From the Daily News
Some of the nation’s biggest banks have let THOUSANDS of abandoned New York City homes seized in foreclosure fall into dangerous disrepair, the Daily News has found.
Since the housing market collapsed in 2008, banks have repossessed thousands of homes in neighborhoods across the five boroughs.
Records show the city has cited hundreds of these properties for dangerous conditions such as unstable walls, vermin infestation and illegal apartments.
In case after case, big banks – including Deutsche Bank, U.S. Bank and Fannie Mae, the quasi-governmental agency that buys mortgages – have ignored city inspectors, shrugged off hearings and declined to pay fines, records show.
Take 123 Third St. near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. Vacant for a long time, the house leans to one side and has a big crack in a front exterior wall. Its chimney fell onto an adjoining building.
Last fall and again this spring, city inspectors cited U.S. Bank for failure to maintain the property. The fines, which total $40,000, have not been paid.
John Vilchis, who works next-door at a hair salon, points to the crack: “You can see right through the building. You would think they would come and take care of it.”Read it here: The Daily News
