LAS VEGAS -- Almost every neighborhood has a foreclosed house that looks worn down, with weeds in the front yard, and a sickening green pool. But now, leaving a foreclosure in ruin will be a crime thanks to a new state law.
"This is almost bordering on the program Hoarders," said realtor Amelia Keene as she shows a piece of property in disrepair. The owners lived in the mess with no power and eviction looming for a year. Keene says the family was even offered cash to turn over their keys but refused.
SLIDESHOW: A look at one of the valley's foreclosed homes
Keene says it was a year of drama and the family got resourceful by even carrying buckets of water into the home. "They start collecting water so that they can keep flushing the toilets. This is very common all over town."
There were troubling signs scribbled on the wall by the former occupants. Rants, proclamations and twisted axioms given the state of the house. One day everything will be good and we will all be happy is scrawled across one wall. "That one broke my heart when I saw that the other day," said Keene.
A new Nevada law may help tackle the problem of trashed foreclosures as long as it can be proven the homeowners did the destruction.
"It's just going to be hard to enforce, I think. Do we have the money in the budget to prosecute cases?"
To return the home to livable conditions will come with a price tag of $6,000 or more.
"We got bombarded, literally bombarded with foreclosures where we would have 10, 15 a week," said Gil Sirimarco, home cleaning business owner.
Sirimarco's company rehabs and cleans up messes." He says banks have been holding back inventory so it's tough to know how many homes are simply sitting in deplorable conditions with piles of garbage and food left to rot.
"We have to make the home safe," he said. "Each home tells a different story. You have people who are either mad or sad and you can almost tell the difference when you see that home."
The new law goes into effect in October. Most people who spoke with the I-Team say the crime should be a felony, not a misdemeanor. The idea is to make it a deterrent to destroy a home.
