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Neighbors Contact Channel 9 About Unmaintained Foreclosed Home

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 – updated: 6:21 pm EDT September 18, 2008

Foreclosed homes are becoming rat traps in Seminole County. Banks own so many homes, they can't maintain them. So, neighbors along Hollow Pine Drive in Oviedo (see map) called Eyewitness News to see if something can be done about the long grass, black pool and disgusting vermin.

The backyard is locked up tight, but not tight enough to keep the frogs and tadpoles out of the swamp-like pool. It's full of so much algae, it could be their natural home. The foreclosed house on Hollow Pine Drive has been empty and unmaintained for at least three months.

"We're at a loss here. Nowhere to turn, no one to turn to," said resident Kirk Hill.

There's nowhere to turn because the house was first owned by Fannie Mae, the troubled mortgage company that was just bailed out by billions of taxpayer dollars. So far, all that money hasn't been enough to get the problems fixed. Thursday, Eyewitness News learned Fannie Mae had sold the home to Lehman Brothers.

"Just the look of it, it looks terrible," said homeowner Sue Jarand.

The grass on the once-manicured lawn is now a foot and a half tall. The shrubs alongside of the home were once just knee-high, but they now stand taller than the average adult and residents say it's now a dangerous breeding ground for mosquitoes, rats and worse.

"I've seen snakes. I've killed six already. Big black snakes at least four to five feet long," Hill said.

Residents have asked the county to step in, but officials said they can't go around cleaning up every foreclosed property at taxpayer expense and the HOA can't touch the property it doesn't own.

"Someone needs to be taking responsibility and I don't know who that someone is. If it's Fannie Mae, then they need to be doing something," Jarand said.

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