TALLMADGE: When Ron Perry bought his home in 1987, he assumed his lot conformed to zoning laws that require 10 feet between property divisions and structures.He has a receipt showing he paid to have the 1.5-acre lot surveyed, but says he never received it, and the first-time homeowner didn’t think twice about the missing document.A couple of years later, Perry learned that his property actually ends where his eaves begin, that when he opens the side door to 700 Sunset View Blvd., two inches of it swings onto his neighbor’s property.He had to tear out a garden he thought was on his own land, and acknowledges that the leaves of tomato plants he still grows in beds up against his house reach across the boundary.Now, 24 years after moving in, Perry wants to move out.An unemployed painter who says medical problems have kept him from work for two years, he desperately wants to downsize and move somewhere warm.Experts say there is no legal reason he can’t sell his property, but the exceedingly strange lot line has scared away potential buyers, and after two decades of investing in his scenic property and quaint slab-foundation home, he won’t consider suggestions that he demolish the house and be satisfied with the price of the land.“As far as I’m concerned, I’m a hostage in this city,” Perry said.Perry is convinced that the city shares the blame and has asked the council to buy him out for $100,000. But his property’s value tanked when Perry mentioned the lot line issue to county appraisers. He said the latest appraisal he received in the mail shows his home – worth $110,000 in 2008 – is now valued at $40,000.Perry’s neighbor, Pamela Delmedico, knows some of the history of the property. She and her husband moved into their home the same week Perry moved into his in 1987.The two lots were once a single 3-acre property, and Perry’s home was a garage. An elderly woman who lived on the land renovated the garage for herself while her son razed the original house on the property and built the home in which the Delmedicos now live.When the woman and her son decided to move, they had the property split so they could sell it as two residences.The property line was drawn right up against the eaves of Perry’s house; where the house ends, it jogs two feet in to the basement wall, then continues to the back of the property.No one seems to know why that division was accepted in the first place.Judy Looman, administrative assistant in the Tallmadge Planning and Zoning Department, said splits are proposed by property owners and examined for zoning code compliance.If approved, the property owner draws up deeds, which are checked by the planning department, signed by the mayor and filed with the county. Most paperwork associated with the process is only kept for five years, and Looman said she has no idea what happened during the Sunset View property division.When Perry first considered selling two years ago, he called the title company he had done business with in 1987 and they sent out a couple of representatives.“They told me it was wrong, it shouldn’t have ever been done like that,” Perry said. But they denied they were to blame for not alerting Perry to its existence, and the company has since gone out of business.Perry complained to the Ohio Department of Insurance since he had title insurance, but was told the insurance doesn’t guarantee property lines and deed restrictions.He sought an answer from his original lender, who seemingly would have had to approve the lot survey before making a loan, but his house was paid off in 1999, and he was told no records exist.Perry has also threatened to sue the city for approving the non-conforming lot division.Tallmadge Mayor David Kline said Law Director Penny Taylor has advised that the city is not at fault, but Kline is submitting the issue to a “moral claims” committee, which determines whether the city is morally responsible, if not legally responsible, to resolve a problem. More typical moral claims involve flooded basements and pothole damage to cars.“I’ve requested the law department to put the packet together for moral claims,” said Kline, who has met with Perry several times in the past year. “Sometime in the next month or two we hope to get this thing resolved somehow.”Kline said the house can still be sold if a buyer can be found.“There’s nothing illegal, it’s just a non-conforming use,” Kline said. “Mr. Perry wants to sell his house. He bought it as is like that. He says he can’t sell it.”If the house is demolished, the land is worth $40,000, a figure Kline has proposed to Perry in the past.“I don’t know what that committee will decide,” Kline said. “He wants me to buy the property for $100,000. If I wrote him a check right now for $100,000, he said he’s going to walk away and go to Florida.”Perry said there is no way he would accept $40,000, and on general principle, he would more likely cut down all the trees and shrubs on his property, bulldoze the house, and abandon the land.Cyndi Kane, president of the Akron Area Board of Realtors, said there are actually many homes in Summit County that are non-conforming to modern zoning laws.“Every day we sell property that would have zoning code violations if it were new construction,” she said.She said she understands Perry could find “a bit of an issue” in selling the property to a new homeowner, but laws would likely protect a new owner’s right to the property as it is.But Perry is clearly angry, and resentful that the same laws that force him to disclose the property line problems in selling the property weren’t followed when he bought it in 1987.“Somebody did something wrong, and it wasn’t me,” Perry said. “I shouldn’t have to pay for it.”Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.