A look inside Detroit's infamous ice house

**Zacha341** · January-19-15, 10:24 AM

Incredible photos!

"DETROIT, MI -- About a week ago, a pipe burst inside a vacant Detroit Boston-Edison-District home causing escaping water form a frozen waterfall flowing from the Tudor-style exterior.

Fifty-six-year-old E.T. Williamson Sr., pastor of the New Hope City Church of God in Christ, told the Detroit Free Press said he previously owned the home but lost in to tax foreclosure and entered into a land contract with the current owner after it was purchased in the 2011 Wayne County Auction.

He the house was padlocked after a fire and possessions inside worth near $100,000 were destroyed after the pipe broke.

Fox 2 News obtained access to the house Saturday and posted a gallery of the interior, which is just as ice-encased as the exterior."
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in..._detroits.html

See photos and video here

**Honky Tonk** · January-19-15, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

Incredible photos!

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in..._detroits.html

DETROIT, MI -- About a week ago, a pipe burst inside a vacant Detroit Boston-Edison-District home causing escaping water form a frozen waterfall flowing from the Tudor-style exterior.

Fifty-six-year-old E.T. Williamson Sr., pastor of the New Hope City Church of God in Christ, told the Detroit Free Press said he previously owned the home but lost in to tax foreclosure and entered into a land contract with the current owner after it was purchased in the 2011 Wayne County Auction.

He the house was padlocked after a fire and possessions inside worth near $100,000 were destroyed after the pipe broke.

Fox 2 News obtained access to the house Saturday and posted a gallery of the interior, which is just as ice-encased as the exterior.

See photos and video here

I'm a bit confused. The Pastor lost the house to forclosure in 2011. That was 3-4 years ago. Padlocked or not, his stuff has been in there all this time? If the house was foreclosed on, that means it's no longer his. How is he able to do a land contract on it?

**preserve** · January-19-15, 12:12 PM

$100,000 worth of personal property and no insurance? I'm confused also. If all that property was left in the house, what did he take with him and how was he living without furniture, appliances, dishes, linens? What a shame.

**Gannon** · January-19-15, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

I'm a bit confused. The Pastor lost the house to forclosure in 2011. That was 3-4 years ago. Padlocked or not, his stuff has been in there all this time? If the house was foreclosed on, that means it's no longer his. How is he able to do a land contract on it?

I'm guessing he is one of Detroit's many 'prosperity' gospel preachers. Just guessing.

On that, I'd bet the person who bought the property after tax foreclosure and then wrote a land contract to the fair-weather pastor is one of his fleeced flock.

I expect the real story to be from that person, because they've lost the most in this whole debacle. It is no wonder that they're in shadows now...

**EastsideAl** · January-19-15, 12:36 PM

Crazy photos. Yet another heartbreaking and avoidable loss.

**Honky Tonk** · January-19-15, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

I'm guessing he is one of Detroit's many 'prosperity' gospel preachers. Just guessing.

On that, I'd bet the person who bought the property after tax foreclosure and then wrote a land contract to the fair-weather pastor is one of his fleeced flock.

I expect the real story to be from that person, because they've lost the most in this whole debacle. It is no wonder that they're in shadows now...

If your car was repoed, and I bought it from an auto auction house, I owe THEM money. Why would I pay you a second time? [[not suggesting your scenario is false)

**Zacha341** · January-19-15, 02:42 PM

The story seems messy for sure. I do know it's an astronomical price to insure an unoccupied home in the D. And that water was running A LONG TIME to have done that much damage. It had to have flowed out the sides of the windows and into the driveway during the freeze over before it froze for the mess we now have. And who leaves a house with personal items in that long?

You have some time well before the locks go one.

Originally Posted by preserve

$100,000 worth of personal property and no insurance? I'm confused also. If all that property was left in the house, what did he take with him and how was he living without furniture, appliances, dishes, linens? What a shame.

**Honky Tonk** · January-19-15, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

The story seems messy for sure. I do know it's astronomical price to insure an unoccupied home in the D. And that water was running A LONG TIME to have done that much damage. It probably flowed out the sides of the windows and into the driveway during the freeze over before it froze to the mess we now have. And who leaves a house with personal items in that long.

