Derby’s “clean and lien” program literally sent the rats scrambling last week when contractors and city public works employees armed with heavy machinery and chainsaws tackled two massively overgrown nuisance properties on Hawthorne Avenue.
The properties at 226 Hawthorne and 125 Hawthorne were the subject of daily complaints from neighbors to Derby’s building department.
Both properties have been abandoned for years. They were on the Derby blight list, where they were subject to fines of $100 per day.
The 69-year-old, three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot cape at 226 Hawthorne Ave. was subject to $112,500 in blight fines as of December 2014, according to a legal agreement.
The 136-year-old, three-bedroom 1,300-square-foot house at 125 Hawthorne Ave. owed $75,000 in blight fines, according to legislative meeting minutes.
But when an out-of-state lender or big bank controls a blighted property, getting them to mow the grass can be next to impossible, let alone trying to collect a six-figure blight fine.
First, the property can remain in limbo for years as the foreclosure case drags through court. Second, banks have money to hire lawyers to fight large fines.
So, the properties rot.
And vermin move in. Raccoons. Opossum. Rats. Mice. Squatters. People looking to rip off copper pipe — or worse.
The yard becomes the creeping crud.
Pretty soon it looks like Mother Nature is trying to take back the house with an “Evil Dead”-like army of vines and bushes.
And the neighbors? They wince every time they walk by.***
Such was the case with both 125 Hawthorne and 225 Hawthorne, according to Carlo Sarmiento, Derby’s building official, and Andrew Cota, a facility inspector for the city.
City officials were told the owners, whether a mortgage company or bank, were going to take care of the blight. But deadlines kept coming and going. Neighbors kept complaining.
So the city decided to use “clean and lien,” an approach that allows the city to clean the yard, then attach a lien to the property to cover expenses associated with the cleanup.
Clean and lien, though, does not give permission to the government to go inside the vacant houses.
The Hawthorne Avenue properties were handled Aug. 31.
Each property was dreadfully overgrown. Trash was strewn throughout both.
The properties are a short walk apart.
The house at 125 Hawthorne is across from North Avenue, up the big hill from the Dew Drop Inn.
The house at 225 Hawthorne is west of Coon Hollow Road, heading toward Nutmeg Avenue.
Each property presented a special set of circumstances.
226 Hawthorne
The Cape-style home at 226 Hawthorne had a dangerous dead tree looming over a neighbor’s well-kept property.
Sarmiento said there were marks on the tree showing that someone had tried to cut it down with a circular saw.
The tree was about 65 feet tall, so Schryver’s Tree and Landscape, LLC out of Seymour was hired to take it down. The tree was so rotten the top of it essentially turned to dust when it hit the ground.
Sarmiento estimated the bill at about $3,000 for the large tree takedown.
The Derby Department of Public Works then cleared out all the overgrown brush.
Meanwhile, the Aldermen approved a deal in June for 226 Hawthorne Ave. that allowed the bank to pay $6,000 in blight fines.
The future of that property remains unclear.
“It depends on the bank,” Sarmiento said.
125 Hawthorne
Schryver’s also removed a fallen branch and trimmed trees down the road at 125 Hawthorne Ave.
The bigger job there was removing a detached garage from the rear of the property.
The garage’s roof had collapsed, along with the back wall.
Sarmiento said when he entered the structure, he could hear things rustling.
“It was either a bunch of cats or some very large rats,” he said. An exterminator was called.
Frank Pepe’s Derby-based company knocked down and removed what was left of the garage. Sarmiento estimated the bill to be about $4,600. Public works then cleared the yard.
The Derby Water Pollution Control Authority foreclosed on 125 Hawthorne over the summer. The water bill hasn’t been paid in seven years. The future of the property remains to be seen.
Sarmiento said the city boarded the windows to keep people and animals out.
Public records show the Board of Aldermen had voted earlier this year to allow a bank to pay 25 percent of a $72,600 blight fine on the property.
Progress
The properties, after being cleaned, still aren’t going to win any Good Housekeeping awards anytime soon. They’re both still ugly and detract from the neighborhood.
But both properties are now available to buy on the cheap. The hope is that someone will breathe new life into them.
An appraisal lists 125 Hawthorne’s market value at just $45,000. The appraisal notes the house needs extensive work.
Asking prices like that wreak havoc on the hyperlocal real estate market.
It makes it extremely difficult for anyone looking to sell a well-maintained house on Hawthorne at a profit, especially if you bought the home in 2006 or 2007, when the housing market was strong.
Houses in the area of Derby Neck Library on Hawthorne Avenue regularly sold for at least $300,000 a decade ago. But last year 20 percent of the sales in the immediate area were foreclosure sales, according to court documents.
A long-vacant six-bedroom house at 249 Hawthorne sold last year for just $76,000. It had been foreclosed and blighted.
A vacant house at 214 Hawthorne sold in 2013 for just $50,000, according to the home’s property card (see link).
The new owners, though, have spent considerable bucks on major renovations to the houses.
The 249 Hawthorne house is now on the market for $219,000. An open house is scheduled for Sept. 11, according to the Realtor’s website.
Another long-vacant and once-foreclosed property in the neighborhood — 326 Hawthorne Ave. — was purchased for $100,000. It too underwent a major renovation.
“Hawthorne Avenue is on the upswing again. Roseland (Apizza) is talking about putting an addition on,” Sarmiento said. “They received variances years ago. Illegal dumping that was happening behind Stygar Terrace (a subsidized housing community) has been cleaned up. We’re being aggressive. We’re not putting up with any nonsense.”
Sarmiento said Derby Mayor Anita Dugatto and Aldermanic President Carmen DiCenso have given blight marching orders. The hope is to do a “clean and lien” once a week. The projects are funded from blight fines, Sarmiento said.
*** Note: the guy writing the story lives in the neighborhood.
