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Properties left vacant, untended
  
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By Rhonda Moore
Holiday decorations assumed a different look in one Castle Rock neighborhood touched by this year’s rising foreclosure rates. Residents in the Castle North subdivision woke up the day after Thanksgiving to find a pile of debris in front of a home at 803 Valhalla St.
The home is a foreclosure property that, according to public records, Nov. 6 was deeded to the bank. Tenants in the home vacated and emptied the house on their way out, said neighbor Jerry Dalla.
A call to the town resulted in a trash pick-up, but the town could not deal with what came next. The day after the debris was removed from the front driveway, another pile appeared, the new stack worse than the first, Dalla said.
Appliances, exercise equipment and outdoor furniture are among the load that sits in front of the vacant home, and this time the town can’t send the trash collector.
“I think it’s going to become more and more of an issue for our town,” Dalla said. “It’s going to become a real public nuisance if this starts to happen.”
Homes left vacant by foreclosure create a challenge beyond the town’s scope of responsibilities, said Kevin Freeman, Castle Rock assistant director of development services.
Before Castle Rock can take action, it must first give the homeowner an opportunity to resolve the problem. Faced with limited legal and financial options to oversee vacant properties, the town must issue a series of notices before it can assume the expense of removing the debris, Freeman said.
The notices, issued by the code enforcement office, begin with a certified letter that gives the owner — in this case HSBC Bank in Simi Valley, Calif. — 10 days to remove the trash. If the trash remains in place after 10 days, the town must post a public notice on the property for at least seven days.
Once that step is complete, the town can then incur the cost of removal and place a lien on the property for reimbursement, Freeman said. In the case of the home on Valhalla Street, the first notice went out Dec. 17, and efforts to reach the bank have been unsuccessful, Freeman said.
If the bank does not respond to the notices, the trash will remain in place into the new year, he said. It is one of several complaints the town has received about vacant, foreclosed properties, but one of the few where the town has been unable to resolve the issues with the owner, Freeman said.
“We are keeping a very close eye on things and it’s potentially the case that more of these cases will come to light if more properties are foreclosed,” he said.
According to the most recent foreclosure report from the Colorado Division of Housing, Douglas County in 2008 experienced a “sharp increase” in foreclosure rates. While the county had 1,865 foreclosure filings in 2007, the first half of 2008 saw 1,235 filings — one in every 74 houses in Douglas County.
The trend is part of a statewide increase in 2008 expected to push as much as 20 percent past last year, the division says.
In Castle Rock, the rising trend has resulted in neighborhood blight made worse by dropping temperatures. A recent freeze resulted in a number of calls to the town about frozen pipes in vacant, oftentimes foreclosed, properties. The town responded with a press release to remind real estate agents and banks to winterize vacant properties.
The most the town can do in those cases is shut off the water, said Doug Lehnen, mayor pro tem and councilman, District 6. Otherwise, maintaining foreclosed properties is not on the town’s to-do list.
“The town is not in the business of taking care of people’s mortgages and taking care of that kind of thing,” Lehnen said. “We’ve been pretty good at taking care of it where possible, but the town’s job is not to take care of foreclosed properties.”
The home is a foreclosure property that, according to public records, Nov. 6 was deeded to the bank. Tenants in the home vacated and emptied the house on their way out, said neighbor Jerry Dalla.
A call to the town resulted in a trash pick-up, but the town could not deal with what came next. The day after the debris was removed from the front driveway, another pile appeared, the new stack worse than the first, Dalla said.
Appliances, exercise equipment and outdoor furniture are among the load that sits in front of the vacant home, and this time the town can’t send the trash collector.
“I think it’s going to become more and more of an issue for our town,” Dalla said. “It’s going to become a real public nuisance if this starts to happen.”
Homes left vacant by foreclosure create a challenge beyond the town’s scope of responsibilities, said Kevin Freeman, Castle Rock assistant director of development services.
Before Castle Rock can take action, it must first give the homeowner an opportunity to resolve the problem. Faced with limited legal and financial options to oversee vacant properties, the town must issue a series of notices before it can assume the expense of removing the debris, Freeman said.
The notices, issued by the code enforcement office, begin with a certified letter that gives the owner — in this case HSBC Bank in Simi Valley, Calif. — 10 days to remove the trash. If the trash remains in place after 10 days, the town must post a public notice on the property for at least seven days.
Once that step is complete, the town can then incur the cost of removal and place a lien on the property for reimbursement, Freeman said. In the case of the home on Valhalla Street, the first notice went out Dec. 17, and efforts to reach the bank have been unsuccessful, Freeman said.
If the bank does not respond to the notices, the trash will remain in place into the new year, he said. It is one of several complaints the town has received about vacant, foreclosed properties, but one of the few where the town has been unable to resolve the issues with the owner, Freeman said.
“We are keeping a very close eye on things and it’s potentially the case that more of these cases will come to light if more properties are foreclosed,” he said.
According to the most recent foreclosure report from the Colorado Division of Housing, Douglas County in 2008 experienced a “sharp increase” in foreclosure rates. While the county had 1,865 foreclosure filings in 2007, the first half of 2008 saw 1,235 filings — one in every 74 houses in Douglas County.
The trend is part of a statewide increase in 2008 expected to push as much as 20 percent past last year, the division says.
In Castle Rock, the rising trend has resulted in neighborhood blight made worse by dropping temperatures. A recent freeze resulted in a number of calls to the town about frozen pipes in vacant, oftentimes foreclosed, properties. The town responded with a press release to remind real estate agents and banks to winterize vacant properties.
The most the town can do in those cases is shut off the water, said Doug Lehnen, mayor pro tem and councilman, District 6. Otherwise, maintaining foreclosed properties is not on the town’s to-do list.
“The town is not in the business of taking care of people’s mortgages and taking care of that kind of thing,” Lehnen said. “We’ve been pretty good at taking care of it where possible, but the town’s job is not to take care of foreclosed properties.”
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