City Councilor Jay Walsh stands in his West Lynn neighborhood where foreclosed homes have become not only an eyesore but a place for squatters and drug dealers. Item photo by Owen O’Rourke.
By Thomas Grillo
LYNN — Jay Walsh took action after an abandoned home on Fuller Street turned into a drug den and a haven for squatters.
“Once the family who owned a house moves out and squatters move in, that’s when problems begin,” said the Ward 7 city councilor. “When you have one foreclosed house on the street that goes wrong, it has a domino effect, and no one should have to live next to it.”
As a result of that home and others in West Lynn, Walsh tried to contact the lenders who own these foreclosed properties to get them cleaned up and secured. But information on the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds website did not always have information about the lender who owns the home.
“When you search these properties online, often there is no record of the latest lender who owns the mortgage and the home,” he said. “Without accountability, these homes can become problematic and many of the abandoned homes end up being broken into by people who use and sell drugs.”
The problem has the potential of growing as Lynn has been hit with a wave of foreclosures. Lenders filed 161 petitions to foreclose, the first step in the process, from January through August, compared with 130 for the same period last year, a nearly 24 percent hike, according to The Warren Group, the Boston real estate tracker.
During the first eight months of this year, 59 homes were seized by lenders, up from 47 last year, a 25.5 percent increase. The number of homes taken back by banks were higher in just six cities including Boston, Brockton, Lowell, New Bedford, Springfield and Worcester.
To make lenders accountable for maintaining the properties they’ve seized, Walsh recruited Register of Deeds John O’Brien to assist the homeowners, elected officials and neighbors in finding out which bank holds the mortgage on abandoned homes.
“Once we know the owner and lender, then we can hold them accountable and say ‘Please fix this,’” Walsh said.
This week, O’Brien launched the Abandoned Property Watch online service on the registry’s website designed to assist in searching records to locate the name and address of the mortgage holder in question.
“It’s these big mortgage companies who don’t even know where Lynn is and they have no regard for the properties they have foreclosed upon or plan to,” O’Brien said. “Residents should not have to worry about abandoned buildings and the blight they cause which decreases the value of their homes.”
With the free information provided by the Registry of Deeds, city officials and residents can contact the lender or make a complaint to the city’s Inspectional Services Department (ISD).
Michael Donovan, ISD’s chief, said his office has been chasing the owners of foreclosed properties since 2009.
When they receive a complaint, inspectors check it out, make the place safe, clean and secure and bill the bank.
In addition, under the city’s foreclosure ordinance, lenders are required to register the address of the foreclosured property with ISD and pay a $300 registration fee that goes towards cleaning up these properties. More than 200 homes have been registered, he added.
To find out who owns a foreclosed home in your neighborhood, go to salemdeeds.com, click on Abandoned Property Watch and follow the instructions or call 978-542-1704. Registry of Deeds staff will email the info or provide it over the phone.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].