Scary criminal neighbors and foreclosure: advice?

[carolinayellowdog]

Facing a bizarre situation, I’m hoping that some of you loungers might have advice to offer. It’s about a house I have just put up for sale due to years of scary behavior from criminal neighbors, which has now escalated to the point I’m unwilling to spend a night there ever again. Fortunately, I have another house, bought as a weekend place but from now on my sole home—alas, an hour and a half from work whereas the one for sale is less than a twenty minute drive. The house for sale is a cute Victorian farmhouse on an acre of land on a beautiful rolling stretch of road. But the families next door and across the road probably make it unsellable even at a rockbottom price. The teenager formerly across the road is now in prison for murder, convicted with his younger brother of a drive-by shooting inspired by anger at the theft of a pit bull puppy. But before he went away he ran a crackhouse in his granny’s nice brick ranch, and a couple of years ago directed some of his customers/friends to burglarize my house. Everything electronic I owned was stolen down to a clock radio. And the local sheriff’s department was less than worthless, not even questioning any of the neighbors as best I can tell—which they had also failed to do when I had a TV and VCR stolen a couple of years earlier. After that event I started spending as little time as possible at the farmhouse, staying at the cabin five nights a week. But one weeknight I was at the farmhouse I had a late night visit from the twentysomething criminal next door, telling me that my belongings had been recovered and who had stolen them and where they were found and advising me to contact the sheriff’s department. Which I did, only to be told they knew nothing about it. This guy next door had been intermittently scary since I moved in, and I suspect him of several break-ins last spring in which nothing much was taken—a jar of change was the biggest item missing. Did not report these because of deep distrust of the sheriff’s department which has a terrible reputation for doing nothing about burglaries and caring only about drug busts, and the feeling that this guy was somehow in on the earlier burglaries and there was something corrupt/strange about his relationship to the sheriff’s department. About three weeks ago, he came banging on my door late at night asking to borrow twenty dollars to settle a drug debt because his dealer was demanding it. (He told me at some point he was a crackhead.) When I said I didn’t have twenty dollars he asked me to write him a check. I refused, and he walked away muttering under his breath about showing how he could “mess someone up.” The following week I put the place up for sale but have still been staying there a couple nights a week, working on things like painting. But night before last, he drove up as I was mowing, and when I cut off the mower he asked if I would be home later. When I reluctantly said yes, he said he had two friends staying with him that he was going to bring over later to see the house. I told him that I wouldn’t show anyone the house, was paying someone to do that, and his friends would have to go through the real estate agent if they wanted to see it. Again, he went away muttering, this time “Your loss. Whatever.” And the rest unintelligible.

He has a younger brother now in jail who is equally scary and will be back home to terrorize the neighborhood eventually. Now, the balance on my mortgage is under 15K and I would gladly sell at a break-even cost. (Listed at $24,500.) Will not spend the night again or go there on weekends, but continue my painting etc. by taking weekdays as vacation so as to minimize the opportunity for further contact with the crackhead (who does have a job.) So I’m wondering how long I am willing to keep making payments on a house I’m scared to spend the night in, and at what point if it doesn’t sell I will seek foreclosure. Everything I can find on the net about foreclosure talks only about how to avoid it and how it will ruin your credit for years. But damn, if someone is being terrorized by criminal neighbors to the point of fearing to spend a night at a house, how long should he keep making payments on it? If I stopped making payments, and it foreclosed, and then sold at auction for 5K, would that leave me liable for the balance of 10? What a mess.

Of course if I can find someone to buy the place, there is no problem except my fear of bad karma. Will keep the cabin and rent a small apartment closer to work. But if not, commuting three hours a day and paying for a house next to impossibly scary rednecks isn’t a situation I’m willing to sustain forever. And somehow the thought of renting it is even worse as odds are I’d end up with more scary rednecks tearing the place up and refusing to pay the rent. Lest anyone say this proves how horrible the South is, the neighbors at the cabin are wonderful and it’s considerably further south than the houseJ

What would you do? What should I do? Some people suggest that I report his weird behavior, but somehow I feel that would only increase the risk of suffering violence.

CYD

[short bus president]

1. Jeebus, CYD!

My first question would be whether you have any non-criminal neighbors in the neighborhood? A homeowners' or neighborhood association? Surely such an organization won't be able to get rid of the criminals just by asking politely, but association rules could be drafted or modified to give you a chance to apply pressure in civil court - that might get some attention.

My likely worthless $.02. Sorry for your situation.

[patdem]

10. Old neighborhoods do not usually have associations

My sig other and I bought in a 'neighborhood' and even before we closed on the house we purchased bars for every window in the house on the first floor. Our neighbor across the street told us after we moved in he had been robbed, and our kitchen window which had the 'pop open' bar was open one night, but we removed the pop open option and put it away from where anyone could reach it from the outside. My sig other is FEARLESS. He has chased down teenagers throwing stones at our car and scared the bejezus out of them as he dragged them back to where he could safely hold them till the police came....he muttered, after he chased them on foot when they had a good 100 yard advantage, "you don't know who you are fu*king with...I could just as easily kill you right now and no one would know who did it"...that kid was so afraid of my sig other he was relieved when the police got there....LOL...and those kids have NEVER come back!!!!

