News of the Nature Coast of Florida

Citrus County is grappling with an increasing number of unmaintained properties that have literally outgrown the county's ability – and pocketbook - to keep up.

The landslide of unkempt foreclosed properties across the country has now escalated far beyond mere nuisance, and poses a serious threat nationally and locally to public health and safety..

The new “owners” of those foreclosed properties - banks and other financial institutions - are doing a poor job of preserving homes for subsequent occupancy by another buyer, and are getting failing marks for maintaining those properties' landscaping and integrity.

Simply put, banks are proving to be poor landlords, and have not seen fit to hire groundskeepers to keep their properties and grounds from going back to nature. And now their problem has become Citrus County's, as the spate of foreclosed homes here has resulted in overgrown vegetation, scurrying rodents and deteriorating structures and grounds.

What started as a simple proposed amendment to the county's nuisance ordinance on Tuesday grew into a much larger discussion among county commissioners about the responsibility of financial institutions in maintaining their foreclosed properties. Although the proposed county amendment would only address those overgrown properties where someone is actually living in a home, it at least will enforce standards upon at-home property owners who can do something about overgrown vegetation as a code enforcement matter, county officials say.

Commissioner Dennis Damto said he has been amazed at the way lenders have let their properties go. He said he has seen instances where the power has been turned off for so long that he could smell the mold inside, swimming pools have grown thick, green scum and a wooden floor attached to concrete has buckled.

If these things are allowed to continue, he said, there will be consequences.

“No one is going to want to buy these houses for any amount of money. You could buy a new house in a better neighborhood probably (for) what you're going to put into that house,” Damato said. “And the financing isn't there a lot of times for these people to buy these foreclosed homes, so the people who really need to be in those homes – starter homes, or whatever – they can't even get in them.”

Regardless of whether the property is owned by someone living at the residence or not, County Commissioner John Thrumston said it is a matter of public health and safety, and something needs to be done. “It is our responsibility as government to be able to put something on their door to be able to say, 'clean this up,'” Thurmston said.

Commissioner Gary Bartell said approaching the issue from a code enforcement perspective isn't practical. “Everyone of us knows that, if you've got someone who wants to come into compliance, you can work with them. If they don't want to come into compliance, code enforcement is not the tool in the toolbox that we all think it is.”

The county hasn't yet set a course for dealing with the larger issue of overgrown and deteriorating foreclosed properties, and commissioners are hoping the Florida Association of Counties can provide guidance as to how other counties have dealt with those properties owned by financial institutions. If it takes no action in dealing with the situation at all, the county will only see the situation grow.

“My expectation is that within a year, we're going to see a major increase in unsafe structure complaints as these structures get breached by vandalism and other things,” Director of Development Services Gary Maidhof said, “and the homes degrade to the point to where they are no longer marketable, and then we're going to have to deal with it from an unsafe structure standpoint.”

Damato said that the county needs a program that would properly notify anyone who has any interest in a property that the county is holding them responsible for that property. He also commented about that responsibility to fellow commissioners. “Banks, and the people who hold the mortgage (on a property), have been derelict in their duties in keeping these properties properly maintained,” Damato said.

Even so, Damato said, derelict foreclosed properties will continue to be a problem in Citrus County for the next five years.

“On top of the deteriorating housing stock that we have, you're going to take some pretty good housing stock – and a lot of it is in nice neighborhoods – and that housing stock is going to deteriorate, and with it, it's going to take the value of a lot of neighborhoods.”

For now, the county is attempting to control with what it can. The public hearing for the proposed change in the county's nuisance ordinance for enforcement of overgrown properties of people actually in homes will be addressed at a public hearing at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 during that county commission meeting.

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