City sues foreclosure banks

Cincinnati wants Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo to pay for what officials say is neglect of foreclosed-upon properties that’s worsening blight in city neighborhoods.

The banks own more than 100 properties in Hamilton County. Representatives appear often in local courts to prosecute foreclosure actions against property owners, the city says in a lawsuit, but don’t show up when Cincinnati asks them to maintain abandoned properties titled to them.

The city wants repayment for boarding up, demolishing and the other work done to Deutsche and Wells Fargo properties. The suit didn’t specify an amount.

“This lawsuit is one attempt to end the abuse of our local neighborhoods and the loss of value associated with the foreclosure crisis,” according to a statement released by the city Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank, in an Enquirer analysis published last year, had bought the most foreclosed properties in Hamilton County in 2007 – 265. The German banking company didn’t own even one parcel in the county three years before. But Deutsche officials denied owning any houses here, saying the bank acts only as a trustee for investment groups that buy up sub-prime mortgages.

Cincinnati also wants a temporary restraining order against both banks to prevent them from selling four properties in Westwood, Northside and Camp Washington which the city is in the process of declaring public nuisances.

If either is allowed to sell the properties while the lawsuit is pending, the city says in the documents filed Monday, the banks will have passed their responsibilities for these buildings onto other owners which will force the city to start the nuisance declaration process over. And that, the city says, would knock back the neighborhoods’ overall efforts to improve their housing stock.

“Such behavior and misconduct has made the task of addressing the problem of blighted and nuisance properties in our neighborhoods all the more onerous,” said City Solicitor John Curp.

The properties city singled out, bought by the banks at sheriff’s sales: 3142 Bracken Woods Lane, 3073 Massachusetts Ave., 4126 Kirby Ave.; and 4207 Mad Anthony Lane.

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