Village Wants to Demolish George Guildi's House

As former Suffolk County Legislator George Guildi sits in jail, Westhampton Beach Village officials are discussing demolishing his Griffing Avenue home that went up in flames while he was in Vermont in 2008.

On Wednesday night, village attorney Richard Haefeli said the structure, located at 9 Griffing Avenue, is unsafe and the village needs to take action to demolish it — the problem, Guildi is in jail and the bank has not yet foreclosed on the house, but has renewed a notice of pendency, which means there is a pending action.

Haefeli, however, said he would like to reach out to Guidli and ask him to consent to the demolition with the bill for the raising added to his tax bill.

If he agrees, village law requires that a hearing be held and the mortgage lender notified.

But Haefeli said he isn't sure if Guildi, an attorney, will agree.

"Anyone who knows George Guildi and knows where he is, knows he has all time in the world," Haefeli said.

The issue of Guildi's home is not new. After the home burned down, village officials said he told them he would tear it down, but then ran out of money to pay for dumpsters after his insurance company froze payments.

Guildi was convicted of defrauding his insurance company after a trial that ended on Feb. 16, 2011.

During the trial, a jury found that he took a $863,000 insurance check paid out by AIG after his Westhampton Beach home was ravaged by fire and placed the proceeds into his own bank account.

He was found of guilty of insurance fraud and second degree grand larceny. The jury acquitted him on charges of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and second-degree forgery.

Guildi was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and was later convicted of 34 counts of grand larceny related to a mortgage stacking scheme.

Aside from Guildi's former home, the village is also looking address an unsafe situation at a home, located at 72 South Road. In that case, a fence around a pool has come down. The village has taken the owner to court, however, he failed to appear before the judge, who, village officials said refused to issue a bench warrant and dismissed the violation.