You have some time well before the locks go one.

Having gone through evictions before, [[not mine) they're done @ a County level and there was always plenty of warning. Even if there was no warning, [[for some reason) 3 years seems like plenty of time to legally arrange to gain access and remove personal possessions.

**Hypestyles** · January-19-15, 09:33 PM

so what the heck is a "land contract"?

**Pickford-Bentler** · January-20-15, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

so what the heck is a "land contract"?

The seller holds the title and collects payments. If the buyer gets behind on payments, then the seller repossesses the property. IOW, the seller is "the bank".

But, unlike a bank, the seller does not usually have a huge portfolio of properties to cover the statistical risk of a buyer who does not pay or destroys the asset.

**Gpwrangler** · January-20-15, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by Pickford-Bentler

The seller holds the title and collects payments. If the buyer gets behind on payments, then the seller repossesses the property. IOW, the seller is "the bank".

But, unlike a bank, the seller does not usually have a huge portfolio of properties to cover the statistical risk of a buyer who does not pay or destroys the asset.

a land contract usually requires proof of clear title. Sounds like the buyer is screwed...

**Gannon** · January-20-15, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

If your car was repoed, and I bought it from an auto auction house, I owe THEM money. Why would I pay you a second time? [[not suggesting your scenario is false)

You misunderstand.

If you were a duped follower of a prosperity teacher, and you bought 'his' car from auction and then SOLD IT BACK TO HIM via a non-banked personal loan...because he 'deserved' it [[the whole mistake of the fraudulent movement)...then we'd be closer to what I feel happened in this situation.

As I said, the person who holds the new mortgage [[if there is one) and resold it back to the errant shepherd [[with no knowledge of the world's most enigmatic molecule's behavior throughout the range of standard Earth atmospheric pressures and temperatures)....is the one who truly lost this house and whatever investment they thought they were making.

I hope they're not duped senior citizens living on pennies daily...or worse. I've seen that too many times in the city, when gullible individuals fall prey to these charlatan preachers.

**Honky Tonk** · January-20-15, 08:04 AM

If that's the scenario, then the preacher IS on the poop end of the stick. Looks like whoever he was trusting and making payments to, decided to pocket the money and not pay the mortgage. He would have had no way of knowing payments weren't being made until it was too late.

**wilderness** · January-20-15, 08:59 AM

Something smells here. The Pastor is not providing all the details. In Metro Detroit, Land Contracts are not as prevalent as they are in rural areas of Michigan. A legal land contract is filed properly and includes most the same stipulations as a mortgage [[i. e., insurance, taxes, maintenance and appearance). There are two major differences between a LC and a Mortg. 1) No money goes into escrow. 2) Any lack of compliance with stipulations of the contract [[i. e., insurance, taxes, maintenance and appearance) result in default of the LC. FWIW, in Michigan the actual owner [[seller) of the LC to the occupant [[buyer) may be forfeited by the seller payment default after being ten-days late [[although the contracts generally stipulate 21 days). A buyer could pay for nine years and 10 or 11 months on a ten-year-LC and then be in default the last two months and lose everything. That's how land contracts work.

**Gannon** · January-20-15, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

If that's the scenario, then the preacher IS on the poop end of the stick. Looks like whoever he was trusting and making payments to, decided to pocket the money and not pay the mortgage. He would have had no way of knowing payments weren't being made until it was too late.

Nah, I don't think he was the victim.

I think he was given a gift...of a sweetheart Land Contract to get his home back after he lost it to a stupid non-standard mortgage...and then wasted it by not maintaining it.

He claimed to have lost it to foreclosure, then had a later land contract out on it. At least that is how the initial language indicated. There is no clear explanation why the thing had been 'padlocked' for so many years, though.

There is more to this story...because he doesn't sound like the actual land-owner. I think the lock-out story is his way of weaseling out of being responsible for the destruction.

If he was locked out for years, it would've most certainly frozen LAST WINTER, when we set so many records for low temperatures. There doesn't seem to be evidence of any freeze-thaw, only one flood and freeze.

Cheers!