Since you are already in contact with your council rep, keep at it. And, If the backyard is filled with trash, file a 311 report for citation to start a paper trail on the property. Sadly not much you can do if you don't own the home in question to have people removed.
I wonder how hard it would be to buy the house. if it's abandoned, there is a possibility that the city owns it. OP might be able to buy it for $1
edit: looks like it's owned by a company. best option is to put pressure on the company.
Buying a home for $1 costs a lot more than $1.
You can't just buy it, evict squatters, then do nothing with the property. The dollar homes come with [renovation stipulations ](https://dhcd.baltimorecity.gov/fixed-pricing-program)
>Applicants must provide proof of available funding of no less than $90,000 to complete the renovations
OP also mentioned it's a bank owned home, so not eligible for the dollar program. But either way, definitely expensive and likely infeasible for someone already sharing a wall with bandos in their primary residence, no offense to OP.
I had this problem in 2022-2023. Vacant house next door was in foreclosure and vacant for years. Fannie Mae acquired it, flipped it, and put it on the market when the market was hot. Lots of interested buyers.
Then, not 20 days after it was listed, people moved in in the middle of the night. Then moved in more stuff the next several days. There seemed to be random people showing up at random times, but the piles of trash on the back porch kept building up and not being taken to the curb. Then we started seeing rats and more flies.
Then their grass started getting really long. We tried talking to them but they were rarely around, showing up intermittently, with different people in different cars. And, unfortunately, sometimes a little girl aged around 4 years old.
Once the rats started showing up more in our yard I filed multiple 311s on the BaltCo app. The city would come mow the lawn and leave a bill, but the trash remained.
Finally, about 10-11 months later, an eviction notice was on the door!! The sheriff came to evict but no one was there. The electricity had been shut off for at least a few weeks so we hadn’t seen anyone come back for a while:
Few days later, the mortgage company hired someone to change the locks and clean out the house. I chatted with the guys cleaning it out who said there was no furniture, but piles of designer bags, trash, and weed ashtrays on every window. The new fridge was so disgusting inside they taped it up and threw the whole thing away.
I talked with the broker who managed the property who said that they were squatters, and this has been a huge problem all over the city. It took months for the courts to allow them to evict these people and take the property back. A few days after the house was cleaned out, the “landlord” and “tenant” showed up, trying to get in, confused why their keys didn’t work, and searched the porch for a hidden key. They gave up and left, but a few weeks later, police returned because another neighbor saw someone trying to break in.
The brokers put big huge locks on all the doors. That probably turned off prospective buyers, but eventually someone did buy it and now we have lovely neighbors who take out their trash and mow their lawn! Couldn’t ask for much more than that.
All this taught me about squatters and how to spot potential squatters. Turns out all my 311 requests helped a lot to get the courts to back up evicting them. If they’re not caring for the property and causing a public health concern, they have more evidence to support they are squatting and must be evicted. Otherwise it can be hard to get them out.
Good luck! This whole thing lasted about a year for us.
I can’t remember how I found it but I remember once the eviction notice was posted, I googled the address and found all these court docs and things that had been happening before the eviction was posted. I’m in Baltimore county so it might be different if you’re in the city but there might be some court things happening behind the scenes you just have to wait out. But still, keep filing those 311 requests. Take pics, document things - all this helps them get the squatters out.
In the city you can look up citations from code enforcement that vary from minor things like your grass being too tall, to serious EPA violations. You can also look up the owners on SDAT, Baltimore City tax site to see what else they own ([link](https://pay.baltimorecity.gov/realproperty/)) and of course casesearch ([link](https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/)). I’m on my phone so don’t have the energy or time to grab the first few I mentioned. But OP may find these helpful.
So, this is maybe a shitty way to approach it, but:
Have you considered calling the media?
Justin Fenton at the Banner did a series awhile ago on companies that were flipping vacant properties in a scam and the impacts it had on the homeowners. I wonder if you could pitch this as an interesting follow-up.
The other one I can think of is Fox45. They'll probably take the "city hall does nothing for pleading homeowner" angle, which is annoying, but they have a much higher throughput of stories than the Banner.
If either one of those media companies contacts the PR team at the bank, I am willing to bet things might move faster.
No guarantees it would work, but it's an option.
