By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
A Princeton landlord agreed Monday to pay a $2,000 fine rather than go through a contempt of court hearing for failing to repair one of his rental properties on Lytle Street.
Sanford Zeitler also agreed to properly board up the vacant house, hire an architect or engineer to assess its structural health and make sure the water and the electricity are disconnected.
Municipal Court Judge John F. McCarthy III gave him deadlines for doing all three of those things, starting with boarding it up properly by July 28.
In the meantime, 13 housing code violations the town cited him for would be held in abeyance for 60 days. He left court declining to comment.
The town is pursuing Mr. Zeitler to fix what’s wrong with his Lytle Street property, where five people including a 10-month-old child had been living without heat or hot water for around two weeks in April. The situation was such that the house had bed bugs, and that the child — a girl — had bites around her neck. The town stepped in and moved the people out April 17.
Mr. Zeitler was cited by the town, pleaded guilty May 5 to failing to provide heat and hot water and had 45 days to correct the problems. The town said he never did.
During a court appearance two weeks ago, Mr. Zeitler said the town posted that no one was allowed into the house. He said he was under the impression that it would be a violation for his contractor or the contractor’s employees to get inside. He said he told his contractor to stop working.
Municipal fire official William Drake said in court Monday that in April, the town building department deemed the structure unsafe. He said the property does not have gas but does have water and electricity. He told the judge that both of those needed to be properly shut off and secured.
Mr. Zeitler told the judge he did not know how long it would take him to do those things, although the judge gave him an Aug.4 deadline to do so. The judge also gave him until Aug.11 to get the architect or engineer’s report to Mr. Drake.
Mr. Zeitler is scheduled to be back in court July 28 for a separate case involving a rental property of his on Hillside Avenue.

