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.”
U.S. Bank said a company the bank hired to maintain the property is responsible for remedying violations.
Banks have reclaimed nearly 2,000 homes in the city that have more than 3,700 open code violations, a survey by state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) shows.
The survey, set for release tomorrow, found Deutsche Bank owns the most foreclosed homes (285) followed by US Bank (161) and Wells Fargo (105).
German-owned Deutsche Bank also has the most open violations, 211, followed by U.S. Bank with 163 and Fannie Mae, with 141, the survey found.
Queens, where the foreclosure tidal wave has rolled through entire neighborhoods, has the most bank-owned houses: 1,157 with 969 open violations, the survey found.
A Klein-sponsored law aimed at making banks maintain foreclosed properties before a foreclosure auction takes place went into effect in April 2010.
The law said lenders had to take care of seized properties once a judge signs a judgment of foreclosure. It also gave cities the power to go to court to make sure that occurred.
Though thousands of such homes exist, the city has rarely used Klein’s law, and he is disappointed the city hasn’t done more to hold banks accountable.
“This is something that is a huge problem,” Klein said. “I wanted to protect the community because when there is a foreclosure on a block, it causes a lot of trouble.”