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Article
Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel
By
Linda Trischitta
May
30, 2009
Mary
McClenehan cast a wary eye on a once pretty pink house. Behind it, a dry,
in-ground pool was filled with a large grill, love seat and children's toys. If
a hurricane comes, she fears the debris could go airborne.
"I feel very unsafe," the great-grandmother said about the apparently
abandoned house near Swinton Avenue in Delray Beach.
There aren't a lot of options for homeowners in this situation beyond relying on
local code enforcement departments.
Municipalities discourage civilians from entering private property because to do
so violates trespass law. Inspectors have to respect that restriction too, and
are limited to taking action on what can be seen from a yard's border. But if a
place is unsafe, officials can inspect and secure a property immediately. They
also use code enforcement boards, special masters or magistrates or the courts
to levy liens and pressure an owner, if one can be found, to clean up a site.
After a house is abandoned and before a lender assumes ownership is when problems arise, residents say. Banks in Florida have no legal right or requirement to do a cleanup until they take title to a property, typically after a 12- to-15-month foreclosure process, said Alex Sanchez, president and chief executive officer of the Florida Bankers Association.
"If we have title...we want to protect it and clean it up," Sanchez said.
Empty homes are a byproduct of the foreclosure crisis. From May 2008 to April 2009 there were 11,822 completed foreclosures of commercial and residential properties in Broward County, more than double, or a 121 percent increase, from 5,346 foreclosed parcels the previous year. |
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The
door of a backyard fence lying on the ground of this apparently abandoned
home is not only an eyesore but a potential hazard in a hurricane to the
homes nearby.
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Palm Beach County had 4,203 completed foreclosures in 2008, up 129 percent from 1,836 during all of 2007.
Until the economy improves, abandoned houses with trashy yards may continue to plague South Florida neighborhoods. Both McClenehan and Al Berg, Delray Beach's assistant director of Community Improvement, were surprised about the pool's unusual contents. But Berg did not want McClenehan or other homeowners taking on such cleanup projects.
"We don't want neighbors looking at clutter, junk vehicles or tires. We pick that stuff up daily. Let the city handle that," he said, adding that the city plans to put a fence around the pool and if a hurricane warning is issued, will cover it with plastic.
McClenehan knows about great storms: 2005's Hurricane Wilma took the roof from the family home and dropped it in someone else's back yard. The city and donors helped the family rebuild the house, and she is protective of it and her neighbors.
"This needs to be cleaned up," McClenehan said about the pool. "If a storm comes we'll probably pick up the loose ends."
Jim Rapoza of Oakland Park said he has plans for a dilapidated fence in a neighboring yard that he has mowed in the past. A shredded blue roof tarp remains on the single-story, empty home, where for the past 16 months police were alerted to problems like illegal entries. The property has fines of $81,050 for code violations for the fence, trash and a broken window.
"If a hurricane comes I'll have to throw all this inside the house," said Rapoza, about his solution to the wooden planks that lay in disarray. He is young and strong enough to do it himself and the house appears to be open. "I'm not angry about it."
Oakland Park's code enforcement manager Don Kas said if violations at an abandoned home constitute a threat to public health and safety, his department asks a magistrate and the city commission to allow staff to remove problems and apply additional liens to a property.
"In general, code enforcement officers are limited to [fixing] what they can see from the right of way, or from a neighboring property if there are no fences, that type a thing," said Kas.
From his perspective, the problem has become more manageable.
"As for the banks, they seem to be more on top of it than they were," Kas said. "We don't have to fight as hard to get cooperation from the lenders to go out and maintain the properties. I don't know if [it's because] a lot of these foreclosures happened in such a rush that they couldn't catch up, or banks have actually taken possession and can hire someone to maintain them."
In unincorporated Broward County near Fort Lauderdale's Dillard High School, Martha Freeman keeps tabs on a white house across her street, its facade marred by burn marks around an air-conditioning unit. Plywood covered the windows and at one time the back had piles of broken mirror and wood.
"We do the cleanup ourselves," Freeman said of her Roosevelt Gardens neighborhood association's quarterly efforts to maintain the appearance of yards and empty lots.
It's a matter of pride for Freeman. "I grew up in this neighborhood. Our association will go in there if the place is empty."
New owners bought the empty house and she is hopeful for progress, especially as hurricane season nears.
"No one ever told us not to clean yards," Freeman said. "But if it will keep our neighborhood up, we'll do it."
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