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Foreclosed properties pose hurricane protection problems |
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Article Courtesy of The EXAMINER By KELLY OBRIEN-WRAY July 4, 2009
If you live in South Florida, chances are good
there is a foreclosed home somewhere in the neighborhood. Chances are even
better it isn’t being properly maintained. The owners are gone and nobody
wants the responsibility to trim the trees, cut the grass, or clean the pool,
much less put up hurricane shutters. board windows, batten down the garage
doors, or tie down the swing set if the next tropical depression begins to
bear down on the Florida peninsula.
If you are lucky, your neighborhood foreclosure
doesn’t have lose roofing tiles, siding, gutters, flower arbor or trellises.
The property is free of debris that was dumped in the yard, or anything about
to become a wind-blown projectile.
The reality is Florida has no state law or even
rebuttable presumption of who has the responsibility, the obligation to secure
the property. There is no state agency who wants the responsibility,
including the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “It’s not an issue
we deal with,” according to the agency’s John Cherry, external affairs
spokesman.
With the hurricane season now in progress, a
foreclosed property could quickly become your problem, putting your home and
property at risk, and threatening to hold or bring down all the property
values in the neighborhood if it sustains direct storm damage.
Identify who is responsible now
If the bank or other mortgage holder has already
taken the title, it is legally responsible. But if the change of title is
still in progress, the property is in a legal limbo. Some of the banks with
title to these properties have hired or have plans to hire management
companies for hurricane-related chores and/or damage. Others say they plan to
use the real estate agents assigned to market the homes to secure the
properties. Still others are just hoping to get through another hurricane
season without any losses.
Foreclosed properties in some areas are being
boarded up and secured to make them less vulnerable to vandals and thieves who
are stealing appliances, air conditioners, and ripping the wiring out of the
walls.
If you own property in a development with a
homeowners association, you should check out if the bylaws have a contingency
for dealing with hurricane preparedness and responsibilities. Some astute
property owners have formed volunteer committees to address these issues and
properties in their immediate communities. But when the property is in that
legal limbo or ownership can’t readily be determined, local officials and
homeowners associations may not have the legal right to trespass and secure
it.
The City of Wellington got around that issue by
going to court to get the legal documents that allowed them to board up homes.
Elsewhere, Cape Coral passed a city ordinance that requires the owner of a
foreclosed property to pay a $150 fee to register the address of the
foreclosed property and provide a contact number for the person who will
maintain the property.
If Cape Coral can get can get $150 for a
registration, can larger communities like Ft. Lauderdale or Miami-Dade afford
to be far behind?
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