Sometimes you just gotta be crazier than the crazies????

[Cthulu_2004]

13. there's something to be said for that...

If they're scared of you, they'll leave you alone.

[short bus president]

15. I guess I hadn't considered

that about old neighborhoods. Mine is old and very rural. The main road in is private, so we have a HA pretty much only for road maintenance (and the potholes NEVER get fixed! :mad: ). We're actually going to meet soon, though, because a neighbor down the street had some stuff stolen from his yard and the police think someone in the neighborhood was in on it (likely unruly teenagers).

On the plus side, it's probably a good thing that this situation draws me out to actually meet my neighbors. I usually just send my check to the HA and wave to folks when I pass 'em on the street.

[roughsatori]

2. I had to help my parents get out of a bad place

I had the money to buy them a condo. But they would not leave unless they could sell their place and property, and give me the money. I wanted to abandon their trailer, but they refused to sign the deed for the condo I paid cash for unless they could contribute.I eventually sold their place for 13.000 and even had to finance the buyers myself. Since no one with a real job and good credit would ever have bought it. I sold it "as is" and figured if the buyers never made another payment ( I sold it for no money down and no interest in the loan) at least I got them out.

I had that same ethics fear as you. However, it turns out that they paid me the last payment last month. Also, they turned out to be as crazy as the neighbors and fit right in.

I had tried calling Realtors and telling them the truth and how low I would go for an immediate sale. Through word of mouth the buyers contacted me. I did all the paperwork and filings myself (I did have a lawyer friend who instructed me).

My parent's owned a Mobile home and property in an area that looks worse than the photos I have seen of run-down shacks in Appalachia.

Good luck, but I no nothing about foreclosures.

Just wanted to add that the police department was useless. Homes were abandoned drug dealing was going on. They told us to file written complaints. The last neighbor who had done such a thing wound up in the hospital after being beaten in his own home.

[thom1102]

3. The sheriff is elected isn't he?

Surely there are others in your neighborhood who are just as concerned as you. Couldn't you organize some opposition to him? If he isn't elected, then surely he has a supervisor. What about the Mayor/Town Supervisor/First Selectmen who is responsible for your municipality? This is the reason you pay taxes: to receive adequate protection of home, property, and person, and if that isn't being provided, then you have the right to demand better treatment.

[Cthulu_2004]

4. There's a crack house close to me....

I used to have problems with them, trespassing, parking on my yard, throwing beer bottles at my house, turning over my trash cans, and stuff like that. I have found that since I started carrying a big, ugly, uncased shotgun with me whenever I leave the house (I lock it in the trunk, and leave it there when I'm out) they've taken pains to leave me the hell alone. That's all I ask for.

Regarding foreclosure: It'll mess up your credit bigtime. If it sells for less than you owe, you still owe the balance. If you really want the problem to go away, figure out exactly how much you need to pay off the note, any taxes, and pay the realtor, and ask that much for it just to move it quick.

[TXlib]

5. Buy a shotgun

Tell 'em you'll be out of town.

Lay in wait inside the house.

Blow 'em to hell when they break and enter.

Leave their heads on stakes outside to serve as warning to other ne'er-do-wells.

If only it were that simple...

[Cthulu_2004]

7. TX...

what I do is legal. What you're suggesting isn't.

[TXlib]

9. It was meant in the spirit of "A Modest Proposal"

I thought the bit about leaving their heads on stakes was over-the-top enough to suggest I wasn't, in fact, serious...

[ugarte]

6. Many slumlords in the big city have this problem

First, you insure it, then hire a good torch. He-he, jez kidding.

[JVS]

11. Torch the neighboring house

[SoCalDem]

8. Have you tried going to the press.. like a "crime" angle..

Maybe there is a reporter who might like to do an article about crime and how the ELECTED officials are not protecting their constituents?? :evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Ooh, deliciously devious!

I LOVE that plan!

[carolinayellowdog]

16. There's a catch or two to going public

One is that, though not elected, I'm a public figure too and public criticism of the sheriff's dept. is a bad idea for work reasons. The other is, if they're really corrupt, what's to prevent them from retaliating against anyone who criticizes them? Maybe my imagination is overactive but the thought does occur.

[MiltonLeBerle]

12. my suggestion-

would be a combination of reponse numbers 5 & 6.

[davsand]

17. Have you considered a big fence and a bunch of Dogs?

I know it sounds terrible, but get a couple Rotties or Dobermans and let them have run of the place. One of my buddies lives in a house that was burglarized four times in that many months. He bought it and moved in along with the five Rotties he fosters forfor the local rescue.

He's had no problems... EVER.

Laura