 | | | The backyard of 3195 Condit Road, Lafayette. The windows were recently boarded up. Photos Cathy Tyson
| | | | | | What does it take to sell a foreclosed home, especially one that has been officially declared a nuisance? Although Bank of America, succeeding Countrywide, owns the property and several parties have expressed an interest in buying it, 3195 Condit Road, at the corner of Pleasant Hill Road, continues to deteriorate. The City of Lafayette will shortly be slapping an additional $10,300 lien on the unoccupied place for abatement fees and fines - this is on top of a total of $15,000 in liens placed on the property back in September, 2009. This paper originally reported on the property at that time; since then nothing has changed.
Lamorinda Code Enforcement Officer Greg Wixom just sent another round of certified letters as required by law to the mortgage holder for the cost of abatement - removal of dead bushes, repairing the fence and fines. "I can't explain it; I don't know what their rationale is. You think they would want to minimize their losses," he said. Mosquitoes have not been a problem yet, but that may change come springtime with a vacant dirty pool and standing water. "Vector Control has been notified, but with the cool weather mosquitoes are not an immediate concern," said Wixom.
"Nobody seems to know anything about it," said next door neighbor Vivian Williams. "I can't find a human being to talk to at B of A. I'm exhausted - it's frustrating. This affects my property. I have called the police numerous times about teenagers partying inside." She's especially concerned that the teens hanging out inside the structure light candles that could possibly start a fire. With all of the rotting lumber and tall dry weeds the fire could easily spread to her adjacent home.
"Clearly Bank of America is not doing a thing with the property - not returning phone calls, not interested in working with the City," said Wixom. Rather ironic since there are a couple of developers and two contractors, according to Wixom, who have said they would like to buy the property if it ever becomes available.
Since 2007, the owner of record has been officially noticed to clean up the property. As of press time, the weeds are still there, the framing for an unfinished addition continues to rot and the partially drained pool hasn't seen chlorine in a very long time.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA