FORECLOSURE CRISIS:

Clean up foreclosed home, or city will

And owner will pay Las Vegas — or face fines of $500 a day

Sam Morris / FILE

Local governments are dealing in different ways with owners that won’t maintain homes, like this one with a neglected pool, after foreclosures.

By Brian Eckhouse

Mon, Nov 17, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Real Estate in Crisis

As a growing number of cities across the country are aggressively forcing owners of foreclosed and abandoned properties to clean them up, Las Vegas is going after them with the help of a three-year-old ordinance that, until recently, wasn’t much needed.

Under the law, Las Vegas’ Neighborhood Services Department oversees cleanups of decaying or ignored homes that generate neighborhood complaints. The city may water lawns or clean pools and go after the owners for the cost. If they don’t pay, they are slapped with $500-a-day fines.

“When banks see that it costs us $5,000, they want to pay it off” as quickly as possible, Mayor Oscar Goodman said. “If not, we’ll keep on imposing these massive fines.”

Wednesday, the City Council is scheduled to consider charging one property owner nearly $300,000, most of it in fines. The council could also slap liens on three other vacant or abandoned buildings. This year, the city has put 34 liens on properties.

Other cities, including Garland, Texas, a Dallas suburb of 223,000, are taking other approaches to the mounting foreclosure crisis. Garland requires owners of abandoned and distressed properties — often lenders that repossessed them — to pay the city $2,500 for upkeep, according to a USA Today report. Goodman isn’t fond of Garland’s measure, arguing that his city accomplishes its objective without “imposing more government.”

Chicago has banned the use of plywood to board up homes after six months because of concerns that homes stigmatized by plywood attract squatters and crime.

At the county, Chief Enforcement Officer Joe Boteilho asked the district attorney’s office to determine whether local governments can force owners of foreclosed properties to pay maintenance fees.

The answer, according to Deputy District Attorney Steven Sweikert: Cities in Nevada could enact such a measure, but the county probably couldn’t do so without the approval of Carson City.

But “there’s a good chance” the county could follow Chicago’s lead and prohibit extended use of plywood on the windows of a home, Sweikert said. “It could be enforced as a misdemeanor or nuisance.” The county, which governs the unincorporated parts of the valley, hopes to use about $17.3 million in federal dollars to buy and rehab foreclosed or abandoned single-family homes and rental units.

Anger over the blight caused by foreclosed and abandoned homes is evident in the number of complaints reported by the Southern Nevada Health District.

Through Friday, the health district had received 2,772 complaints this year, compared with 1,624 in 2007. The 2007 figure had been a record, by more than 500, noted Vivek Raman, supervisor of the district’s vector control unit.

Assemblywoman-elect Ellen Spiegel, D-Henderson, suspects local jurisdictions or the state may have to become more aggressive in their approaches, citing recent foreclosure data. In ZIP code 89074, which makes up much of her district, 965 properties are reported to be foreclosed, according to www.foreclosure.com.

“That’s scary,” said Spiegel, a member of Green Valley Ranch Community Association’s board. “I’ve heard of other areas (valleywide) that are much worse.”

But some in the real estate industry favor improved communication between them and local governments, versus fines, to address blight.

Mike Krien, president of the National REO Brokers Association and a Las Vegas Valley resident, thinks some cities are fining landowners as a means to raise revenue at a time when budget deficits are common nationwide. He prefers greater teamwork, noting that banks and lending institutions that repossess homes won’t approve spending money to fix homes unless the blight has been documented. If the cities have this proof, they could help expedite the process.

The tag team approach is being pursued, too.

Henderson recently held a forum to facilitate that, and Krien is working to schedule a summit with area homeowners associations in December.

In terms of legislation, Spiegel — at a minimum — proposes allowing homeowners associations to collect all past dues from the banks and lending institutions, versus just six months’ worth that the law now allows. The current law is problematic, HOA leaders say, because associations bear much of the burden to keep up abandoned homes. Accordingly, a community dotted with foreclosures probably will have depleted coffers to attend to the blight.

“If the HOA tried to do the right thing, it would cost $700 to $1,000 to take out the grass per home,” said Richard Cherchio, president of The Parks HOA in the Aliante section of North Las Vegas. “There’s limited enforcement capabilities for us. No teeth whatsoever.”

Discussion: 14 comments so far…

By HOAGOV

11/17/08 at 5:08 a.m.

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Let's not bailout the automakers with all their trickle-down financial impact, but bailout those independent, authoritarian HOA regimes that deny constitutional protections.

What's this country coming to?

More info at http://pvtgov.org
By revtomperl

11/17/08 at 10:54 a.m.

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we be going down the tubes - and that is on a good day when you can see forever!
By joncmac

11/17/08 at 3:43 p.m.

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I truly think we are close to the bottom in Real Estate in Vegas. Look at all all the aid, from Citigroup and others. In addition to Citi, Fannie Mae, the federal gov't FHA, many states, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Bank of America/Countrywide have committed to helping over 2 MILLION homeowners between them keep their homes.
I think it is up to all of us, the government, companies, you as a neighbor, everyone to get the word out. A stable housing market will benefit everyone, and help the economy.
I found more info on the programs here.
http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/...
By PatriciaLV

11/17/08 at 5:19 p.m.

