Everyone has a story about an annoying neighbor. The one who disregards their home and property, like overgrown grass or an unkempt lawn, to the detraction of your quality of life. The Johannsen family had such a problem with their most negligent neighbor of their adjoining townhome – the federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The home that was connected to the home where the Johannsen family lived was unoccupied, so there was no one to take care of a roof leak. Leaks and other unexpected water intrusions require immediate action before they create long-term, expensive, and dangerous mold problems. But since no one lived in this home, no one was there to care to fix it.
The Johannsen family was at the mercy of their nonexistent neighbors. The leak created a mold problem that eventually grew into their side of the duplex. Phone call after phone call led nowhere as bureaucratic red-tape and a pass-the-buck attitude left the issue unresolved, while the mold problem grew.
Eventually, the Johannsen family had to abandon their home or risk serious and possibly permanent illness. They finally got HUD’s attention by bringing their story to the local news and getting the right people involved.
It wasn’t an entirely happy ending. The Johannsens had to drop their case against HUD to reach a settlement. HUD fixed the leak, removed the mold, and repaired the Johannsen’s home. The family was not awarded anything to compensate for their inconvenience or frustration. It took almost a year for the issue to be resolved. I believe that if the Johannsens were dealing with a business entity rather than the government, it could have lasted much longer and became much uglier.
If the roof leak had occurred on the Johannsen side of the duplex, it would have been fixed immediately with no lingering issues. But because there was no one living in the townhome where the leak occurred, it went unresolved and spun out of control until it cost thousands of dollars to fix and harmed an innocent family. Banks, governments, and other organizations that own unoccupied property need to be aware of the expensive problems that neglect can cause.
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