Severly mentally ill neighbor - what to do with house? (Seattle city) (section 8, real estate)

[mkarch]

Reposting from Real Estate forum, since it would be helpful to get feedback from people familiar with local issues.

So, we bought a house last year and shortly thereafter the neighbor's adult son is who is severly mentally ill moved back in with his father. The guy is in his mid 40's and barely functional, and has quite an addiction to methamphetamine. Since he's been there it's been a constant cycle of working odd jobs, binging for days, then going through angry violent withdrawals before starting over again.

We're done dealing with it, but now we have to figure out what to do with the house. If it weren't for this problem, it would probably be worth around $500K. I have no idea what it's worth with this kind of issue but likely much less. Needless to say it doesn't really appeal to the kinds of families with young kids that might be shopping for a home in the neighborhood.

We could rent it out, but again, the problem isn't going to make it easy to attract quality tenants. We might be limited to section 8's or kids looking for a 'party house'. At least that way we could hold on to it and hope the problem improves at some point.

Any tips/advice from people who have run into this?

[Poor&Dangerous]

if he is that disruptive, you should call the police
there is such a thing as disturbing the peace

[Oleg Bach]

He is not mentally ill- I saw the effects of METH over 30 years ago- People do not understand how strong and how destructive this poison is. I have seen people stay away for 14 day "meth runs" - They do not stop moving - they do not eat- they do not sleep...Try staying awake for two weeks - You will become stark raving mad. I have seen strapping country boys who were 200 lbs of good health - whither down to 120 pounds..Meth is madness....all of these people who fooled with Meth are all dead now....You don't have a problem with a mentally ill person- You have a drug addict next door. Meth is not addicting....but what makes it addictive is when the person stops after being awake for a week...He feels and exhaustion that is similar to dying....If they go to sleep they will not wake up - so they shoot up again.


If you are dealing with police do not mention mental illness - mention that you have a speed freak next door.

[Hemlock140]

I would talk to a good, experienced realtor as soon as possible to determine the effects of disclosure law and see what suggestions they might have. In my interpretation (I'm in commercial real estate) you would have to disclose problems with neighbors. Residential realtors will have probably dealt with this before and often are helpful in the hope you will use them or give them referrals in the future.

[flyingsaucermom]

Have you talked to the dad?

[sequoias]

You don't need to move all because of that guy. Have the cops take care of the guy who's taking meth.

[Poor&Dangerous]

Originally Posted by sequoias

You don't need to move all because of that guy. Have the cops take care of the guy who's taking meth.

exactly, its nice that OP is quite tolerating, but F that guy, they ll take his ass to jail
no need for u to go anywhere

[mkarch]

SPD have been frequent visitors over the last few months. We speak with the father often.

We've seen enough to know that the drug use is a concurrent problem, more of a symptom than a cause- though most of the truly obnoxious behavior is happening during periods of heavy drug use.

We've tried to 'wait it out' in the house, but it has passed the point where that can go on.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by sequoias

You don't need to move all because of that guy. Have the cops take care of the guy who's taking meth.

Being high on meth in itself is not something the police will treat as a crime until another (felony) crime is committed while high.

[Poor&Dangerous]

Originally Posted by mkarch

SPD have been frequent visitors over the last few months. We speak with the father often.

We've seen enough to know that the drug use is a concurrent problem, more of a symptom than a cause- though most of the truly obnoxious behavior is happening during periods of heavy drug use.

We've tried to 'wait it out' in the house, but it has passed the point where that can go on.

u dont need to wait anyth out, its your home and u have a right to feel safe even in the street
next time he acts up, call the police, they'll find him high, maybe find meth on him and take him away, there is no other way to go about this, hopefully they'll keep taking him away until he gets treatment or goes to prison
and whos to say that if u move somewhere else a drug addict won't move there? u gotta step up and let the police handle it, tell em u dont feel safe and that there is no telling what he can do, esp when its drugs involved, he could rob you or attack you, meth users are completely unpredictable and out their damn mind