Active duty service member’s local home destroyed by delinquent tenant

MADISON VILLAGE, Ohio (WJW) — An active duty member of the United States Military Andrew Dittsworth has served our country for the past ten years. In 2021 he and his wife bought a home in Lake County expecting it to be their forever home.

“The intent was to purchase the home and do whatever we planned on doing with it,” Dittsworth said. “There was a lot of fixing up that had to take place..it was quite literally everything, flooring, walls carpets. Everything practically needed to get fixed to some degree.”

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He and his wife estimate that they spent $80-$100,000 after the purchase of the home to fix it up.

Because of his military career, however, Dittsworth and his family currently live in Virginia so, he said they felt good about renting the home to someone who they believed they were helping out.

“Things went good for three years,” said Dittsworth explaining to Fox 8 News that the rent he charged was only what he needed to cover the mortgage.

He said they even considered ultimately selling the house to his tenants to give them and their family with two children a nice place to stay.

“We were excited about it even if it was for them I think we were most excited about the fact that they had a place to stay because before they were living in what a one-bedroom apartment, two-bedroom apartment,” Dittsworth said.

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But Dittsworth told Fox 8 News that after months of their tenant not paying rent, he sought and was granted an eviction notice by Painesville Municipal Court.

“The eviction went through with the courts on the 13th and then the 24th was the day they were supposed to be out, two days prior we learned about this, and that’s when the police were called,” he said.

“This” refers to the damage Dittsworth discovered after he learned from neighbors that the tenants had moved out.

Virtually everything inside the house is destroyed. In the kitchen an Island was turned over, appliances, including the dishwasher, stove and refrigerator were smashed. The refrigerator turned over on its side with rotting food inside. Countertops are smashed. The sink was destroyed. A vent hood bent and mangled. The cabinets and cabinet doors are all damaged.

In the family room, there are holes in the walls and a sectional sofa is slashed. A ceiling fan is destroyed and a railing from the stairs to the second floor is ripped off.

Two bathrooms are also heavily damaged with holes busted through wall tiles in the shower. Glass shower doors are smashed and countertops are also broken into pieces.

The couple estimates the damage through the house to be about $90,000.

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“We’ve talked about this many times. There’s no words, like we weren’t surprised, we weren’t frustrated, we weren’t mad we were just confused we didn’t know what to think. I still don’t know what to think about it, to be honest with you,” Dittsworth said.

In an 11-page report detailing the extensive damage, Madison Village Police are charging the tenant, Silvano Vlajic, with aggravated menacing, disorderly conduct with risk of harm, criminal damaging and vandalism

“Money was put in from our end and money was put in from his end so we knew this was going to be their home, and for him and whoever else was involved to scratch all that and make it personal like this makes zero sense,” he said.

Vlajic, who is Dittsworth’s brother-in-law, is believed to have left the state of Ohio and could be renting from someone else right now.

In the meantime, Dittsworth has been granted extended leave from his branch of service to try and sort things out, while a GoFundMe account has been started to try and help this military family recover.

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