Montgomery County is trying to make sure its increasing number of foreclosed houses don’t become eyesores.
The county has set up a Web site where residents can anonymously report vacated properties that may have overgrown lawns or be inviting to squatters.
Many of the complaints are related to overgrown weeds and grass, with the county receiving more calls lately because of the spring weather, according to Richard Nelson, director of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
“If you’ve got two feet of grass [on a vacant property], it makes the neighborhood look like hell,” Nelson said. Grass must be taller than 10 inches before it violates county code.
The county inspected 541 vacant properties over seven months in 2008, according to county data. In this period, it issued 265 violations for overgrown grass and weeds and 137 solid waste violations.
Those responsible for the vacant properties were given time to fix problems before the county took action and placed liens on the properties to recoup the costs, Nelson said.
During that period, the county instigated 87 “clean and liens” and boarded up four properties to prevent “casual entry,” according to county data.
Nelson said the county had a list of 900 vacant properties the county periodically checked out. He said many of those properties weren’t foreclosed homes, but vacant houses that had been on sale for a long time in a slow real estate market.
The number of foreclosure-related filings in the county is on track to increase by 42 percent this year, according to 2009 first-quarter data from the county. One of the hardest-hit parts of the county is in the area around the traditionally working-class neighborhoods of Germantown and Gaithersburg.
Like the county, the city government in Gaithersburg has been encouraging residents to report vacant properties and has been sending its own code enforcers to make sure empty houses aren’t a blight.
“Most people don’t want that situation as a neighbor,” Mayor Sidney Katz said.
Empty nests
Total foreclosure filings in Montgomery County:
2007: 2,956
2008: 5,476
Jan.-March 2009: 1,945
Source: RealtyTrac
