The City of Boston is pressuring mortgage companies to maintain the foreclosed, vacant, and often deteriorating homes that dot the city's neighborhoods in growing numbers.
City Councilor Robert Consalvo plans to introduce an ordinance today that would require companies to register foreclosed properties with the city, identify who is responsible for maintenance, post their contact information on the property, and pay a $100 annual fee on each vacant home.
Consalvo said the city is spending thousands of dollars to maintain and secure vacant houses owned by companies that are not meeting their obligations as Boston property owners. He said problems include unlocked doors, undrained pools, unplowed walks, untrimmed hedges and lawn trash.
The vacant homes are both an eyesore and a safety hazard, he said.
"We shouldn't be footing the bill for these large mortgage companies," Consalvo said. "They should have to maintain them just like any other homeowner in this city."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino met last week with representatives of several of the largest companies that manage foreclosed properties in Boston, according to spokeswoman Dot Joyce. She said the companies agreed to post contact information on vacant buildings and to post "No Trespassing" signs to help police keep people out of the buildings.
The proposed ordinance, Joyce said, "is a step in the right direction. It's in line with what the mayor has been saying and doing in meeting with mortgage servicers."
Consalvo's proposal is modeled on similar laws recently passed in other cities. The problem is not just the rising number of foreclosures, but a slow real estate market that means homes are not easily resold. Instead, they sit vacant.
Boston requires all homeowners to maintain their properties. Most of the problems cited by Consalvo already are violations of city codes. But it is often difficult for the city to identify or contact the owners of foreclosed buildings.
A house on Chesterfield Street in Hyde Park was foreclosed in June 2006. It has been vacant since. But the pool out back was full of water until the city recently paid to drain it.
On Buckingham Street, one block away, the city spent $1,737 in September to board up another vacant, foreclosed home, according to a lien filed against the former owner. In December, after calls from neighbors, city employees returned to clear the property of almost a full dumpster of trash.
Both homes remain empty, plastered with plywood boards and warning signs.
Glenn Preston, who lives nearby, said he and his wife tried to sell their home this fall, but the condition of the vacant home and its trashed yard made it difficult to attract a buyer. "We'd have an open house and people would drive down our street and they would just keep on driving," he said.
Kevin Cuff of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association said he questioned the need for new laws. Many foreclosed homes are well-maintained by mortgage companies eager to resell the properties. And Cuff said a state law passed this fall already created a database to help authorities track ownership of foreclosed properties.
"I see some redundancies in some of these actions that try to prevent activities at properties in foreclosure and to stabilize neighborhoods," Cuff said. "I'm not certain an additional ordinance is going to add something."
But cities increasingly are concerned about the impact of foreclosed homes on fragile neighborhoods. Consalvo said the subject was becoming one of the most common complaints council members hear from constituents.
"The police are responding to kids partying in there, people squatting, people using these houses to deal drugs," he said. "You've got sidewalks not shoveled. You have hedges that have grown so big that they block access on the sidewalk. You have pools that end up being filled with stagnant green water.
"Someone has to be held accountable."
Binyamin Appelbaum can be reached at bappelbaum@globe.com.