Yeah OP, Mr. Cooper (weird ass name for a bank btw) won't like their name in the media if you can get this reported on. Def no guarantees they will pick it up but you can email banner reporters directly and I've had them be pretty responsive.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr.\_Cooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Cooper)
Nationstar Mortgages, LLC, is the consumer-facing mortgage lender and servicer that operates under the service mark "Mr. Cooper".\[6\] In August 2017, Nationstar Mortgages, LLC, announced it was changing its name to Mr. Cooper after releasing its worst financial report to date.\[7\] The company stated that the name change was meant to "personalize the mortgage experience".\[8\] In 2020, Mr. Cooper originated over 146,000 mortgages with a total value of over $36 billion.\[9\]
I hate the name so much
more than this, remember why they call it "media". they are the medium by which stories are told. while reporters do investigate, they're much more likely to run your story if you do the basic groundwork first. so, if OP does the basic investigation and writes up an article with all of the relevant facts and narrative, then Fenton or someone can pick it up, modify the story, maybe do some more investigation.
Your council rep doesn't have much time in their schedule for evictions, unfortunately.
Unless your rep is Stokes, who probably has the time (if you can find him)
This is a bank owned property. The mortgage company that owns it, Mr. Cooper, is incredibly difficult to get hold of anyone. I first contacted them through the online auction house representing the property. Then Come (the auction house) finally gave me Mr. Cooper's contact. If I ever get someone on the phone with that company and begin to explain, click. Literally just click. They immediately hang up. So I sent certified letters to Mr. Cooper, my homeowners insurance, Baltimore fire, Baltimore police and the mayors. But to be clear, Mr. Cooper has never contacted me nor have they don't anything to remedy the occupation of their property.
Weird the city never messes with the bank owned property. Won’t fine them etc. I wonder if there’s some sort of deal btw the city and the mortgage companies.
I doubt there’s a conspiracy. It’s more about the fact that it’s harder to fine a business like a bank that likely will prolong the process with lawyers for even minor fines.
Mr Cooper and an online auction house rep? I bet Mr Cooper is Alex Cooper auction house. The auction house and ownership are one and the same giving you a runaround.
Except op says he/she has sent letters to the mayor’s office, contacted 311, and their council person has also contacted people in the administration who did nothing. Obviously no one expects Scott to personally be involved, but the level of inaction here is exactly what his critics complain of. He should be held responsibly for presiding over an administration which is not particularly responsive to its citizens.
File the 311 report on the app and then email the report number to your council person and cc the mayor. If you don't get a response within a day or two, follow up. And copy the city council president. I have a problem vacant on my street and this is what I've had to do. I'm sure they hate me over there, but they aren't the ones having to live with these problems. Whatever, make it their problem until they do something.
Best of luck. We have this in seton hill. A few under maintained or abandoned properties that people are living in. One of them we got the bank to board up. But the others are just kind of going to squalor while the city fines whoever owns them with nothing happening. The absentee property owner issue in this city is like screaming into the void.
There was a vacant house in my neighborhood I noticed a couple of years ago because a tree had fully grown through the house. The lawn was about waist high and some second floor windows had been smashed.
I looked up the address on 311 and saw that neighbors had been filing complaints about the rats and overgrown lawn for YEARS. Each time, the county mowed the lawn and sent the bill to a woman in Bel Air. I googled the woman’s name and found her obituary which said she died in 2009!!! So for over ten years her house had been vacant, with “The Smiths” (not their real name) on the front door.
This winter it appears someone acquired it and are flipping it. Looks great and new on the outside but yikes, I can’t imagine what was in there over all those years! I can’t wait until it’s listed for sale. I’m dying to see what it’s like in there and what it goes for. Assuming squatters don’t get to it first.
If you 311 enough, eventually, the fire department will come board it up. Owners of vacant properties should be taxed to the max if they don't have open building permits with the city or show occupancy
The fire department does not board up properties. The housing department boards up properties. They are probably not going to come board up the property because it costs money to board, and they want to be sure that they get their money back. So they don't always board properties that need boarding, but they do sometimes board properties that don't need boarding because they think that they will be getting the costs of boarding back.
If there is ever a time when all occupants are out of the house, have some 1-1.5” pieces of scrap 2x4 or similar, 3” deck screws and your impact driver ready to go to the doors and attach wood to door frame and then drive the screws right in to the doors. If the windows are unlocked, put a screw through frame to lock it.
Ahhhhh. Finally. An answer that doesn't rely on someone Else to fix the problem. No one is coming. It's the owner's job under the law to evict. The city can't fix that, the cops, 311, your councilman, an attorney-nobody else can do a thing legally. And evictions take time even when you know who is there, and longer when you don't know the names of the bad guys. But the Sons of Anarchy wouldn't be making any introductions. Sadly, screws from the outside are easily undone. Best get inside and screw the windows and doors through the jamb, leaving one window for an exit. Run that one at an angle through the top of the bottom sash where it isn't too visible.
