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Looting of house by owner?

Daddy-0-

Daddy-0-

Moderator
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
855
Location
Powhatan, Va.
I investigated a reported vacant and unsecured house today where the owner moved out before the eminent foreclosure. Before leaving he apparently decided to steal EVERYTHING from the house including the kitchen sink, the doorknobs, the receptacles and switches, the light fixtures, all appliances, the furnace, the interior doors, the h2o heater, and the above ground pool. I suspect that this was vengeance against the bank. Has anyone seen stuff like this recently? I think people are snapping. I have had the meter pulled and all utilities locked out and declared it unsafe. Should I attempt to notify the bank of the damages? I wonder if there are criminal charges that can be filed even though the owner did the damage. Here's the kicker...the house is only 5 years old. Future occupancy will require multiple permits and lots of work. Very nice neighborhood... $300,000.00 house. WOW. Thoughts?
 
Some questions:

1) Did the owner create an attractive nuisance? Do you have any laws requiring the owner of such a building to lock up?

2) The right thing to do would be to let the next owner know what they are getting into.... but does your employer have privacy rules that prevent you from doing that?

3) Do you have any laws (like Indio, California does) that require banks to perform weekly maintenance on foreclosed property?

4) The owner has clearly violated yet more terms of his contract with the bank, going far beyond just not paying the bank. But that is probably a civil matter between the owner and the bank. Is the bank allowed to press criminal charges in such a matter?

5) If it takes a permit to fix the damage, should the owner have gotten a permit before doing the demolition?

6) It is in the community's interest to get this property fixed or demolished as soon as possible, with a different owner of the property. If (by some miracle) the bank wants to fix up the property, or quickly sells the property to a flipper who will fix up the property, would the permits cause a noticeable delay or expense?
 
It's really pretty common behavior. House flippers love it - they get the property for almost nothing.. throw $50K or so at it and stick it on the market.
 
Yeah, we're hearing about it more and more. Folks know they are losing the house and decide to strip it and sell off anything that they can remove before leaving. Not sure what the lenders can do about it, heck, the borrower couldn't/didn't make the payments, what are the chances of really getting anything back from them?

And good job getting the utilities jerked, and if you adopted the IPMC, then you have the authority to secure and post it. I amended our local police "failure to obey" law to include "building official", so that when I post something as condemned, if someone is in there, the cops can arrest them on the failure to obey.
 
Bank is going to secure it on tuesday and they were glad to know about the condition of the house. They were not in foreclosure proceedings yet but it must have been coming. It really is sad for the neighborhood. The bank is also going to cut the grass.

Jasper,

LOL I should site them for demo without a permit. The bank will have a field day with this one.
 
Bank is going to secure it on tuesday and they were glad to know about the condition of the house. They were not in foreclosure proceedings yet but it must have been coming. It really is sad for the neighborhood. The bank is also going to cut the grass.

Jasper,

LOL I should site them for demo without a permit. The bank will have a field day with this one.
 
Daddy-O,

You responded to a building safety query?

Seems like the local police could as likely have taken the call.

I know someone who bought an older foreclosure that suffered a similar departure by an occupant, who was so mean about it they took a hammer and broke every ceramic tile in the bathrooms.

BTW I heard a report that something like a third of homeowners are "under water" meaning they owe more than new revised appraisals.

Seems ironic that those who lent those overvalued sums got bailed out but the borrowers were left holding the bag.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jim,

We are obligated by the building code to investigate reported unsecured or unsafe structures. This one happened to be in a very nice neighborhood. When we go to the bad parts of town we have the Police meet us on site to investigate. That is normal procedure here.
 
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