Beware Of Mother Nature As She Poses Threat To Vacant, Foreclosed Homes

In Rochester, Minnesota, KAAL-TV Channel 6 ran a story that should serve as a reminder to lenders and mortgage servicers nationwide that, as the cold weather season approaches, they should begin winterizing (dumping anti-freeze into the plumbing pipes, among other things) all the vacant, foreclosed homes they're stuck with and haven't been able to unload before Mother Nature begins to wreak havoc on them by freezing up and destroying all the copper plumbing pipes(1) contained in these houses (and likely to be followed by flooded basements, moldy drywall, soggy carpets, etc. after the thaw).

• The calls [plumbing contractor] Paul Link and his team are getting are mainly from bankers and realtors...hiring him to winterize foreclosed properties in the area. "If the house is not heated, it's going to freeze up and all the pipes will freeze and break and even if the water is shut off the water in the pipes will still freeze and break,” says Link.

For more, see Winterizing Foreclosed Homes.

Go here for more on freezing pipes in vacant homes.

(1) Assuming the copper thieves haven't already gotten to them. frozenpipetheta