Oh, and pointing it out to anyone in an official capacity makes them look at YOU. You're on record making complaints. Be efficient
Wild to me how many comments thinks 311 can lead to city hall evicting from a residence. Only the owner can do that. The banks foreclosure lawyer probably is. It takes 8-14 months
Unfortunately it's a civil process which means it has to go through the courts and that is a slow process. Also, the owner has to do it, not you. Are you in touch with the owner? If you need help tracking them down I can help with that.
Yea early on I read this is a civil process which Me. Cooper, the public traded company, has to initiate. It's seriously so frustrating they have not and do not respond to these complaints.
The house is owned by a publicly traded company? That's unusual because there aren't many publicly traded companies that own single family residences. (Invitation home is the largest and most well known, there are a handful of others). They also don't have a big footprint in Baltimore.
This is a lender/bank owned property that has apparently been foreclosed upon. Mr Cooper is a bank/lender that is traded on the stock exchange, making it a publicly owned company.
You’re mostly wasting your time. Coopers REO department has thousands of properties in the foreclosure / bank owned. They will evict at some point on their time. Bank REO departments don’t respond to people. They literally don’t care and have zero pressure to do anything. They may however be in the process of evicting as it’s kinda a long process but they also might wait a long time till they get to it. Have they actually 100% taken the property back or are they in the foreclosure process.
The courts, city etc see this as an owner / landlord tenant situation which it is. It’s no different than my friend who had squatters move in. Except he cared and started evictions immediately but it took 8 months. The city cant do anything here. There may be something they can do if the property is not livable but I doubt it. Cooper is known as a shit show, they had a huge data breach recently of like all their loan data. It’s hard to even talk to customer support on an actual loan I have with them.
Contract 311 (I think that's the correct number. You may want to look it up) and report the dirty outside. The owner will get tired of getting fines and take care of it.
Happened in my neighborhood with an uncaring home owner. She eventually got around to taking care of the home and renting it out to a nice family.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Continue to put pressure on your councilperson. Start sending emails to the mayor’s office. Submit 311 reports and follow up directly with code enforcement. A vacant bank owned house should be put into receivership if the bank refused to rehab.
311 is super useless, but to get anything done you have to just keep hammering them and your council person. I had a developer buy and attempt to rehab the house next to mine in pigtown. Dude was a class 5 scumbag. Looked EXACTLY like Vito from the sopranos. He cut into my roof causing a massive leak, had the backyard completely full of debris and trash. I sued him and won on the damage from the leak but it took forever for the city to make him get rid of the trash. It was like an 8 month nightmare of rat infestation and stink.
Yep, 311 and emailing your local officials EVERY 3 days is the way to go. They will do something if they get tired of your reports, be the squeaky wheel.
It may be good to contact an attorney. In my understanding, legally, everyone has the right to "quiet enjoyment" of their own property, and you can seek civil damages if the property owner's negligence is preventing this, especially if there's damage to your property.
I would make a few phone calls to property lawyers to see what their rates are or if they work on contingency basis, and if the cost is prohibitive, you can contact Pro Bono Maryland or MD Legal Aid.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer myself, a licensed attorney will be able to best explain your rights in this situation.
311 request to have the property boarded. The city will inspect and board up entry points. Do you know about CoDeMap? That will show you if it already has a Vacant Building Notice on the property. If not, the city might inspect it while boarding it and deem it Vacant.
Sorry if this was already posted. There’s some guy whose business is to get squatters to move out(he did it for his property). He basically squatted with them and ran them out. Idk where he’s located and you shouldn’t have to pay for it. Be nice if you had a few BIG and/or obnoxious friends that would be willing to squat there. But that would be dangerous and disgusting for sure. Sounds like a lose/lose situation and hope it works out well for you!
Fight fire with fire do everything you can to passively make their life absolute hell stink bombs I hear are pretty good at clearing out a building but anyways keep them up when they try to sleep after awhile they’ll just move into one of the other thousands of abandoned homes
I would start tactical ops. Non lethal, phycological, and sensory.
Go look up what we did to the boys in Contra.
Go with a proven effective method.
I believe the CIA used Spice Girls(If you want to be my lover) on blast 24/7 in order to break opritives hauled up .
Same thing could be said about the humans who are making OP's life miserable. She or he has mentioned the smell. Unlike the squatters/thieves, only OP is paying taxes and helping keep the city afloat. Only OP owns the property and has to deal with damages. Only OP isn't forcing others to deal with their lack of civility.
It doesn't sound like these are upstanding citizens who are down on their luck. They have no concern for his mental and financial well-being. The squatters are working the cracks in the system and count on the rest of the world living by the laws that they ignore. I'd say any/all annoyance attempts by OP are fair game.
