Posted: 7/8/2016 4:40:51 PM EDT
My back yard neighbor's house caught on fire in April of this year. They were real scumbags living in this house, but no one was hurt in the fire, so I don't feel bad calling them that  . By scumbags I mean, constantly yelling outside about money, drugs, women screaming stop hitting me, etc. Also they collected trash and filled their yard with it, constantly burning garbage in "bon fires," and just general crappyness. They only moved in probably a year before the fire, so I think they might have been squatting.
So in April their house caught on fire while they were having a "bon fire" outside. This created a giant hole in the roof, which has been open to the elements ever since. The windows and doors are boarded up, so they're not living there, and someone came in with a back hoe and cleared the trash out of the yard, but at what point will the city/county/state come in and just bulldoze the thing since there is obviously no desire to fix it up and the hole in the roof has to be destroying the house even more from the inside out. For the TL/DR crowd: Scumbag neighbors house caught on fire in April 2016, there's a giant hole in the roof, when will someone bulldoze? |
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Quoted:
So it's really a question about what happens to a structure after a fire! 
I think it depends on local laws. How unsafe the structure is, etc. This mostly, I've seen property just sit for years after fire, hurricane, neglect, etc Hey OP, find out who the owner is (if indeed they were squatting) and buy the property. Bulldoze the home, fence it in and double the size of your backyard!!
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If it was insured, it's possible the owner cashed out and left it to the elements, a la Detroit.
If it wasn't insured, it's possible the owner is just leaving it to the elements, a la Detroit. If someone cleaned up all the trash then I'd guess someone has plans for a rebuild, not uncommon to take a while in a total loss fire. |
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Quoted:
This mostly, I've seen property just sit for years after fire, hurricane, neglect, etc Hey OP, find out who the owner is (if indeed they were squatting) and buy the property. Bulldoze the home, fence it in and double the size of your backyard!! Quoted:
Quoted:
So it's really a question about what happens to a structure after a fire!
I think it depends on local laws. How unsafe the structure is, etc. This mostly, I've seen property just sit for years after fire, hurricane, neglect, etc Hey OP, find out who the owner is (if indeed they were squatting) and buy the property. Bulldoze the home, fence it in and double the size of your backyard!! Find out what the laws are for adverse possession in FL. Its scummy but probably cheaper than buying and dealing with all the zoning stuff to turn a house into unimproved land. ETA: http://statelaws.findlaw.com/florida-law/florida-adverse-possession-laws.html Might be able to just pay taxes on it for a few years. Definitely worth finding out who actually owns it. |
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Quoted:
This mostly, I've seen property just sit for years after fire, hurricane, neglect, etc Hey OP, find out who the owner is (if indeed they were squatting) and buy the property. Bulldoze the home, fence it in and double the size of your backyard!! Quoted:
Quoted:
So it's really a question about what happens to a structure after a fire!
I think it depends on local laws. How unsafe the structure is, etc. This mostly, I've seen property just sit for years after fire, hurricane, neglect, etc Hey OP, find out who the owner is (if indeed they were squatting) and buy the property. Bulldoze the home, fence it in and double the size of your backyard!! This is exactly what I would like to do. It already has a pool (which is currently disgusting and partially filled with trash) so I could have a pool WAAAY back in the middle of my new back yard . I don't know how unsafe the structure is, because they had the fire out pretty quickly (probably 30-45 minutes total), but the hole in the roof cannot be helping the structural integrity of this thing.
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| You need the government to determine it is a chronic nuisance and the owners must be given ample time and opportunity to secure the property. It is not about what looks good and what will make it a nicer view. It is still their property and they can do what they want with it UNTIL it creates a problem for the neighborhood and community. |
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Quoted:
My back yard neighbor's house caught on fire in April of this year. They were real scumbags living in this house, but no one was hurt in the fire, so I don't feel bad calling them that . By scumbags I mean, constantly yelling outside about money, drugs, women screaming stop hitting me, etc. Also they collected trash and filled their yard with it, constantly burning garbage in "bon fires," and just general crappyness. They only moved in probably a year before the fire, so I think they might have been squatting.
So in April their house caught on fire while they were having a "bon fire" outside. This created a giant hole in the roof, which has been open to the elements ever since. The windows and doors are boarded up, so they're not living there, and someone came in with a back hoe and cleared the trash out of the yard, but at what point will the city/county/state come in and just bulldoze the thing since there is obviously no desire to fix it up and the hole in the roof has to be destroying the house even more from the inside out. For the TL/DR crowd: Scumbag neighbors house caught on fire in April 2016, there's a giant hole in the roof, when will someone bulldoze? Don't your kids like playing with fireworks? Tell them to use the neighbors house to do so, and show them the sparkler bomb videos we had up this week. |
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A similar thing happened next door to me in our old neighborhood. A combination of a bad storm and a small structure fire a short time later made for some pretty bad damage to the roof and parts of the interior. Chances are the home is in some form of foreclosure and may even be tied up in some insurance claims. Most likely it will be sold at a Sheriff's auction as the bank / insurance co or whoever still owns it tries to get something out of it. Best case it gets purchased and either bull dozed or fixed up into a good condition dwelling. Worst case it goes for cheap, has minimal repairs done to be made inhabitable, and the cycle will continue.
The home next to me went through 3 different residents / "owners" in as many years before a developer finally bought it and flipped it. Each new owner / resident only made it worse. I had looked into buying it (to protect my property value and also try to turn a profit) and was amazed at how bad it was inside, and realized that it was going to need to be stripped down to the studs (and have some structural pieces replaced) and there was no way I could make money on it. I hope things work out for you OP. Nothing worse than having that downward spiral happening in your back yard. |
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Thanks for the advice. I will definitely try to buy it if it goes to auction and is cheap enough. I figure, even if I put some money into it, it will be worth more fixed up than as a big back yard . The funny thing is, I built an 8 foot fence on that side of the yard and enclosed the rest of my yard with 6' fence in order to add appeal to my yard and keep the eyesore out. My yard is a LOT more appealing now, but I can still see the roof of the house and the giant hole in it. I finished my fence in March and the fire was in early April.
pro tip: even though I built a very nice wood fence, I would recommend having a builder do it for you. For all the money I spent, it was really difficult to fence in almost 1/2 acre yard by myself! |
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Bet cha' wish you had an HOA now. Nice, I laughed out loud! There is a lot up the street behind me that has a completely overgrown lot, and a house and garage so rotten that there are practically no shingles left on the roofs. Just left there to sit and rot and it's been that way for decades. Looks like something you'd see in a very rural area. All taxes are paid and the county doesn't seem to care. |
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Nope, still don't wish I had an HOA, and never will. My boat is parked in my back yard just the way I like it and there is no way an HOA would let me build and do the things I like to do in my driveway with my boat/bikes/cars/etc.
Also, those aren't vent holes. We watched the fire burn out that section of the roof. There were flames shooting out of those holes and the sofet (sp?) on that side of the house. |