SARASOTA, Fla. – Code enforcement officials in the city of Sarasota are asking for controls to hold banks responsible for hundreds of so-called "zombie foreclosures."
The Herald Tribune reports that many of these foreclosures are homes that have been vacant for years, abandoned by owners who were evicted during the recession. The properties are in limbo, with banks and other large mortgage lenders slow to regain control of houses that threaten to become neighborhood blights.
City leaders recently proposed an ordinance that would require the mortgage holders to register foreclosures and pay for maintenance.
The city counts 425 such properties, part of a larger problem that has left 1,600 homes languishing in Southwest Florida alone.
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