Foreclosures & The Property Managers Of Last Resort: Municipal Code Enforcement Agencies

In Central Florida, the Orlando Sentinel ran a commentary on the increased workloads faced by local code enforcement agencies by reason of the vacant homes that are in various stages of foreclosure, and what some municipalities have done in other parts of the country to combat similar battles.

• Droughts are good for one thing. They help hide the empty homes. Now summer rains are rejuvenating dried lawns. And all the houses abandoned over the winter and spring are about to reveal themselves. "I expect all that thirsty St. Augustine to go nuts and the complaints to go up," says Mike Rhodes, Orlando's code-enforcement chief. "Some are homes that sold six months ago for a half-million dollars. Now we are sending people to mow the yard." Adds Bob Spivey, his counterpart at Orange County, "It's an epidemic. We are the property managers of last resort. It's a bad situation. It's in every type of neighborhood."

For more, see Grass is often greener, taller when other side of fence is foreclosed (if link expires, try here).neighborhood destruction from foreclosures kappa