PERU – Residents in a housing addition near Peru say the outcome of a pending case with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources over who should repair six dams is hurting property values and making it difficult to sell houses there.
Larry West, a Miami County commissioner who owns a house near one of the dams, said Monday at least seven homeowners in Hidden Hills subdivision can no longer get title insurance on their houses because of the DNR’s claim that the six dams there are in disrepair and unsafe.
He said title companies won’t approve the insurance for houses that can only be accessed by crossing one of the dams.
Without title insurance, potential buyers of those properties won’t be able to secure a loan from a bank and would have to pay cash for the properties.
The DNR sent letters to four residents last year who own portions of the dams saying they had failed to maintain the structures and keep them in safe condition, and mandated the owners pay to repair them.
West said an engineer’s estimate indicated it could cost around $1.5 million to bring the dams into compliance.
The dam owners are currently trying to convince DNR officials that they shouldn’t have to pay to repair the structures.
Even though the case is pending, West said, the threat that owners might have to pay to fix the structures is scaring away buyers interested in properties on the market there.
He said buyers who had moved forward in purchasing two properties for sale in the subdivision ended up walking away from the deal once they learned about the pending case with the DNR.
There’s also a good chance property values will go down on houses accessed via the dams or that can’t get title insurance, said Miami County Assessor Sara McAuliffe.
She said she is currently conducting a reassessment of all the properties in the subdivision, and those properties likely will have a lower assessed value in part because of the legal fight with the DNR.
That could potentially bring down the values of all the properties in the subdivision, McAuliffe said.
“It seems like an unstable market in Hidden Hills,” she said. “The uncertainty of the situation is causing the biggest problem. It’s not that there aren’t buyers for those houses, it’s just the uncertainty of what’s going to happen in the future.”
West said dam owners and DNR officials are still putting together their arguments and gathering evidence on who should repair the dams. He said the next meeting with the administrative law judge overseeing the case is on July 29.