who do I call about grass not being mowed? (Cicero: foreclosure, rental)

[ckwyviorka]

We are renting a home in Brewerton (still Onondaga county) and the house next to us has been foreclosed on and of course no body is mowing the lawn. It is getting really long (almost 2 ft high at this point). I have mowed the front lawn once already, but it is not my responsibility to continually do this. I have to mow my own lawn while watching my 2 little ones so I don't have the time nor do I want to spend my money on gas to mow somebody elses lawn that they didn't keep up (this was a rental as well). Who do I call to get this taken care of? I worry about ticks and snakes since I have 2 little ones running around. We get alot of deer in the woods behind our home and I worry that they are going to come down into that lawn since it looks like a field and drop more ticks.

HELP!

[proulxfamily]

I would call the offices of whatever town you're in and tell them... not that it will do much. At best, they'll swing by with a town vehicle, mow it, then bill the bank for their services. But I doubt that will happen. Ask your town clerk what the local regulations are for grass, if any.

For some neighborhoods, it's worthwhile to keep up the minimum maintenance on foreclosed homes... it often saves the value of *their own* homes.

So, I guess you and the neighbors might want to see what you'd like to do... :/

[RollsRoyce]

Assuming the house is in the town of Cicero, you can file a complaint with the code enforcement officer. Here is the link:

Town Of Cicero, NY (http://ciceronewyork.net/zoning/index.php - broken link)


I would also check to see what bank/lender owns the house.

Check out the Onondaga County Office of Real Property website:
Office of Real Property Tax Services (http://www.ongov.net/Realproptax/taxinformation.html - broken link)

Then follow these instructions:

1.) Select the "To search for Onondaga County property information" icon.
2.) Type in the street name and address of the property and hit search.
3.) Select the property, click on the "owner/sales" icon on the left corner of the screen under the "Residential" heading.
4.) Look at the name and address of the property owner

Although the home may still be in the name of the foreclosed property owner, there is a good chance that a lender is listed as the owner with an address provided.

I would google the address of the lender to find out their contact information.


Channel 9 recently aired a story on this topic. Here is a link:
Homeowners near foreclosed properties face problems - NewsChannel 9 WSYR

[ckwyviorka]

Thank you for suggestions! I just got ahold of the zoning and code enforement and they are going to contact the owner. they told me not to mow again because it has to be at least 10 inches high for them to do something. I let them know that there are areas of the yard that are almost 2 ft high so hopefully they can do something. Absolutely ridiculous on the part of the owner of this property.

[ss20ts]

If it's gone into foreclosure and the bank now owns it, don't expect much to happen! Honestly, the bank doesn't care what your town says. Chances are they are not local and have bigger problems than a lawn on a foreclosure.

If you don't see anyone do anything in a couple of weeks, I'd mow myself if I was so worried about it. And no matter what the height of the grass is there are snakes and ticks.