HARTFORD – The U.S. Department of Justice will not be pursuing any action in regards to crumbling concrete foundations in Connecticut.
On July 20, the Connecticut Coalition Against Crumbling Basements, CCACB, filed a federal complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Hartford. They asked the justice department to open an investigation into this problem and why the state of Connecticut hasn’t acted sooner to help fix it.
On Monday, CCACB President Tim Heim said he received a written response in the mail from U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Gifford.
They said the Federal Bureau of Investigations is the appropriate agency to direct complaints requiring additional investigation, whereas their office is responsible for enforcing federal criminal laws.
The letter stated in part, “The materials you provided to our Office are insufficient to initiate a federal criminal proceeding. However, you may wish to consider bringing any information you have about the crumbling foundation issue to the attention of the FBI to determine whether an investigation is warranted.”
“Unfortunately, we are unable to provide further direct assistance,” they wrote in the letter Heim shared with FOX61.
Heim said contacting the FBI will be the coalition’s next step. “I was disappointed to hear that they weren’t going to look into it. However, they did offer a suggestion to look into contacting the FBI, which we’re going to plan on doing,” said Heim.
He said he and other homeowners would be happy to provide as much information as they could to federal investigators and he would welcome them to come tour his house and see the damage up close.
“We’ve been knocked down so many different times for so many different years. We’re going to continue to get back up and explore any and all options that are available to us,” said Heim.
He asked, “How can a potential billion dollar problem be created and ignored and no accountability? What is going on here?”