The Hidden Costs of Vacant Foreclosure Homes
At two years old Isaac Dieudonne was full of life. Last October, as his family was moving into their newly renovated home in Miramar, Fla., Isaac wandered off and fell into a neighbor's dirty, algae-filled swimming pool.
"They started doing CPR to see if they could save him but he didn't make it," said Margarette Dieudonne, Isaac's mother.
The empty home looked fine from the front, but the gate was unlocked. In the back, the family lawyer said it was full of code violations and safety hazards. It is one of nearly a million bank-owned homes across the country sitting empty - and often falling apart, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.
Abandoned or neglected properties are becoming such a problem, creating safety hazards and dragging down property values. Cities are starting to get tough, imposing steep fines on banks and investors.
In Columbus, Ohio, property owners face a $1,000 fine and six months in jail for not maintaining a home. In some Georgia and California cities fines on banks can reach $100,000 a year per home. In Los Angeles, neighbors are joining the fight by reporting rundown homes to a website. They've pinpointed 40,000 so far.
"We've seen rats and raccoons and other critters move in," said Los Angeles homeowner Peter Delvalle.
Some cities are tapping into a $6 billion federal program to buy back neglected homes and either fix them up or bulldoze them. But a case in Ohio shows that it's not always easy.
"The court wouldn't let the bank complete the foreclosure until the bank notified the borrower that they were finishing the foreclosure, and the bank couldn't notify the borrower because he had vacated the property," Said Rick Sharga, the senior vice president of RealtyTrac, a company which lists foreclosure properties.
The pool where Isaac died is covered one year later, but still full of water and the gate unlocked. The property has changed hands so many times the family's lawyer named 20 banks and businesses in a lawsuit, hoping someone will be forced to take responsibility.