Abandoned Repo Houses Keep Contractors Busy

Posted on June 11, 2008
Filed Under Repo Homes | 1 Comment

The increasing numbers of abandoned repo houses are keeping contractors on their toes and busy. David Law and Trey McCallister have been working on six houses on 24^th street in Jacksonville. The last one was in the worst state of disrepair. The front door looked as if battering rams had butted in. The bolt was bent and exposed. The front garden was littered with rotting trash. Pipes had vanished. The two men ploughed through one house after another trying to compare notes about which one had been worst vandalized.

Mortgage companies have been hiring contractors like David and Trey to check and then do the repairs of the foreclosed units. The ex-proud owners had exited and now nobody wants to own these. Repairing and caring has now turned into brisk business in northern Florida. The contractors are the first ones to see the damage done to houses that were once warm homes. They come across peeling paint, yanked-off fittings, grimy interiors, overgrown lawns with snakes, slimy pools breeding mosquitoes and even pets left behind to die a slow death. In Florida the situation is grim and acute.

The backlog of foreclosure cases is piling up in courts. The latter do not have the set-up to tackle such growing numbers. It may take years for a case to come up for hearing. Meanwhile the house lies vacant making it more vulnerable to damages. The weather makes the first strike with mildew and mould. Drains get choked. Vagabonds and vandals strike. The plumbing bursts and the wiring snaps.

On East 24^th street Gloria Roberts watches with trepidation her next-door foreclosed house going from bad to worse. David and Trey visits another unit in a rich locality – Sawgrass golf community on Ponte Vedra Beach. Since December 2006 it has been vacant, according to neighbours.

Local and state governments as well community organizations have become seriously concerned about the increasing numbers of foreclosed houses. It is pulling down the prices of neighbouring houses and inviting criminal activity as well as health hazards. New regulations are being brought into effect to make the foreclosing lenders more accountable for the units taken over. The problem becomes more serious when experts predict that within the next two years millions more will join the present bunch of foreclosed houses. Two million sub-prime mortgages with floating interest are gearing up for a high jump.

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