BALTIMORE — For the first time in a long time, Matt Schmale Jr. stands where his childhood home used to be on Keswick Road. in Hampden Now, the bad memories outweigh the good.
WATCH: Family on the hook for demolition costs after devastating fire
“I actually stopped by on the Sunday before this happened and I didn't stop by on the Monday. And then Tuesday morning they were gone," Schmale said.
The home burned down in a destructive fire last October, costing the lives of his parents’, Kathy and Matt Schmale Sr.
Now, a city bill states Matt and his sister, Rachel, have to pay up for the tragedy, even after promises it’d be wiped.
“Honestly feels like paying a penalty for my trauma, and I mean I have enough of it. I’m dealing with it. I’m never getting away from it,"Schmale said.
According to a bill from the City of Baltimore Bureau of Revenue Collections, the Schmale’s owe $13,935.96 for "work done by the city to abate a nuisance or public safety issue."
But Schmale says, the choice to demolish the house after the fire was out of their control.
“They told us that they had to demolish the house, tear it apart to go find them, and we weren't given a choice. It was just something they said they had to do," he explained. "We accepted it as an absolute."
So down came the tree in the front yard his father planted for his mother when they first moved in, decorated every Christmas.
"It was a fixture, and that was the first thing that went that morning when they came in and brought in a tree cutting service, cut down the tree at the top bit by bit," Schmale said.
Gone was every physical memory they had of their parents and their childhood, too. Schmale says they never got the clearance to sift through the rubble.
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Failed promises
Schmale says they've received three bills in total, including the first in July addressed to his late father. The latest, in November.
Another holiday season now around the corner without mom and dad, he is hoping for a miracle.
“It would make things a little easier for the holidays, honestly, if we didn't have this just all of a sudden pop up out of nowhere because we thought we were done with it,” he said.
That’s because City councilwoman Odette Ramos said made a written promise it was cleared months ago.
“I take responsibility. I wasn't able to get it done, to try to get them exempt. I am working on some legislation to try to change that,” Ramos said.
Confusion came from an accidental double charge each owner faced.
“Then it turns out that the lien sheet came back and it was still on there so it's unfortunately been a lot of problems with the accounting and something that we're gonna have to fix internally because this whole thing has been totally unfair to this family and all of the families,” Ramos said.
The double charge was fixed, but the city code 118.2 leaves little room for question who's responsible to pay. It's on the property owners.
Ramos says insurance covered the costs for those who had it and for those who don’t, like the Schmale’s, it’s on them.
“I just want people to know, like I don't think this is right. I don't think this is fair, and I feel like at the very least people should know about it,” Schmale said.
The siblings sold their parents property for about 25% of what it was worth before the fire for less than $50,000. Part of which will now go towards paying the bill so it does not remain a lien on the property.
"There's no monetary value that I could get that would make that better, it's not like that," Schmale said. "We should get something for where we grew up and not having anything."