What to do about abandoned house?

[oldtrader]

It's up to the City to enforce property bylaws. Contact police to find out how to file a complaint that should pack the best wallop like attaching a neighborhood petition and/or photos and/or past incident reports.

The OP told us it is not in a city but is rural, so there is nothing that can be done by the city.

County regulations for problems like this one, are not really existent many places, so there is nothing the county can do in those ares.

The OP told us that there are no HOA regulations that require the property be kept up and the yard maintained, which takes away the right for the HOA to do anything about how it looks.

The OP and the HOA do not have any idea of who actually owns the property. They only know who has a mortgage on it. The property may tied up in an estate if the owner died as an example and an estate will take from 1 to 2 years to clear up if their was a will, and an executor handling it. If there is no will, then it is really messed up, and there is at this time no defined owner.

The lender may have foreclosed on the property if the loan is in default, and they may not have. It could be still owned by the original owner, an estate, or many other possibilities. If the lender has not foreclosed, they have no right to do anything with the home as they only have a lien on the property, no ownership rights or control of the property.

There are several things the neighbors can do.

1: Get together and mow the lawn, pick up garbage, etc. That would keep the property look from distracting from their own property.

2: Raise the money for either the HOA or neighbors to pay for a full title search by a title/escrow company, to find out who actually owns the property at this time. Once they know who the legal owner is, then they can contract them and try to get the property cleaned up.

3: Sit back and do nothing, and gripe about that house and waif for the problem to go away.

[kokonutty]

Originally Posted by Gabbythecat

There *must* be laws about abandoned homes.

We've been reading our CCRs, and turns out there is some kind of requirement about maintaining yards, etc, although it's difficult since previous boards - and there have been several - have made attempts to contact the mortgage holder. Apparently they have been unsuccessful in finding the correct person. So assessing fines for a CCR violation will probably be useless - no one will pay.

The previous board did put a lien on the property, and it appears that the property taxes are being paid by someone. Unfortunately, Ocwen sounds like they are difficult to work with. We have talked about suing them, but there must be an easier way.

Why? Just because they offend you?


Perhaps if you are so offended instead of asking anonymous strangers from all over the country and beyond you might research locally to see if any law exists on which to hang your hat in the area where this is actually a problem for you.

[Ultrarunner]

Eventually the property will cede to the county for back taxes if it is truely abandoned... takes about 5 years where I am.

The most powerful and sometimes the only one that may help is the fire department and then only if the inspector or chief is willing to cite for a violation of fire code... often this can lead to mowing/discing...

As mentioned... I simply spent a little time each week mowing and picking up trash and even watered so the home would not appear abandoned to the casual passerby...

On a side note... I'm loath to waste city or county resources on things like this where a little volunteer effort by neighbors will take care of it...