GILROY—Dave and Fran Cunningham were surprised to learn that, after opening a letter from the Gilroy Police Department on Aug. 21, misdemeanor warrants were out for their arrest over the unsafe condition of a downtown building they invested in.
The Pleasanton-based couple loaned money to the original owner of the Water Store building at 7515 Monterey St. in the mid-2000s. But the owner defaulted in 2007 after missing multiple payments, according to investors. Since then, more than $60,000 in outstanding fees and penalties have accumulated on the vacant property, Dave Cunningham said.
In June, the city’s contracted legal firm filed criminal complaints against the Cunninghams and five others who invested in the Water Store, along with the owners of the Creamery at 7491 Railroad St., alleging that they failed to perform necessary repairs to bring the buildings up to current earthquake safety codes.
The move to take legal action, City Attorney Andy Faber said, came after years of unsuccessful attempts to bring property owners to the table.
But the Cunninghams told the Dispatch that the Aug. 21 letter, which included a copy of the arrest warrants and instructions to come to the Gilroy police station for booking, was the first piece of communication they had received on the matter.
“That’s all we got,” Dave Cunningham said Tuesday, when the couple came to town for booking at the Gilroy Police Department.
“If we knew any of this was going on before, we’d have been down here working on it,” he said.
“We’re honest people,” said Fran Cunningham, who explained she called other investors upon receiving the notices, curious if they’d heard anything before last week. They hadn’t, she said.
The envelope containing the Cunninghams’ warrants was postmarked Aug. 19, but Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Edward Lee signed the warrants June 28, according to the documents.
All seven investors were cited on four misdemeanors: failure to register a vacant commercial space since September 2012; failure to register vacant commercial window space since September 2012; failure to perform mandatory retrofits to comply with earthquake safety codes; and failure to submit building permit applications, according to the complaints.