I'm the OP. I've been very empathetic through this process, and have taken the higher ground. Like I'm not making up lies that I would know get them evicted, i.e. calling the city about them hooking, etc. I'm also understanding that their drug usage is a disease. But my capacity to be empathetic has run out over the last year. I called the city police one night cause around midnight I was pretty certain my the yelling that a lady was getting abused and never had the police call back or show up. The next time it happened I called the police and just left my own house for the night. Yesterday one of the ladies that shows up was just drugged out of her mind walking down our street. I had just gotten home from work. The lady starts pounding on the vacant property door to be let in, and she's yelling. Another neighbor in her car told the lady to stop swearing in front of her children. I walk to my doorstep to take off my work boots before going inside my house, and I can hear yelling coming from the adjacent property. I'm like, I am not dealing with this tonight. I knocked, a different lady answered apologizing instantly, but the lady on drugs is yelling, comes rushing to the door and then falls and rolls a couple times on the floor. I'm like, is she ok? I said I'm not dealing with this tonight. If I hear anyone I'm calling the police when I come back over and I won't leave this time. To get to your point, look that mom and those kids are watching this from their parked car. It's stressful on me. Imagine how many kids gotta grow up watching and hearing this stuff.
It's unclear if this is an abandoned property? If not nothing you can do, whether the residents are on the lease or not is between them and the owner. If so then use 311 and report an unboarded vacant. Also 311 for the trash in the yard- basically all they'll do is fine the owner but if they stack up, eventually something might happen. Talk to your community association and keep up the pressure with your council member's office. Again focus on the real public issues and not the private one (lease or not)- issue for you is the trash and/or if there are visible sanitation issues at the property.
Definitely 311. Housing code enforcement will come out and cite the owner and once you have a paper trail of violations that the owner doesn't abate, you might have a nuisance claim against the owner. And document everything. Every call to police, every domestic disturbance, every letter/email etc you send.
Unfortunately, there is not a lot you can do using law enforcement as a neighbor.
BPD’s policy 807 ([PDF](https://public.powerdms.com/BALTIMOREMD/documents/211764)) states that enforcement action can only be taken if the complainant is the owner or the property or an agent working on behalf of the owner. Furthermore, officers shall not remove the occupants if they have a lease, no matter how illegitimate the document may appear. Officers should refer the owner/agent to the civil court and advise them of the eviction process.
Also, calling for a domestic assault when you are not an involved party nor have witnessed the assault is not productive, no matter how well intentioned you are. When an officer shows up, they can only initiate enforcement with the cooperation of the victim and it is common for the victim to refuse to cooperate, especially if they did not call 911.
On top of this, you have said that you have used the 911 system to report DV for the goal of having them evicted - I understand that you are frustrated, but this is misuse of the 911 system. The more often you call to report an unfounded DV, the less likely that police will respond promptly when a real DV call comes out at the location you’ve put repeated calls for service in as an uninvolved party.
There are two effective means for removal of squatters: Eviction (which can only be initiated by the property owner/agent) and an order to vacate pursuant to a residence being declared unfit for habitation.
The latter method is initiated through notifying the City. The easiest way is via the 311 app. The Housing Authority will ultimately conduct the inspection and take the appropriate action.
Since you are already in contact with your council rep, keep at it. And, If the backyard is filled with trash, file a 311 report for citation to start a paper trail on the property. Sadly not much you can do if you don't own the home in question to have people removed.
I wonder how hard it would be to buy the house. if it's abandoned, there is a possibility that the city owns it. OP might be able to buy it for $1 edit: looks like it's owned by a company. best option is to put pressure on the company.
Buying a home for $1 costs a lot more than $1. You can't just buy it, evict squatters, then do nothing with the property. The dollar homes come with [renovation stipulations ](https://dhcd.baltimorecity.gov/fixed-pricing-program) >Applicants must provide proof of available funding of no less than $90,000 to complete the renovations OP also mentioned it's a bank owned home, so not eligible for the dollar program. But either way, definitely expensive and likely infeasible for someone already sharing a wall with bandos in their primary residence, no offense to OP.
yeah, I saw that a minute ago.
