"Poop Protest" over derelict Denver home leads to lawsuit

Neighbors of a dilapidated and vacant home on Denver's historic and picturesque 7th Avenue Parkway have taken their "poop protests" a step further, filing a civil lawsuit asking a Judge to either allow the house to be demolished or turned over to a third party.

"There seems to be a complete disregard for what is neighborly," said John Krays, who owns a real estate investment company that filed the lawsuit this week, on behalf of several neighbors of the property at 2725 East 7th Avenue. "It's hard to be proud of your neighborhood and where you live when one of the houses is vacant, abandoned, and stands as an open invitation for anything to happen."

In August, CBS reported neighbors had become so fed up with the eyesore property, which has been vacant and deteriorating for six years, that they regularly began tossing bags of dog poop into the yard as an expression of their displeasure. That news report was cited in the new lawsuit as reflecting how outraged neighbors had become.

Kray's lawsuit was first reported by BusinessDen, an online publication that focuses on real estate issues.

Flavia Montecinos, the owner of the home, said of the lawsuit, "I don't see that there's a claim. There's no damages. I do feel for the neighbors," she said, "but I was pretty handcuffed".

Besides, she said, she has a permit to do work on the property "in hand", the city of Denver has approved her plans, and she said she is meeting with general contractors this week to plot out what she said would be an extensive and expensive construction project. "I'm actually really excited", she told CBS.

She blamed the years of delays and problems on previous contractors, saying she had gone through ten general contractors, with at least one declaring they were insolvent. While she did not say when construction would start or likely finish, she said some excavation and plumbing work would happen first.

The 120-year-old home now has windows boarded up, is in disrepair and is on the City of Denver's 'neglected and derelict' building list. In a complaint filed with the city earlier this year, a caller to the city said, "The neighborhood is angry with this resident and a lot of them throw dog poop bags full of excrement over the fence into the yard".