vacant notices on neighborood homes

December 5, 2006 11:36 AM

I purchased my first house about 1 month ago. It's not in a desirable neighborhood but OK - today I saw just a few houses down from mine that the city sheriff put big orange notices on the doors of 9 homes saying vacant or uninhabitable...should i be concerned about this?

OK, so I bought the house for 51K in Columbus, O., house is in great shape, nice fenced lawn, well kept etc. The houses on the street are mostly well kept, although on my end some are run down looking and trashy. Well, of those with the orange stickers, a few were clearly not lived in for awhile (but kept up by someone), at few real nasty, and a couple look fine and in fact one house even has a for sale sign in front of it. Now they all, (nine by my count) have this big orange sticker from the police department on the door saying each is vacant and/or uninhabitable and no one should live there w/o permission from the sheriff's office. They must have gone up today. I suppose this shouldn't be too much of a concern, cause all the houses have likely been that way since i moved to the nieghborhood, and the signs probably just mean the authorities took notice....although one house did have people living in it until recently...it was a very run down place. I'm wondering what I as a neighbor ought to think about all this hoopla....I knew I was moving into a neighborhood where my house probably wouldn't appreciate much, and that it was a little run down....
There is hardly any crime that I can see, the police records have very little on my street or streets nearby, it's quiet at night, people keep to themselves and I'm sure there is drug traficking/use but it's pretty covert. The neighborhood is quite far from anywhere to go on foot, and so wanderers and crowds are non-existent. It's mostly older people, and younger renters - all probably lower middle class (in general).

So, I'm wondering about these stickers, and why they'er up. The houses are all owned by different people/companies. Maybe I should just keep an eye out, to make sure no one is squatting?

posted by Salvatorparadise to home & garden (12 comments total)

Why don't you call the sherrif's office? It's likely that there's a nice, prominent set of contact information on them.
posted by SpecialK at 11:40 AM on December 5, 2006

Your best answer is going to come from the authorities that posted the notices. Give them a call and let them know you're keeping an eye out and maybe they'll let you know if there are any specific concerns that prompted the orange tags.
posted by bilabial at 11:45 AM on December 5, 2006

Definitely call the sheriff's office. It could be something inconsequential (repossession? slum landlord?) or something environmental (meth lab cleanup). Regardless, unless a hellmouth just opened up underneath nine houses, its likely something that will resolve itself soon, perhaps even be for the better, like nine houses get bought up and remodeled, improving the neighbourhood!
posted by Joh at 11:53 AM on December 5, 2006

Nine houses boarded up in a single block spells "bad neighborhood"--that doesn't happen in a healthy neighborhood. It's a concern to the extent it creates a tipping point that makes your neighbors want to sell their houses, thus making the neighborhood worse, but it's definitely a drag on your real estate values, though the $51K price you paid for your house probably already reflects much of that drag.

Anyway, if you want to know why the notice went up, see what the signs say and call the contact number. It might be a health-department issue, it might be unpaid taxes, it might be the housing inspector finally got around to visiting your neighborhood, it might be something else.
posted by commander_cool at 12:15 PM on December 5, 2006

It might be worth your while to get together a block club to keep an eye on things, and to take care of the front yards of the abandoned houses. Keeping up appearances as much as possible will help remedy the situation faster.

Is your street typical of the area? Find out if the city owns any or all of these properties, and if they will end up for auction or sale. If the properties are a lost cause, petition for demolition.
posted by voidcontext at 12:56 PM on December 5, 2006

It could be that the owners haven't paid property taxes, and the county is finally getting around to selling the houses. Not necessarily bad news. Check out the Franklin County Sheriff's website for info on property tax sales.
posted by footnote at 1:10 PM on December 5, 2006

city doesn't own any....there seems to be many cyclings of foreclosures and invesment in my area...none of the houses are wrecks, most seem fine and fit in with the others, landlords seem to cut the lawns etc, they're not overgrown...it's weird

there is some major development scheduled for a nearby area, a multi million senior living center/nursing home, hopefully that'll help the area become more attractive again...

it started as a suburban development in the 1950s and early 60s, a few people in the neighborhood have lived there since then, it turned over in teh 70s and 80s to owner occupiers, but it started turning over again in the 90s, this time not so strong for owners, and renters are starting to move in....
posted by Salvatorparadise at 1:23 PM on December 5, 2006

I'm in a (somewhat) similar situation, with a number of vacant houses in a decent, though by no means amazing, neighborhood. I'd say that it doesn't mean much for you in the short run, though it would be bad news if you were in the process of trying to sell your house.
posted by craven_morhead at 2:35 PM on December 5, 2006

Mold.
posted by pieoverdone at 3:35 PM on December 5, 2006

Could be mold. There was a recent "Flip This House" episode where they bought 5 run-down houses on the same block for $26K each, put $15K of renovations into each one and then tried to re-sell them for $65K each. One of the houses had a mold issue that required a extensive gutting in order to get rid of it. If i recall this was in San Antonio.
posted by camworld at 5:21 PM on December 5, 2006

In BC they often condemn a building if it was the site of a grow op. You then have to get it reinspected before they'll issue a occupancy permit without which you can't get services hooked up or a mortage.
posted by Mitheral at 9:41 AM on December 6, 2006

Congratulations on the purchase of your home! I'm in Michigan, not Ohio, so I'm not sure how well the practices translate. Around here the stickers of the type and content you're describing mean the houses have been "red-tagged" (in local slang) and it's a code compliance thing. Houses can be red-tagged for just about anything that puts it in significant code violation over a significant period of time - it's not usually just a property tax issue.

The good news is that local code compliance has taken notice of the condition of the houses and is taking at least some rudimentary measures about it. The not-so-good news is that houses can stay vacant in this state for YEARS without actually being improved or turned over. A good step would be to get in touch with the Columbus code compliance office, introduce yourself to the CC officer assigned to your neighborhood, and find out where these houses are in the process, what the city's timeline is, and whether the owners of the properties have indicated any responsiveness. Code compliance is definitely one of those areas of life where squeaky wheels get the grease - CC officers (and police and other city resources in general) respond best when they know that people are paying attention, looking for results, and best yet are organized. So, another step you should take is to get to know your neighbors - especially the ones who seem to keep up their properties - and find out whether there's any sort of neighborhood organization or block watch. If not, try to start one, even if you're starting small and just focused on the single issue of keeping an eye on those houses for now. Many cities will have some resources to support the development of neighborhood organizations. Also, in some cities registered neighborhood organizations can ask for the code compliance officer and/or a local police representative to attend their meetings, hear resident concerns, and report on issues going on. Commander_cool is right in that you will like your life in your new neighborhood more (and ultimately financially benefit) if you are able to invest a bit of time in halting the decline and even turning it around.
posted by shelbaroo at 8:03 PM on December 8, 2006