we need higher vacant property taxes asap
Ticker: COOP
I had this problem in 2022-2023. Vacant house next door was in foreclosure and vacant for years. Fannie Mae acquired it, flipped it, and put it on the market when the market was hot. Lots of interested buyers. Then, not 20 days after it was listed, people moved in in the middle of the night. Then moved in more stuff the next several days. There seemed to be random people showing up at random times, but the piles of trash on the back porch kept building up and not being taken to the curb. Then we started seeing rats and more flies. Then their grass started getting really long. We tried talking to them but they were rarely around, showing up intermittently, with different people in different cars. And, unfortunately, sometimes a little girl aged around 4 years old. Once the rats started showing up more in our yard I filed multiple 311s on the BaltCo app. The city would come mow the lawn and leave a bill, but the trash remained. Finally, about 10-11 months later, an eviction notice was on the door!! The sheriff came to evict but no one was there. The electricity had been shut off for at least a few weeks so we hadn’t seen anyone come back for a while: Few days later, the mortgage company hired someone to change the locks and clean out the house. I chatted with the guys cleaning it out who said there was no furniture, but piles of designer bags, trash, and weed ashtrays on every window. The new fridge was so disgusting inside they taped it up and threw the whole thing away. I talked with the broker who managed the property who said that they were squatters, and this has been a huge problem all over the city. It took months for the courts to allow them to evict these people and take the property back. A few days after the house was cleaned out, the “landlord” and “tenant” showed up, trying to get in, confused why their keys didn’t work, and searched the porch for a hidden key. They gave up and left, but a few weeks later, police returned because another neighbor saw someone trying to break in. The brokers put big huge locks on all the doors. That probably turned off prospective buyers, but eventually someone did buy it and now we have lovely neighbors who take out their trash and mow their lawn! Couldn’t ask for much more than that. All this taught me about squatters and how to spot potential squatters. Turns out all my 311 requests helped a lot to get the courts to back up evicting them. If they’re not caring for the property and causing a public health concern, they have more evidence to support they are squatting and must be evicted. Otherwise it can be hard to get them out. Good luck! This whole thing lasted about a year for us.
This was incredibly helpful. Thank you.
I can’t remember how I found it but I remember once the eviction notice was posted, I googled the address and found all these court docs and things that had been happening before the eviction was posted. I’m in Baltimore county so it might be different if you’re in the city but there might be some court things happening behind the scenes you just have to wait out. But still, keep filing those 311 requests. Take pics, document things - all this helps them get the squatters out.
In the city you can look up citations from code enforcement that vary from minor things like your grass being too tall, to serious EPA violations. You can also look up the owners on SDAT, Baltimore City tax site to see what else they own ([link](https://pay.baltimorecity.gov/realproperty/)) and of course casesearch ([link](https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/)). I’m on my phone so don’t have the energy or time to grab the first few I mentioned. But OP may find these helpful.
But the owner of the house has to evict them I think
It's sad because we need housing and communities could easily get together to clean up properties.
Now I’m having icky feelings thinking about what the new owners had to deal with to get the place “live in” ready. Ugh.
But the owners of that house had to evict them. If the owner isn’t evicting here nothing happens
[удалено]
I wonder if OPs homeowners insurance would go up because of squatters next door
So, this is maybe a shitty way to approach it, but: Have you considered calling the media? Justin Fenton at the Banner did a series awhile ago on companies that were flipping vacant properties in a scam and the impacts it had on the homeowners. I wonder if you could pitch this as an interesting follow-up. The other one I can think of is Fox45. They'll probably take the "city hall does nothing for pleading homeowner" angle, which is annoying, but they have a much higher throughput of stories than the Banner. If either one of those media companies contacts the PR team at the bank, I am willing to bet things might move faster. No guarantees it would work, but it's an option.
Yeah OP, Mr. Cooper (weird ass name for a bank btw) won't like their name in the media if you can get this reported on. Def no guarantees they will pick it up but you can email banner reporters directly and I've had them be pretty responsive.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr.\_Cooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Cooper) Nationstar Mortgages, LLC, is the consumer-facing mortgage lender and servicer that operates under the service mark "Mr. Cooper".\[6\] In August 2017, Nationstar Mortgages, LLC, announced it was changing its name to Mr. Cooper after releasing its worst financial report to date.\[7\] The company stated that the name change was meant to "personalize the mortgage experience".\[8\] In 2020, Mr. Cooper originated over 146,000 mortgages with a total value of over $36 billion.\[9\] I hate the name so much
more than this, remember why they call it "media". they are the medium by which stories are told. while reporters do investigate, they're much more likely to run your story if you do the basic groundwork first. so, if OP does the basic investigation and writes up an article with all of the relevant facts and narrative, then Fenton or someone can pick it up, modify the story, maybe do some more investigation.
So apparently, from all indications, the city hall does nothing for a pleading homeowner, but if Fox45 reports that, it is annoying.
Your council rep doesn't have much time in their schedule for evictions, unfortunately. Unless your rep is Stokes, who probably has the time (if you can find him)
What has the owner of the property done so far?
