Homes left behind

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Edythe Jensen

The Arizona Republic

City code enforcers and county mosquito patrols across the Valley say they're seeing a spate of weeds and green pools in places they never used to: newer neighborhoods with higher-priced homes.

Increasing numbers of these properties are being abandoned by cash-strapped owners, leaving messes and headaches for neighbors and municipal officials.

Chandler real-estate agent Liz Morganroth said she dons a disposable face mask before she inspects new foreclosure listings but can't always escape the stench.

"Many of them are disgusting: trash and animal feces everywhere, rotting food in a refrigerator crawling with maggots. We even find pets left in the house," said Morganroth, who sells foreclosed homes in Chandler and Gilbert for Realty Executives.

Her inventory, she said, is skyrocketing.

A good portion of her listings were occupied by tenants who faced eviction because their landlords weren't paying the mortgage. "Some of these people had been paying the rent every month, but the owner wasn't paying the mortgage," she said. "They were forced to move and lost their security deposits, so they totally destroy the homes out of anger."

Officials from Mesa to Peoria are seeing the trend and say newer subdivisions on the outskirts of town are some of the hardest hit. They tie it to declining home values, adjustable-rate mortgages, discouraged investors and owners struggling to make ends meet.

"It started ramping up during the past six months, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon," said Ray Villa, acting neighborhood services director for Mesa. "We're getting between five and 10 complaints a week that someone has walked away from a property and is letting it deteriorate," he said.

Villa, who lives in Queen Creek, said one of his own neighbors packed up and left a house. "It's all over the place," he said.

Maricopa County treats abandoned pools to prevent mosquito breeding and the spread of West Nile virus, but that doesn't prevent algae from growing or the other hazards.

Aimee Upton, an environmental health manager for the county, said that of the 339 green-pool cases turned over for enforcement action since January, more than 100 were at homes "in an ownership change," which included foreclosures.

Figures from previous years were not available. The county routinely obtains court orders to enter abandoned properties with pool violations, treats them with chemicals to kill mosquito larvae, then stocks them with mosquito-eating fish, she said.

Sgt. Greg Carr, neighborhood services supervisor for Chandler, said the dark-green water also can be a drowning hazard and the sludge could hide a victim for days.

"It's scaring me," Carr said. "We're trying to figure out how we can approach this. Who do we call when homeowners walk away and we can't find them?"

Most cities have "clean and lien" laws that allow them to cut weeds and bill the property owner. But the legal process can take months, and collection is unlikely when a house is in foreclosure, officials said.

Bill Patena, neighborhood services supervisor for Peoria, said his tactic is to find and repeatedly call the property owners or mortgage holders "because most will come out and spruce up the property," he said. "But they only do it when reminded, so we try to call them fairly often."

Patena said he believes there's a connection between new subdivisions, "exotic" mortgage-lending programs and abandoned homes. "I don't think it's out of control, but we have seen an increase in people abandoning their homes," especially in the newer parts of north Peoria, he said.

Adam Adams, code compliance manager for Gilbert, said he also has noticed an increase in abandoned-home complaints but no concentrations in specific geographic areas. He said a recent complaint came on a house in one of the town's premier planned communities: The Islands near Cooper and Elliot roads.

"Once the houses are vacated, it's difficult to find the responsible party," he said.

Judith Ferg lives across the street from the abandoned Gilbert home and said she watched as her neighbors loaded up moving vans in the night two months ago; she hasn't seen anyone in the house since. Ferg said the owners bought the home when prices were high, remodeled, then put it back on the market. When it didn't sell, "they would have garage sales every weekend . . . until the vans showed up."

Chandler resident John Simpson lives across the street from an abandoned house in a 5-year-old subdivision called Sun Groves. He said it has been an eyesore for almost a year. "The former owners sold the house for double what they paid, but the new owners got divorced and left."

One abandoned home in Chandler's Brooks Ranch subdivision has a $499,000 assessed value for tax purposes, tall weeds and a green pool. Carr said he hasn't been able to contact the owners and has asked Maricopa County to treat the pool so mosquitoes won't breed in it. In that same neighborhood a home that sold for $701,000 in March is on the market for $689,000.

Phoenix code enforcement spokesman David Ramirez and Scottsdale code enforcement manager Malcolm Hankins said there have been no reports of rising code complaints tied to abandoned homes in their cities. However, county officials say they are making increasing numbers of trips to abandoned pools in these cities.

Cynthia Dunham is founder and executive director of The Leadership Centre, a non-profit based at Chandler-Gilbert Community College that promotes homeowner-association education. She said some associations are adding a "refurbishing" expense to their budgets, using assessments made on all properties to keep abandoned ones weed-free.

"It is easier to send in a landscaping crew to trim weeds and spray than to have an eyesore," she said. "This is a temporary way to deal with an unfortunate reality."

Morganroth, the agent who specializes in foreclosures, said she often pays for cleanups out of her own pocket and hopes for reimbursement from the foreclosing lender.

"If I didn't, the properties would never sell in that condition," she said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/080...closed0806.html