Town is holding unclaimed property.
Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency in Greenwich, Connecticut is holding bond money and having difficulty finding the rightful owner to return the bond once the job is done.
The wetlands agency is holding $3.8 million in outstanding bonds. Some being unclaimed for more than two
decades.
How could this be? Simply put, the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency requires a bond to be posted prior to doing work near or in wetlands. The bond is often for thousands of dollars, which the town holds as a way of ensuring that the work done does not exceed what the agency permits.
Once the work is completed and an agency staff member verifies that the work complies, the applicant can ask for the bond to be returned.
In many cases, applicants don’t notify the town when the work is done, or if they do, they don’t ask for their bond back. In other cases, the property owner has transferred the land to someone else and left town without any notice.
The agency’s records show that nearly half of the total bond amount are for wetlands applications submitted as far back as 1980. Because a permit generally lasts for five years, the work associated with the permit is likely completed. But there also may be exceptions.
In some cases, deciding who to return the bond to also has been difficult when there is a disagreement between a builder and property owner. In other cases, property owners do not want a wetlands staff member to review the work because they fear that part of it may not comply with the conditions of the permit and are willing to forfeit the bond.
Engineer Tony D’Andrea, who does work on behalf of property owners and builders, said he recently received a call from a wetlands employee about several outstanding bonds. One bond belonged to a man who had since returned to Sweden and another belonged to a man who had passed away, but may be contested because of a financial dispute, D’Andrea said.
If you are reading this and think you may have a rightful claim, contact the agency, they are ready to verify this and return the money.
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