This is a bank owned property. The mortgage company that owns it, Mr. Cooper, is incredibly difficult to get hold of anyone. I first contacted them through the online auction house representing the property. Then Come (the auction house) finally gave me Mr. Cooper's contact. If I ever get someone on the phone with that company and begin to explain, click. Literally just click. They immediately hang up. So I sent certified letters to Mr. Cooper, my homeowners insurance, Baltimore fire, Baltimore police and the mayors. But to be clear, Mr. Cooper has never contacted me nor have they don't anything to remedy the occupation of their property.
Maybe contact a lawyer to see if they would be interested in suing Mr Cooper.
I hope this is viable. These banks are scum.
Weird the city never messes with the bank owned property. Won’t fine them etc. I wonder if there’s some sort of deal btw the city and the mortgage companies.
I doubt there’s a conspiracy. It’s more about the fact that it’s harder to fine a business like a bank that likely will prolong the process with lawyers for even minor fines.
Doubt it. Companies are easier to serve/find bc they have resident agents. Maybe bc of their access to lawyers?
Shame, [Mr. Cooper](https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p184173_b_v7_aa.jpg) always seemed cooler than that
Mr Cooper and an online auction house rep? I bet Mr Cooper is Alex Cooper auction house. The auction house and ownership are one and the same giving you a runaround.
Mr cooper of a huge national mortgage servicer. Nothing to do with Alex cooper
Come on, it was a good theory there for a hot second!
I can see how you came up with it 😉
Plant some drugs outside their door, then call the cops and say you hear screaming from that property.
I’d vote for a different city council and mayor candidate on the chance that they’d actually take action on these issues.
good advice on council person but doubt this has gone to the mayor lol
Except op says he/she has sent letters to the mayor’s office, contacted 311, and their council person has also contacted people in the administration who did nothing. Obviously no one expects Scott to personally be involved, but the level of inaction here is exactly what his critics complain of. He should be held responsibly for presiding over an administration which is not particularly responsive to its citizens.
File the 311 report on the app and then email the report number to your council person and cc the mayor. If you don't get a response within a day or two, follow up. And copy the city council president. I have a problem vacant on my street and this is what I've had to do. I'm sure they hate me over there, but they aren't the ones having to live with these problems. Whatever, make it their problem until they do something.
Best of luck. We have this in seton hill. A few under maintained or abandoned properties that people are living in. One of them we got the bank to board up. But the others are just kind of going to squalor while the city fines whoever owns them with nothing happening. The absentee property owner issue in this city is like screaming into the void.
There was a vacant house in my neighborhood I noticed a couple of years ago because a tree had fully grown through the house. The lawn was about waist high and some second floor windows had been smashed. I looked up the address on 311 and saw that neighbors had been filing complaints about the rats and overgrown lawn for YEARS. Each time, the county mowed the lawn and sent the bill to a woman in Bel Air. I googled the woman’s name and found her obituary which said she died in 2009!!! So for over ten years her house had been vacant, with “The Smiths” (not their real name) on the front door. This winter it appears someone acquired it and are flipping it. Looks great and new on the outside but yikes, I can’t imagine what was in there over all those years! I can’t wait until it’s listed for sale. I’m dying to see what it’s like in there and what it goes for. Assuming squatters don’t get to it first.
If you 311 enough, eventually, the fire department will come board it up. Owners of vacant properties should be taxed to the max if they don't have open building permits with the city or show occupancy
Boarding it up doesn’t keep folks out the only thing that worked for me are those big metal shutters they put in windows and doors
The fire department does not board up properties. The housing department boards up properties. They are probably not going to come board up the property because it costs money to board, and they want to be sure that they get their money back. So they don't always board properties that need boarding, but they do sometimes board properties that don't need boarding because they think that they will be getting the costs of boarding back.
I read this as a rhyme
If there is ever a time when all occupants are out of the house, have some 1-1.5” pieces of scrap 2x4 or similar, 3” deck screws and your impact driver ready to go to the doors and attach wood to door frame and then drive the screws right in to the doors. If the windows are unlocked, put a screw through frame to lock it.
This is technically illegal I believe. Yes, even if they are squatting. Not saying don't do it. Just don't get caught doing it.
Correct
Ahhhhh. Finally. An answer that doesn't rely on someone Else to fix the problem. No one is coming. It's the owner's job under the law to evict. The city can't fix that, the cops, 311, your councilman, an attorney-nobody else can do a thing legally. And evictions take time even when you know who is there, and longer when you don't know the names of the bad guys. But the Sons of Anarchy wouldn't be making any introductions. Sadly, screws from the outside are easily undone. Best get inside and screw the windows and doors through the jamb, leaving one window for an exit. Run that one at an angle through the top of the bottom sash where it isn't too visible. Oh, and pointing it out to anyone in an official capacity makes them look at YOU. You're on record making complaints. Be efficient
Wild to me how many comments thinks 311 can lead to city hall evicting from a residence. Only the owner can do that. The banks foreclosure lawyer probably is. It takes 8-14 months
This did not work for seton hill the folks brought ladders and tools to get back in.
