This week, Governor Lamont signed a bill into law born from an NBC CT Responds investigation.
Last year, Dana Markie of Coventry reached out to us after not one, but two trees destroyed his home in two years’ time.
“Never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be in this situation,” he explained to us when we went to visit his house which was once again under repair.
Here’s the catch: the land where the trees fell from has no owner. So, who is responsible to keep up the land? Take down the trees?
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When the town said it wasn’t their responsibility, Markie reached out to NBC CT Responds for help.
He didn’t feel like the burden should continue to fall on his shoulders either.
Our NBC CT Respond’s story about Markie’s predicament compelled State Representative Republican Tim Ackert to do something.
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“How do bills become laws? And sometimes it comes from a news story to be honest with you,” Ackert said in our follow up interview with him Tuesday.
After Ackert saw our story and met us on Markie’s property last year, he pushed for a bill this session to establish a working group to study the impact of unclaimed or abandoned property throughout our state.
He said, “I got to tell you [Consumer Reporter] Caitlin [Burchill], your story brought other people to say, 'You know what? We had that issue in our community.’”
The task force will work to find solutions to help avoid conflicts between homeowners and cities and towns like in Markie’s situation.
“Who is the responsibility of this? So, here’s a vacant piece of land. How do we address that?” Ackert questioned.
That bill was signed into law by Lamont Monday.
Markie says he’s grateful to NBC CT Responds for bringing light to no-man’s-land located around the state, and for Ackert for passing a bill on his behalf. He wishes his situation on no other property owner and he hopes this new bill helps.
Ackert also hopes this law helps reduce eye sores of vacant properties, too.
“Thank you for your work and your station's work on this to bring this attention to us because sometime this individual didn’t know where to go and that transpired to where we could take action, so thank you for your work," he said.
Ackert says per the newly passed law, the task force now has 30 days to fill its board. He hopes to be on it.
