Forclosed Neighbor

[French777]

I have a question to the people on this forum, who have a forclosed neighbor. Do you mow their lawn or water there plants? or do you just leave it alone?

- Because I don't have any forclosed neighbors here in Rochester Hills, but if I did I would watch over their house and mow their lawn. Then the house would look better to buyers.

[professorscott]

For about eight months, last summer into this past winter, the house next to us was empty. We put a new lock on the door, because kids were breaking in and partying, and did some minor maintenance just so it wouldn't be a disaster.

Before any of this, we called the bank which owned the house, but they were not going to do anything to care for the property. They didn't give a damn about it, so far as we could tell.

We weren't able to prevent every bad thing from happening, but we were able to prevent some of it. Now the house is occupied, so it's no longer a problem. The new owner didn't pay very much for the house, which is proper, since it needed a lot of work by the time she took it over.

[SWMAP]

I had the same experience in SW Detroit. house sold for $110,000 in late 2005 to unsteady, financially incapable buyers. By early 2008 it was foreclosed. Foreclosed owners' gang-member relatives moved in for free rent. Jumped the electric meter many times. Water turned off - but still they stayed. Bank did not care. Finally we got them out by bringing in the Gang Squad. We mowed lawn and shoveled snow - but came to realize that bank was not responding because believed home occupied.

[PSewick]

I sometimes mow my neighbor's lawn even though they still live there. Not because I'm altruistic, I just don't want it to look like crap and I know they're not going to mow it themselves. It's a small lawn anyway. My other neighbors also sometimes mow it.

Just as a matter of self-preservation and protecting your own neighborhood, it's good to mow the lawn of a foreclosed house on your block.

[gazhekwe]

I keep an eye on them, contact real estate or bank if maintenance is needed. If it is not done timely, I will do what I can myself. I have reattached fallen shutters, for instance. So far, responses by realtors have been great, lawns mowed, broken entry door fixed, snow plowed. Main realtors have been Adams and REO [[Real Estate Owned).

[DetroitScooter]

We [[the neighborhood watch group) closed up a house on our street two weekends ago. We turned off the electric and water and had Consumers Energy come turn off the gas. We put a hasp and a lock on the [[kicked in) door and replaced a few former glass windows with plywood and nailed them shut. I contacted the ROPD to give them the keys, but they said that they couldn't take possession of the house and left it in our hands. They have increased patrols on our street to keep "friends" from coming back. I understand that the former residents moved to East China, MI, and I wish them a great life up there and to please stay away. The house is absolutely disgusting on the inside and is severely damaged. I contacted the mortgage holder of record and have heard nothing back.

And yes, we are mowing the lawn. The house hasn't looked this good in at least five years... we are planning a block party for July to celebrate the departure!

[aoife]

Our neigbor's house is not forclosed, but it has been empty for nearly 3 years since she had to move out of state and can't seem to sell it [[part of the problem with that was that she rented it to some real losers for a few months who trashed the interior). We mow her lawn and weed. Our neighbors across the street bring out the snow blower and we clear the driveway in the winter. She also gave us permission to go inside, so we check and make sure her pipes are not frozen in the winter or just that everything is ok every month. A few people on our block a park in the drive so it looks as if someone is living there.

We live in the "low rent" district of Grosse Pointe where all the houses are like 10 feet from each other, so keeping up her house for her isn't all altruistic. We don't want to live next to a craphole and really want someone to buy it so we can have neighbors again, and that won't happen if it looks abandoned. Plus it is good for the neighborhood and our yards are pretty small so it is not much of a hassle.

[lizaanne]

We are pretty fortunate here, all the empty houses have someone cutting the grass. It's the one four doors down from us that is occupied that looks like a dump. Even the large house on the next block on the corner from us has a company coming to cut the grass, and I am pretty sure this is a foreclosed property. There has never been a real estate sign out front, the folks just disappeared in the night a few months ago.

[reddog289]

The house about 5doors from mine was forclosed on around the 1st of the year and the house next to that had been empty for the 2yrs I have lived here. Good thing the man in the middle of our block owns a landscaping service and would take care of them. He ended up buying the forclosed house next to him , and someone did move into the vacant home. I hated to see the price that forclosed house went for,

[sumas]

Two years ago we had 13 vacant homes on our block alone. All sold to great new neighbors. Now we are on the next round of foreclosures. We mow grass as necessary, pickup litter and park in driveways.