“Wizard of Oz” jokes were abundant Monday in South Austin as no end appeared in sight for the saga of a home that became stuck while movers were trying to relocate it and has been sitting in the middle of a street for three days.
“I hope there isn’t a witch under there,” one onlooker said while snapping a photo.
The moving company responsible for relocating the white home from Brackenridge Street in Travis Heights to Lockhart did not get the permit Monday that it needed to alter the house and fit it down Live Oak Street, where it has remained jammed between a tree and a utility pole since early Saturday.
Unless the situation was all a Technicolor dream, the home will continue to block Live Oak Street just east of Congress Avenue on Tuesday.
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The company hired to relocate the house, Taylor-based AAA-Austin Home Movers, received a citation of up to $500 for blocking the road. Late Monday the company had paid $628 for the permit, but did not provide paperwork needed for the city to approve it.
It’s not the first time AAA-Austin Home Movers has had issues moving a home. Since 2008, the company has received 10 complaints, according to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. The most recent complaint was for an oversized or overweight load Jan. 15. The agency has taken no action against the company on that complaint, records show.
Other complaints included four for failing to comply with insurance requirements, which led the Department of Motor Vehicles to assess penalties, according to records.
In 2010, AAA-Austin Home Movers left a home stranded on the side of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and then left it near Texas 71 and U.S. 290 West for days. In 2007, company owner Nick Morphis also appears to have botched the move of a garage apartment, which ended up abandoned partway on Johnson Street near Lake Austin Boulevard.
The company has an A-minus rating at the Better Business Bureau.
Oliver Billingsley, the owner of Billingsley House Moving, recently moved a home from Live Oak Street, less than 100 yards from where the home sat idle Monday afternoon. That move went smoothly and paved the way for the construction of a three-story yellow, lime green and blue condo building.
Billingsley said whoever was in charge of the move was “dreaming” if he believed the 37-foot-wide, 17-foot-tall home would make it down Live Oak Street. Moving the house will probably require that the roof be chopped off and a portion of the sides be removed, Billingsley said.
“You only need to make it by an inch, but it looks like he’s going to need about 3 more feet,” Billingsley said.
The lot where the home had sat is to be redeveloped by a company run by Steven Giunta. He gave the home to an acquaintance who had intended to move it to Lockhart, where Giunta had been told it would be fixed up and possibly rented.
“Honestly, I just want it gone,” Giunta said. “I want it in its rightful place. But this is unfortunate. It’s not good for anybody.”
All city and state permits were in place Friday when AAA-Austin Home Movers attempted the move, city and state officials said. But the undesirable outcome had Billingsley wondering whether city rules for other businesses that move homes would be affected by the incident.
“This is embarrassing,” Billingsley said. “They’re going to call for some new rules.”