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| This house on Terra Bella Street in Arleta is listed in a lawsuit against U.S. Bank for allegedly allowing hundreds of foreclosed properties, including 37 in the Valley, to fall into disrepair. The bank has acquired at least 1,500 foreclosed properties in L.A. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer) |
The bank has acquired at least 1,500 foreclosed properties in Los Angeles in recent years, and more than 170 of them have fallen into disrepair, Trutanich said, including 37 in the San Fernando Valley.
"Any one of us would make sure our properties are maintained," Trutanich said at a City Hall news conference. "It is a basic duty of any property owner to maintain their property."
This is the second complaint filed by Trutanich against a major bank this year for allowing what he called slum conditions to exist in foreclosed properties.
The earlier complaint
L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's complaint against U.S. Bank over 'nuisance' properties
was filed in May against Deutsche Bank for 166 properties it owns in Los Angeles. Trutanich said that case is continuing. Like U.S. Bank, Deutsche Bank has argued its role is as a trustee, but it is the individual loan services who are responsible for maintenance of the properties.
Trutanich said his office has tried to get U.S. Bank to make ordinary repairs by painting, mowing and other cleanup duties on the property.
"And their response is completely unacceptable," Trutanich said. "They said they wanted us to tell them where the properties are."
A U.S. Bank official said the responsibility should rest with the loan servicers, who have been contracted to maintain the properties.
"We are extremely disappointed that the City Attorney's office has chosen to file this lawsuit," said Teri Charest, U.S. Bank vice president for public relations, in a statement. "The homes are owned by trusts. Those companies are responsible for the maintenance of the properties. Our role as trustee is purely administrative."
Charest said the bank has had extensive discussions with Trutanich's staff but they have been unable to resolve the outstanding issues, including providing the addresses and detailing problems with the properties.
"Like the city attorney, we are troubled by properties that are not maintained, which have a corrosive impact on neighborhoods and communities," Charest said.
Councilman Richard Alarcón, whose district includes many of the properties, said he was pleased with the Trutanich action.
"I think it's great and about time," Alarcón said. "It's been a very serious problem with abandoned properties being taken over by gangs and becoming a blight on communities."
Amos Harston of the Inner City Law Center complimented the city for its action.
"It not just this bank, it is many banks," Harston said. "You have heard a lot about nuisance properties that affect neighborhoods, the other issue is the innocent victims - the tenants who are evicted when banks take over properties.
"When the banks take over and fail to maintain the properties, they fall into disrepair and become slums."
Trutanich said his office calls it "bank blight" and he is asking the public to report to his office on any properties that have become blighted.
Map of U.S. Bank-owned 'nuisance properties
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