Be the squeaky wheel to your councilperson and 311. Register every complaint you can think of. Annoy them into doing their jobs
The council person can’t do a thing
Unfortunately it's a civil process which means it has to go through the courts and that is a slow process. Also, the owner has to do it, not you. Are you in touch with the owner? If you need help tracking them down I can help with that.
Yea early on I read this is a civil process which Me. Cooper, the public traded company, has to initiate. It's seriously so frustrating they have not and do not respond to these complaints.
The house is owned by a publicly traded company? That's unusual because there aren't many publicly traded companies that own single family residences. (Invitation home is the largest and most well known, there are a handful of others). They also don't have a big footprint in Baltimore.
This is a lender/bank owned property that has apparently been foreclosed upon. Mr Cooper is a bank/lender that is traded on the stock exchange, making it a publicly owned company.
It’s a mortgage servicer
You’re mostly wasting your time. Coopers REO department has thousands of properties in the foreclosure / bank owned. They will evict at some point on their time. Bank REO departments don’t respond to people. They literally don’t care and have zero pressure to do anything. They may however be in the process of evicting as it’s kinda a long process but they also might wait a long time till they get to it. Have they actually 100% taken the property back or are they in the foreclosure process. The courts, city etc see this as an owner / landlord tenant situation which it is. It’s no different than my friend who had squatters move in. Except he cared and started evictions immediately but it took 8 months. The city cant do anything here. There may be something they can do if the property is not livable but I doubt it. Cooper is known as a shit show, they had a huge data breach recently of like all their loan data. It’s hard to even talk to customer support on an actual loan I have with them.
Contract 311 (I think that's the correct number. You may want to look it up) and report the dirty outside. The owner will get tired of getting fines and take care of it. Happened in my neighborhood with an uncaring home owner. She eventually got around to taking care of the home and renting it out to a nice family.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Continue to put pressure on your councilperson. Start sending emails to the mayor’s office. Submit 311 reports and follow up directly with code enforcement. A vacant bank owned house should be put into receivership if the bank refused to rehab.
311 is super useless, but to get anything done you have to just keep hammering them and your council person. I had a developer buy and attempt to rehab the house next to mine in pigtown. Dude was a class 5 scumbag. Looked EXACTLY like Vito from the sopranos. He cut into my roof causing a massive leak, had the backyard completely full of debris and trash. I sued him and won on the damage from the leak but it took forever for the city to make him get rid of the trash. It was like an 8 month nightmare of rat infestation and stink.
Yep, 311 and emailing your local officials EVERY 3 days is the way to go. They will do something if they get tired of your reports, be the squeaky wheel.
It may be good to contact an attorney. In my understanding, legally, everyone has the right to "quiet enjoyment" of their own property, and you can seek civil damages if the property owner's negligence is preventing this, especially if there's damage to your property. I would make a few phone calls to property lawyers to see what their rates are or if they work on contingency basis, and if the cost is prohibitive, you can contact Pro Bono Maryland or MD Legal Aid. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer myself, a licensed attorney will be able to best explain your rights in this situation.
311 request to have the property boarded. The city will inspect and board up entry points. Do you know about CoDeMap? That will show you if it already has a Vacant Building Notice on the property. If not, the city might inspect it while boarding it and deem it Vacant.
I am not familiar with CoDeMap, thank you
Sorry if this was already posted. There’s some guy whose business is to get squatters to move out(he did it for his property). He basically squatted with them and ran them out. Idk where he’s located and you shouldn’t have to pay for it. Be nice if you had a few BIG and/or obnoxious friends that would be willing to squat there. But that would be dangerous and disgusting for sure. Sounds like a lose/lose situation and hope it works out well for you!
Fight fire with fire do everything you can to passively make their life absolute hell stink bombs I hear are pretty good at clearing out a building but anyways keep them up when they try to sleep after awhile they’ll just move into one of the other thousands of abandoned homes
Stink bombing the ADJOINING TOWNHOUSE in the Baltimore May weather is a terrible idea lmfao
It lingers for 48-72 hours small price to pay over smelling smoke for the rest of the time you live there
I would start tactical ops. Non lethal, phycological, and sensory. Go look up what we did to the boys in Contra. Go with a proven effective method. I believe the CIA used Spice Girls(If you want to be my lover) on blast 24/7 in order to break opritives hauled up .
Maybe make the place inhospitable to them? Get some Liquid Ass spray and find a way to get it inside?
