PROVINCETOWN — After the managers of the seven-building, 12-unit residential complex at 25-27 Bradford St. known as Napiville did not meet the town’s deadline for making it safe to live in, the board of health voted unanimously on May 16 to petition the housing court to appoint a receiver for the property.
In a receivership, a property management company, nonprofit organization, or individual is appointed by the court to bring a neglected property into compliance with state housing codes at the owner’s eventual expense.
The board’s vote authorized Health Director Lezli Rowell to work with town counsel “to initiate legal proceedings to enforce the Board’s orders through appointment of a receiver” in the state’s Southeast Housing Court.
Napiville has been subject to extensive health orders from the town since 2020, a year after longtime owner Anton “Napi” Van Dereck died. A series of health inspections following tenant complaints documented inadequate heating, hazardous electrical work, mold, and leaking roofs and ceilings.
The property was also put under an “administrative consent order” to connect to the town sewer after an October 2020 inspection discovered backed-up cesspools.
Since last July, Bernard McEneaney, Van Dereck’s longtime financial adviser who is now sole trustee of his property, has accumulated $19,200 in fines from unaddressed health orders. In January, he wrote a letter to tenants saying he intends to sell the Napiville units because he cannot afford to bring them up to code, adding that the property has been “in a deficit for quite some time now.”
McEneaney is also the legal conservator for Van Dereck’s widow, Helen Haunstrup, who is the sole surviving owner of the $17-million Van Dereck estate and who suffers from dementia. Court files related to McEneaney’s conservatorship of Haunstrup have been impounded in Barnstable Probate Court since 2021, making it impossible to see how McEneaney has managed Van Dereck and Haunstrup’s assets.
McEneaney also told tenants in January that he was “not authorized” to pay to connect Napiville to the town’s sewer system — which is almost certainly false, since he has complete control of the estate.
Road to Receivership
The May 16 vote came nearly two months after a public hearing on March 21 at which the board of health gave McEneaney and property manager Lisa Meads a month to make specific repairs or risk condemnation of the buildings.
The board extended its deadline by a month in April after building permit applications and an application to connect to the town sewer were filed. At an April 18 meeting, Rowell told the board that the property managers had also filed an emergency building permit for one unit after the tenant’s ceiling caved in due to a “severe roof leak.”
That tenant told the Independent this week that no one ever came to repair the unit.
Rowell also told the board on April 18 that she had received a call from the owner of an abutting property who was “concerned about the slumping condition of the retaining wall” at 25-27 Bradford St.
Despite the various permit applications, Rowell told the board on May 16 that little work has actually been done.
“No progress was recorded” on sewer connection, Rowell said, and the town had received “no submitted contract” for an engineer’s assessment of the retaining wall. New decking work “failed to demonstrate building code basics,” Rowell said, and new fencing above a steep slope at the back of the property “might be usable for livestock.”
Asking for receivership was one of three options Rowell offered the board, along with giving the property managers more time to complete repairs or condemning the property and requiring that all units be vacated. Rowell said that pursuing receivership would allow tenants to remain in their homes while the case wends its way through court.
The filing of a court action itself would not prevent McEneaney from selling the property, Community Development Director Tim Famulare told the Independent, but if a receiver were appointed, McEneaney would be barred from selling without court approval.
The listing agent for the property, Ali Maloney of Barnstable-based AMG Realty, did not respond to questions from the Independent. The property is still listed for sale on AMG’s website.
McEneaney did not attend the March, April, or May board of health meetings and did not respond to multiple inquiries from the Independent.
Property manager Lisa Meads attended all three meetings remotely.
On May 16, Meads told the board that she and McEneaney “are trying to do one thing at a time. I have folders and folders of stuff that we have fixed. I can’t make people work any faster.”
Meads said she had not connected the property to the sewer because McEneaney still intends to sell it.
“We don’t know what buildings are staying and what buildings are going,” Meads said. “It’s a waste of money until we know exactly what’s going to happen.”
After the hearing, Meads told the Independent the town seemed to have “already made up its mind” and that “everything is a lie. We have done everything we are supposed to do, and it’s still not good enough.”
How It Would Work
Town Counsel Greg Corbo of KP Law warned the board that a petition in housing court “takes a bit of time on our end.” The goal is for the court to appoint a receiver to “stand in the shoes of the owner” and make required repairs.
A receiver can collect rent, take out loans and mortgages, and pay contractors for improvements. After the property has been brought up to code, the receiver gets a priority lien on the property to cover expenses, which the owner must pay.
If the owner fails to pay, the receiver can petition for a sale or a foreclosure auction, with receipts used to pay back the lien before the owner receives any remaining balance.
The Southeast Housing Court currently has five pre-approved receivers, according to Clerk-Magistrate Joe McIntyre: Excalibur Property Management, Lanagan & Co., and the Veterans Transition House, all in New Bedford, plus contracting company McGinney & Porter in Plymouth and one individual, Brian Reed.
Interested parties can apply to become a court-approved receiver, McIntyre said.
The fate of the tenants still living in Napiville “would be up to the discretion of the receiver,” Corbo said. If a tenant needs to be relocated while repairs are being made, the state sanitary code requires the expense to be covered by the owner.
Three households have already moved out of the property, according to tenants who spoke to the Independent after the board of health hearing. There are currently four vacant units.
A receiver could potentially fix vacant units first and “shuffle tenants around until all apartments are completely fixed,” Corbo told the board.
