Countrywide Fights City To Stop Demolition Of Moldy Foreclosed Home

In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, The Northwestern reports:

• A court will decide if an 11-year-old house in the city of Oshkosh that is filled with mold must be razed. [...] The city has issued raze or repair orders for the single-story home, but Countrywide Home Loans Inc., the Fort Worth, Texas mortgage company that owns the house, is seeking a court ordered injunction to stop the city from razing it. Countrywide, which obtained the house through foreclosure last year, claims it would be irreparably harmed should the city go through with the raze order, according to documents filed in Winnebago County Circuit Court.

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• Power to the house was shut off [during] the [foreclosure] process, resulting in a flooded basement and damage throughout the house. "There was eight inches of water in the basement, and it had been even higher judging from the mark on a door," said Allyn Dannhoff, the city's chief building inspector. Photographs of the home's interior at the inspector's office show extensive mold throughout. Michelle Staskiewicz lives next to the derelict house. [...] She'd like to see the mold-infested house next to hers razed if it could be done safely. She worries that a bulldozer would rile up mold spores and jeopardize her health and that of her neighbors.

For the story, see Owner of foreclosed home seeks injunction to stop demolition.