A battle between a property owner and the city Durham seemed to end Monday when bull dozers had the last say at 518 Boone St.

"It's been about eight years in the process," said Reverend Melvin Whitley, who is a community activist in northeast central Durham. "East Durham has cleaned itself up over the years and today we've reached another milestone."

In September the dozers showed up Boone Street, but Haskell Properties got a restraining order against the city to avoid demolition. Later that month a judge lifted the order, and Durham's Neighborhood Improvements Services said the owners had until this Sunday to get everything they wanted out of the five houses.

"They've had at least three months to have done something with it," said Rick Hester, the Housing Code Administrator. "As far as I can tell, they have not done anything since we were here."

"We tried to work with them and nothing would happen."

But a civil complaint filed in court Friday suggests that Haskell Properties didn't want the houses do go down without a fight. The suit says Neighborhood Improvements Services verbally agreed to allow the owners an extension of time to comply with city housing regulations.

It reads: "Defendant, City of Durham, breached the Contract by, among other things: unilaterally cancelling the extension of time granted under the contract by authorizing and dispatching a demolition crew to Haskell Properties on September 11, 2009, to destroy said property in violation of the contract."

The owners also said they set aside the money to pay for improvements.

"[The apartments] were not up to code," Hester said. "Most of them were in such disrepair that that's why we went ahead and took them down."

"We feel like we have the legal ground and that we have all the proof and all the evidence we need to win any lawsuit."

He said the property owners will still own the land, but they will have a bill on their hands.

"The demolition bill will probably run around $60,000 to $70,000 by the time everything's done," Hester said.