Vandalisation Of Foreclosed Houses

February 20th, 2008

At Clearwater Beach condominium Mike Burgur returned home to find outsiders yanking off fans, door knobs, toilets and lugging off with the refrigerator. The plates of electrical outlets had been unscrewed together with faucets. The kitchen floor was strewn with egg shells and broken jelly jars. Burger was shocked to see his own septuagenarian landlady behind this vandalism. She had no qualms about it but was vociferous in her avenging spree. She wanted to do as much damage as possible before the bank took over the foreclosed unit. She did not spare the shower rod and coffee pot of her renter Burgur. The bank seized her condo when she fell behind a year in making mortgage payments.

According to a survey about 20% of bank foreclosed properties are looted by the ex-owners. In reality it amounts to hundreds of properties being stripped and looted in the Tampa Bay area because of the rising number of foreclosures. The law is not definite about personal property that is portable and that which is real. This raises questions about the ownership of stained glass windows installed in the toilet, the bookshelves, curtain rods and an antique family chandelier. It is like posing a query about whether the bank that takes back a car for unpaid dues can also take the speakers. Truly speaking the house never belonged to the borrower – the latter only had a mortgage on it.

But some acts are definitely vandalism – of that there is no doubt. One borrower faced with foreclosure and eviction hired an excavator and pulled down the boundary fence, about half a dozen palm trees and dotted the yard with filthy litter. The garage door, double French windows at the back were also removed leaving the house to the mercy of the weather. Instead of being angry with themselves for having taken on unmanageable loans these people are angry with the property. Even after vacating the premises some try to sneak back with the sole purpose of causing further damage. Some paste human excreta on the walls and leave behind starving pets to face the music. A pair of Dobermans who had not eaten for quite sometime thought that the bank agent entering the house was food. It is the neighbours who suffer the most; so do the hapless tenants.

Banks do not take matters lying low. They hound the former owner for damages. The insurance agency joins in the chase.