Leaning house in Detroit gets torn down

DETROIT – Demolition began Monday on a home in southwest Detroit  after Local 4 aired a story last weekend about the hazards it was causing for an elderly couple who was living next door to it.

Clarence and Margie Leavings have lived in their home on South Liddesdale Street for 50 years.

But they said a vacant house next to them threatened to drive them away because they couldn't get the city to respond to its crumbling mess.

A side of the brick house was leaning wearyingly over their property, seemingly ready to fall at any moment. The Leavings said the house had been vacant for five years.

But Local 4 cameras were rolling Monday as a crew began tearing down the house.

City officials told Local 4 the home was foreclosed on in 2007 and it was then sold in 2009 to a man who was living in Florida. The city said it had first received a complaint about the house in June 2011 and had put it on an expedited list to be torn down.