That old Victorian house we owned was another sad story. It had been converted into a rooming house in the 1940s and then into small apartments just after WWII. My Dad bought it in the mid 1970s as an investment but it never made any money. My wife and I bought it from him a couple of years before we were married and moved into it.
We spent 7 years getting rid of the tenants and tearing the house back to the bones to restore it. We put all our blood, sweat and tears into the place...and just when we were finally turning the corner into real progress on the restoration, the City of Chester stomped us.
They got wind of the restoration and because it meant being a single family dwelling instead of 6 rental apartments, they threatened to triple our taxes and sent the building inspectors after us with a vengeance. We got the Chester Historical Society on our side and went to fight it with lawyers at the City Council. They just shut us down and gave us no recourse but to sell and leave.
That grand old Home is now back to being 6 one bedroom rental apartments in a hacked up old house...full of cockroaches and rats with peeling paint and a leaking roof. But the corrupt city is very happy to have six individuals to hit with local tax bills to fill their pockets.
They wanted it to become a low income run down tax revenue...and they got it.