Cleveland Housing Court Judge Hammering Foreclosing Lenders With Fines, Code Violations

In Cleveland, Ohio, a story in The Associated Press recently reported:

• Judge Raymond Pianka views his courtroom as the emergency room of the foreclosure crisis. Weary of lenders and wholesalers who don't show up to answer to housing code violations like unsecured doors and windows on foreclosed properties, he began holding trials without them. He's put 12 companies on trial in absentia and has fined most, leaving each unable to sell any properties in the area until it pays up. Rust Belt cities, already beaten down by a miserable economy before foreclosures began spiraling nationally, are moving to cut the number of houses left vacant when the mortgage can't be paid. At stake are valuable tax dollars and the survival of neighborhoods.

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• Vacant houses, some stripped bare of aluminum siding, dot the streets, casting a gloom on their well-maintained neighbors. "It scares people," said Joyce Porozynski, a block watch member who has lived in the neighborhood most of her life.

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• [D]estiny Ventures of Tulsa, Okla., sent Pianka's court a check for $53,036.75 a few weeks ago to cover its fine plus interest and attorney fees. [...] As a housing court judge, Pianka is on the low rung of the judicial system, a bungalow among mansions. He's heard himself referred to as a "rat court judge" at judicial conferences. He embraces the role. "Many times I feel like the mouse that roared," he said, later adding, "Finally, they're paying attention to us."

For more, see Rust Belt cities fight glut of abandoned houses (Courts getting aggressive, cities establish land banks to try to slow blight).

Go here for other posts on vacant homes leaving its mark on neighborhoods. neighborhood destruction from foreclosures I