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Citi is "committed to helping"? Really? Didn't they just announce that they were going to elimate 53,000 jobs? See this link http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_o...

And wasn't Countrywide one of the worst subprime lenders?

So how exactly are any of those "committed to helping" anyone?
By PatriciaLV

11/17/08 at 5:28 p.m.

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Of course, "elimate" should have been "eliminate". LOL.
By Brittanicus

11/17/08 at 5:54 p.m.

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Both President elect Obama and Senator McCain have promised BLANKET AMNESTY in the coming year. This is what we can expect in our families future? Did you know that lax regulation over the mortgage industry, sold homes to millions of illegal foreign nationals. With as little as a ITIN number issued by the IRS, these people moved into expensive homes.

OVERPOPULATION, congestion, urban sprawl, pollution, environmental damage, crime, diminishing resources, Diseases, lack of affordable housing, depressed wages, underground economic, fraudulent documents, identity theft, tax evasion, soaring crime rate, increased tax burdens, overcrowded schools, uneducated children, overcrowded prisons, inadequate health care, the balkanization of our communities and a large and growing population with loyalty to other Nations. Unknowingly you are supporting the 37 million of illegal immigrant poor, who slipped across our intentionally undermanned border. An additional half-million are coming every year.

Americans who are losing jobs to cheap immigrant labor. In a 1996 study, a Rice University economist estimated that illegal aliens were then displacing 730,000 American workers a year.

Read about www.judicialwatch.org winning court cases against parasite employers, illegal immigrant groups and corrupt politicians.

www.numbersusa.com is your HQ, to find our ugly facts not lies
By johnevegas

11/18/08 at 5:08 a.m.

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Hey Brittanicus, don't you ever get tired of blaming illegals' for every single bad thing there is in this country?

I know I'm certainly tired of reading your constant campaign of misinformation and lies. You seem to find a way to bring it up no matter what the original post was.
By joncmac

11/18/08 at 8:53 a.m.

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Citi is slowing/stopping foreclosures, in an attempt to work with borrowers. That is how they are helping.
By JahReb

11/18/08 at 10:31 a.m.

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The mortgage relief help, to date, is non-existent and nothing more than a feel-good PR charade.

The lenders are helping nobody, they would seemingly rather take a 6-figure loss than help their borrowers reduce their payments by a few hundred bucks every month. Makes you wonder...not a very good business plan, eh? Seems like they'd rather lose the money than help. Wonder why?

The FHA programs, to date, have helped virtually nobody either. FHA Secure and Help for Homeowners are, so far, nothing more than feel-good PR. I believe the HUD counselor I met with last week said HFH has only helped out 40+ people across the US since Oct.1st.

The problem being, they create these programs to make it look like they are trying to help...but they load them up with so many restrictions that virtually nobody is going to be able to qualify.

Until the gov't creates programs designed to actually HELP people, the problem is not going to get any better.
By revtomperl

11/18/08 at 11:03 a.m.

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What do you think, maybe we could solve all of Las Vegas problems by sending people back to where they came from - oops! That is what, 80 or more per cent of the population? Hmmm, talk about a housing crisis! Maybe we should send them all to Mexico and then they would have prosperity? Ok, so most objective measures say that immigrants are the engine that is saving social security and they fill in the crappy housing I don't want to live in. When they are gone, that is a sign that things are really bad. Maybe we should send them all to live with Britannicus whoever that is! God loves all of his his children. HUD doesn't love very many of them. Ok, hope you all can find shelter and find love as well!
By azsk8fan

11/18/08 at 11:46 a.m.

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Brittanicus - lest you forget - the Regnacants were just as easy going when it comes to illegals - seems NEITHER party wants to enforce the immigration laws - they owe too many favors to big corporations so they have to allow this to continue to companies make more money paying substandard wages.
By stevem

11/18/08 at 1:02 p.m.

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citi gave me an extra 30 days to sell my house because an idiot realtor took the key out of my lockbox and they knew that made it hard to show the house.
By PatriciaLV

11/19/08 at 6:55 a.m.

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joncmac:

"Citi is slowing/stopping foreclosures, in an attempt to work with borrowers. That is how they are helping."

On how many mortgages are they "slowing/stopping foreclosures"? How are they "helping" the 53,000 that will soon be losing their jobs?

And how did Countrywide "help" with their predatory lending practices? Are they now atoning for their misdeeds?

How many people have lost or will be losing their jobs BECAUSE OF the practices of these corporations? How are those people being "helped"?

BTW, that bailout money ISN'T going to homeowners. I would have thought people would have recognized that from the get-go. It's going to the corporations. And as we've come to learn over the past three decades, "trickle down" is a synonym for "piss on".

Don't buy the nonsense; these entities aren't "helping" anyone but themselves. As usual.
By azsk8fan

11/19/08 at 7:49 a.m.

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PatriciaLV, nicely stated!