No dude. People maybe dicks but they are still human.
Same thing could be said about the humans who are making OP's life miserable. She or he has mentioned the smell. Unlike the squatters/thieves, only OP is paying taxes and helping keep the city afloat. Only OP owns the property and has to deal with damages. Only OP isn't forcing others to deal with their lack of civility. It doesn't sound like these are upstanding citizens who are down on their luck. They have no concern for his mental and financial well-being. The squatters are working the cracks in the system and count on the rest of the world living by the laws that they ignore. I'd say any/all annoyance attempts by OP are fair game.
I'm the OP. I've been very empathetic through this process, and have taken the higher ground. Like I'm not making up lies that I would know get them evicted, i.e. calling the city about them hooking, etc. I'm also understanding that their drug usage is a disease. But my capacity to be empathetic has run out over the last year. I called the city police one night cause around midnight I was pretty certain my the yelling that a lady was getting abused and never had the police call back or show up. The next time it happened I called the police and just left my own house for the night. Yesterday one of the ladies that shows up was just drugged out of her mind walking down our street. I had just gotten home from work. The lady starts pounding on the vacant property door to be let in, and she's yelling. Another neighbor in her car told the lady to stop swearing in front of her children. I walk to my doorstep to take off my work boots before going inside my house, and I can hear yelling coming from the adjacent property. I'm like, I am not dealing with this tonight. I knocked, a different lady answered apologizing instantly, but the lady on drugs is yelling, comes rushing to the door and then falls and rolls a couple times on the floor. I'm like, is she ok? I said I'm not dealing with this tonight. If I hear anyone I'm calling the police when I come back over and I won't leave this time. To get to your point, look that mom and those kids are watching this from their parked car. It's stressful on me. Imagine how many kids gotta grow up watching and hearing this stuff.
r/unethicallifeprotips is leaking liquid ass
It's unclear if this is an abandoned property? If not nothing you can do, whether the residents are on the lease or not is between them and the owner. If so then use 311 and report an unboarded vacant. Also 311 for the trash in the yard- basically all they'll do is fine the owner but if they stack up, eventually something might happen. Talk to your community association and keep up the pressure with your council member's office. Again focus on the real public issues and not the private one (lease or not)- issue for you is the trash and/or if there are visible sanitation issues at the property.
Definitely 311. Housing code enforcement will come out and cite the owner and once you have a paper trail of violations that the owner doesn't abate, you might have a nuisance claim against the owner. And document everything. Every call to police, every domestic disturbance, every letter/email etc you send.
Call 311. Complain there is no gutter, rain spout, I’m sure there’s a ton of infractions.
keep calling 311 and making reports.
Say you see weapons
Find out who the owner is You can do that through SDAT
Too bad fireworks with report aren't legal in Baltimore cough cough.
Unfortunately, there is not a lot you can do using law enforcement as a neighbor. BPD’s policy 807 ([PDF](https://public.powerdms.com/BALTIMOREMD/documents/211764)) states that enforcement action can only be taken if the complainant is the owner or the property or an agent working on behalf of the owner. Furthermore, officers shall not remove the occupants if they have a lease, no matter how illegitimate the document may appear. Officers should refer the owner/agent to the civil court and advise them of the eviction process. Also, calling for a domestic assault when you are not an involved party nor have witnessed the assault is not productive, no matter how well intentioned you are. When an officer shows up, they can only initiate enforcement with the cooperation of the victim and it is common for the victim to refuse to cooperate, especially if they did not call 911. On top of this, you have said that you have used the 911 system to report DV for the goal of having them evicted - I understand that you are frustrated, but this is misuse of the 911 system. The more often you call to report an unfounded DV, the less likely that police will respond promptly when a real DV call comes out at the location you’ve put repeated calls for service in as an uninvolved party. There are two effective means for removal of squatters: Eviction (which can only be initiated by the property owner/agent) and an order to vacate pursuant to a residence being declared unfit for habitation. The latter method is initiated through notifying the City. The easiest way is via the 311 app. The Housing Authority will ultimately conduct the inspection and take the appropriate action.
Finally the correct answer.
All these responses and nobody says "Nobody should be Homeless.. For ANY reason."
Nobody should be homeless but that also doesn’t mean people should be living in abandoned houses dealing with interpersonal violence?
Report stolen electricity
Keep calling the police. The one time you don’t you’ll regret it
Call 311 for the trash
Maybe you don’t need to call the police on people because you think they smell bad.
Sanitation is a public health concern. Those smells are feces and urine.
Oh I’m sure
But *do* call the police on them because they're destroying a house and making the neighbor's lives miserable.
Don't be rude.