I was the one who reached out. There were no written statements collected about mold. Nobody from the town went in with me to examine the mold, why the second sticker?”

Carpenter claims steps were skipped in the process, which if proven true, invalidates the condemnation. “There are 11 steps to condemn a house,” Carpenter stated. “The last step is putting the condemned sign on a house.”

Carpenter took the fight to court on Dec. 13 in a frenzy of a legal battle. “Nobody was trying to help me,” Carpenter said. “Lawyers just told me ‘you can’t win a fight against a municipality, they’ll keep pushing you away like they did.'” It became apparent with the mess of lawsuits limiting Carpenter’s access to information that small claims court was not panning out in his favor.

“They dismissed the whole thing the first time because I didn’t submit the right form in the 30-day period,” Carpenter said of the court case. “I would’ve done it, if I were a lawyer and knew all this, instead of wasting my time at the hall being ignored by Crossley.”

Carpenter also alleges that he was not just being ignored by the town supervisor and Crossley, but virtually all town officials. “Mary, the clerk, refused to give me paperwork,” Carpenter attested. “She was told to ignore me.”

Eventually, the snubs got so blatant to Carpenter, he called in the sheriff for assistance. “The sheriff actually got me that complaint form,” he said.

“I’ve been told to wait and there’s no more waiting after five months,” Carpenter stated. “I want to know why my house is condemned.”

Of all the Cherry Creek officials involved in the matter, none were available for comment on the condemned house. Deputy Supervisor James Abbey, the only town official available for any comment, said, “I can’t really tell you anything, I’m not familiar with his (Carpenter’s) house.”