Jessica Grondin, Portland’s Director of Communications

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,296)

The city’s legal department will  be filing a lawsuit against Greg Nisbet owner of 188 Dartmouth Street tomorrow in District Court in Portland said Jessica Grondin, city spokesperson this afternoon.  Nisbet was given until yesterday Tuesday, February 2nd to correct violations at his rental property.. In December of 2014 tenants went  public with their complaints about landlord Nisbet.  The tenants will be leaving the property in the near future. Nisbet claims that the violations were caused by tenants damage to the building.

Nisbet is the owner of the rental property at 20-24 Noyes Street that was the site of a tragic fire in which six people died last November 2014. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Nisbet in that tragedy. One of them comes from the widow of Steven Summer, by his widow Ashley.

Tom MacMillan, a board member of the newly formed Portland Tenants Union, visited 188 Dartmouth Street late this afternoon.  He said that the property is “filled with squatters.  One of the police officers said this is a property we don’t deal with it,” MacMillan said.

In the 3-alarm fire on Noyes Street, over twelve complaints were filed by neighbors and others against Greg Nisbet over a period of years.  No legal action was taken by the city for a succession of violations.  Then the fire happened.  Everything changed.  All of a sudden the city took notice of a population it had largely ignored.