Feb 11
2025
Preservationist fined for housing code violations
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A cottage at 1029 West Ave. formerly owned by Bernice Radle. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel
Bernice Radle, 38, is a preservationist who finds herself in the awkward position of being fined $13,500 by Housing Court. The reason: She failed to correct code violations on a West Side property she intended, but failed to renovate.
Radle, executive director at Preservation Buffalo-Niagara, doesn’t dispute the code violations, but she does question the fines. She said the city’s inspections department, court, or both, have failed to maintain updated records related to the property and for some time sent her notifications to an old address.
“The Department of Permits and Inspections has a different system to which I can’t speak for right now or today, but for many years, it was very behind on the address changes,” Radle said.
Court officials counter that the failure to communicate was on her part and that she did not correct most of the code violations her property was cited for.
“If you don’t follow up with your case, then we can’t get rid of your case,” a court representative told Investigative Post. “Coming in and talking to us about it would have been the way.”
Radle in 2013 purchased a cottage at 1029 West Ave. under her Buffalove Holdings LLC after an application for its demolition came before the Buffalo Preservation Board.
A city inspector recommended the cottage for demolition due to concerns of “water damage, broken windows, and broken doors,” according to a Buffalo Preservation Board agenda from 2013.
After saving the gutted cottage, Radle said she intended to renovate it for use as her home. In 2019, she had it designated as a city landmark.
City housing inspectors cited the property for a total of 11 code violations in 2017, 2021 and 2022.
Radle said she didn’t recall being notified about code violations until 2022, the year the Common Council mandated that structures with landmark status be inspected every three years to ensure their structural integrity.
Among the violations were deteriorated gutters, siding, brickwork and chimney, high grass, strewn trash, broken windows and unsecured doors. As a result, squatters had taken refuge in the building.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomCity records indicate the Department of Permits and Inspections sent a notice of violations to her former office address in February 2022.
Radle said she went to City Hall to update her business address when she relocated her office. But court officials said she failed to update her corporation’s address in her LLC’s state filings, which inspectors use to locate corporation owners for Housing Court cases.
Records from the State Division of Corporations currently show an address in Brooklyn listed for Buffalove Holdings LLC. That’s the address where Buffalo City Court in April 2022 mailed a summons for her appearance.
Radle said she only became aware of the inspector’s findings when her business partner in New York City told her about the summons.
When the code violations were presented in court, Radle said she told then Housing Court Judge Patrick Carney that she had developed architectural drawings for a renovation, which she said she submitted to the city in 2019.
“I brought the drawings with me to Housing Court to show that I had stamps — official, approved, permitted, ready-for-construction drawings,” she said.
Construction never commenced, however.
When the case came back to court last April, Radle said Carney advised her to either renovate the property or sell it.
Radle said that although she had paid for property insurance, electric bills and cleaning services, she concluded she didn’t have the financial wherewithal to fix the property. A partner had backed out of the project and high interest rates made it difficult to obtain bank financing.
“If I had the money, I would have renovated it,” Radle said.
Her LLC sold the cottage in May 2024 for $80,000. Radle said that after she paid inspection fees and her attorney notified the court of the sale, she thought her legal troubles were over. They weren’t.
Only two of the 11 violations were corrected according to city inspection records, and a trial for the outstanding code violations was scheduled for August of last year.
Records indicate notice of the trial was sent to her correct business address, but Radle said she didn’t see it. As a result, neither her nor her attorney appeared at the trial and Carney imposed a $1,500 fine for each of the nine uncorrected code violations.
Radle said she was unaware of the fines until contacted a month ago by an Investigative Post reporter.
“Now I’m upset and angry, because that’s a lot of money,” she said.
Radle has since tried, without success, to contact the court to learn about the disposition of her case. She said that she and her attorney are working to get the case reopened and to determine why the fines were imposed after she sold the property.
City Court representatives said code violations remain active until they are remedied. Violations can garner fines even after a property is sold.
“What we usually tell people is, you can sell the house, but you can’t sell your case,” a court official said.
In the interim, the West Avenue cottage remains an eyesore.
Investigative Post visited the property last week. The driveway and sidewalk were unshoveled and iced over, windows were boarded up and the gutters were hanging.
The property’s current owner, Daniel Regan, did not respond to a request for comment.
Radle in 2012 founded Buffalove Development, an organization devoted to preventing demolitions of “historic structures on the West Side of Buffalo.”
She and her then-fiance Jason Wilson in 2015 were the stars of HGTV’s American Rehab: Buffalo. The six-episode series documented the couple’s restoration of historic homes in the city.
Radle was appointed to Buffalo’s Zoning Board of Appeals in 2016 and became vice chair in 2019, a position she held for four years. She left the board in 2023.
County records show that her two companies — Buffalove Holdings LLC and Little Wheel Restoration Co. — purchased nine Buffalo properties between 2013 and 2019. Eight of the holdings — four houses, a commercial building, a mixed-use building and two plots of land — are located in or near the Five Points neighborhood within the 14213 ZIP code. All of Radle’s holdings have since been sold.
