A Cook County Circuit Court judge has ruled that the “dream house” Robert Stewart built in southwest suburban Worth presents an “immediate and present danger” and ordered him to vacate the property.
Judge James Stack also directed the Village of Worth to secure the property at 7360 W. 110th St., but delayed until Dec. 15 a decision on the village’s request for permission to raze the house, which Stewart, 61, built at a cost of $750,000.
The village is seeking the demolition order on the grounds that the 5,700-square-foot house, which lacks electricity, plumbing and heat, has deteriorated to the point where it could collapse.
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Stewart, who has gone into debt to build the combination Tuscan-Greek-Roman mansion, has been living in the basement of the unfinished structure. He has argued before Stack in the Bridgeview branch of Circuit Court that the contention that the house is unsafe is “bogus.”
But the village, represented by the Evergreen Park law firm of Odelson and Sterk, has had a civil engineer testify that the house was built contrary to accepted procedures and was so unsound that a heavy snowfall is all that is needed to cause it to collapse.
According to the village’s attorneys, the house has been cited 61 times for building code violations over the last nine years.