Jewel Woods resident hires attorney, looks to take on realtor, bank and more after alleged non-disclosure of flood zone
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Tipaldos moved to South Bend from North Carolina with a plan to retire in his dream home. Instead, he says he's paying out at least $75,000 to protect his home from severe flooding.
In July, Andrew Tipaldos was standing in his back yard full of water. Now, he's standing on fresh dirt with two new storm drains. Where his garden bed once sat, will now be replaced with a cement wall.
"We brought in over 13 dump truck loads of dirt, installed these dry wells that are probably eight feet deep, one here, one over there, to redirect the water that way, regrade everything this way. We still have to bring in sod. We still have to put up a new fence. There's going to be a little cement wall going over there to stop the water from coming this way," Tipaldos explained.
In the far-left corner, you can see St. Joseph County Commissioner Carl Baxmeyer and Deputy EMA Director James Lopez looking at the problem areas on Andrew's property on Thursday, July 16.
On Friday, August 14, State Senator David Niezgodski and the Department of Water Management paid him a visit. Asof today, Andrew has an attorney.
"Real estate, the bank, title company, the inspector. I mean, you name it. I mean, the former owners. Everybody along the way had an opportunity to help somebody coming from another place to here. All I wanted was to be able to live in a peaceful neighborhood and not have this and they abused their licenses and power," said Tipaldos.
He urges everyone in St. Joseph County to call their commissioners, senators, and the county surveyor and demand action. Not for him, but for the entire community.
Andrew tells ABC57 he won't be reimbursed for the thousands of dollars of his retirement money he's spending to fix the County's problem.
We reached out to County Surveyor Derek Dieter who has publicly mentioned that drainage and flooding in the area are a priority for him.
Dieter and Tipaldos confirmed Dieter called Andrew Tuesday afternoon and will visit his home Wednesday morning.