The Team that Beat the City of Minneapolis
Elizabeth Howell
Elizabeth has become experienced in many aspects of retaining wall challenges after winning the long battle with the City and is now available to help other property owners. She created this website as a resource to help property owners. Elizabeth lives in Linden Hills in Southwest Minneapolis and was cited for a retaining wall in a street near her home and pushed back because the outrageously expensive $90,000 wall was not on her property, but was 8' in the City of Minneapolis' right-of-way and and part of the public sidewalk. Elizabeth gained valuable knowledge and skills negotiating with the City, researching historical documents back to 1887, and strategizing over how win the huge case against the City. These same skills and knowledge can help other property owners with similar property issues.
Elizabeth's day job is investment management. Elizabeth's background includes managing top performing municipal bond mutual funds, which provides unique insight into the government mindset and conducting detailed due diligence. She manages a private practice for individual investors.
Brett Wiese
Brett is an experienced real estate attorney and a partner at Inslee Best Dozie & Ryder in Seattle who helped win the case against the City of Minneapolis. Brett identified relevant and victorious real estate law over the five year period. Brett's work effectively enabled us win the retaining wall case against the City of Minneapolis, the largest city in the state. Brett has worked on other municipal cases with similar issues in other states and knows the ins and outs of property law. Brett is licensed in Washington.
Kristin Rowell
Kristin is an experienced trial lawyer and partner at Anthony Ostlund Baer & Louwagie in Minneapolis who helped to win the case against the City of Minneapolis. Kristin litigated the winning multi-year retaining wall case against the City of Minneapolis, which included appearances in district court, two all-day mediation sessions, a winning argument to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and 3-day jury trial that exhausted the City's options and yielded a decision that the City was, in fact and law, responsible for the $90,000 retaining wall it its own right of way.
Brett Wiese or Kristin Rowell may be available for consultation, or clients may select their own attorneys.
Engineers, Surveyors, Legal Title Examiner, and Title Companies
FixThisWall's real property experts include:
- Licensed professional engineers who specialize in retaining walls and have evaluated thousands of walls. These experts are available to evaluate a retaining wall, grade its condition, provide an estimate of the repair cost and provide documentation. Their evaluations have withstood the rigors of court trials, and will be just as strong for an evaluation of your property.
- Licensed professional surveyors are available to provide a signed, licensed survey of a property. Our experts have Angie's List ratings and the accuracy of their surveys have withstood the scrutiny of court trials. We are highly confident they are accurate for any retaining wall situation.
- A Title Examiner (lawyer) is available if needed. He is a former Hennepin County Title Examiner and can review abstract and torrens titles and provide a definitive opinions as to ownership, easements, rights, and responsibilities.
- Title company documentation and experts from the companies are available to verify property records, deeds, easements, and other historical property data. Using the company with a vast amount of experience provides credibility because they have more transactions than other less seasoned companies. In short, they have seen a lot.