Neglected home a nuisance

Aproperty north of Orchards was once a family’s happy home. But the garbage that now blankets and infests it — inside and out, piled 5 feet high in places — is jaw-dropping.

Fifty or more plastic garbage bags filled with old clothes and other refuse are strewn around. Old tires, chunks of concrete, a shopping cart, pieces of wood, appliances, pop cans, rags, bottles, batteries, old toys, a broken glass door, shoes, a quilt and a sofa also are on display, leaving the place with the inventory — and appearance — of a typical garbage dump.

A visit to the foreclosed property at 7600 N.E. 128th Ave. in the Sifton area adds another layer of disgust. Visible mold and a smell of damp decay would likely make any visitor hope that the air doesn’t carry a pathogen that would cause one to become sick.

A walk up the driveway reveals a decrepit travel-trailer, complete with some boarded windows, parked in the front yard.

“Stay out,” someone sprayed in blue paint on the trailer. “Watched by VPD (Vancouver Police Department).”

After crossing the field of whatnot, a sagging, rotting, wooden front porch greets the rare visitor as an American flag flies over the trash-littered front lawn.

A glance through a window reveals more garbage, a automotive transmission, boxes, a plastic gas can and a funeral program on the floor.

There’s damage where firefighters tore through walls and the ceiling to expose electrical fixtures and wiring. In November, an accidental fireplace blaze spread to the roof and caused the roof around the stovepipe to sag. Someone later covered it with a green, plastic tarp to keep out the rain.

The home’s electric meter has been removed; there’s no power.

A yell directed at the front door gets no reply.

Neighbors say a woman, who has angrily shrieked at them, occasionally stays there, and other people have been in and out in the past few months.

This is mess off the charts. How to explain this much garbage and unrepaired damage to a house? Did someone run an ad on Craigslist saying, “Dump trash here for free?”

A check of the long driveway that leads into the side yard shows a clear path that someone left for a vehicle to pass all the way to the back fence. More garbage bags filled with clothing, and discarded lumber, tires and more are piled high on both sides of the path. A sagging wood fence blocks much of the view to motorists who pass along busy 76th Street.

This isn’t the type or volume of trash that a family would accumulate over the years.

The property looks to have been used as a garbage depot, a staging area and a sorting yard. People might have brought loads of trash there, sorted through it for valuables and tossed it aside.

Neighbors, weary of the mess, tell stories of cars being dismantled in the driveway, too many strange cars in and out, people removing tires from wheels, possibly to sell as scrap metal — and always so much trash.

“We try to keep an eye on it because you never know what’s going on,” one neighbor said.

Another neighbor said it’s a potential health hazard, although rats have yet to be seen.

“It needs to be plowed down,” another said. “The property looks like it should be condemned.”

Who owns it?

Clark County records list the property owner as Wells Fargo Bank trustee at an address in Jacksonville, Fla.

The foreclosed mortgage was combined with others in a security and sold, and is now owned by American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., said Tom Unger, a Wells Fargo spokesman in Portland.

Last week, The Columbian spoke with an employee of American Home Mortgage, who said she would look for a document showing that the property belonged to the company. She hasn’t replied or returned calls since.

The company also hasn’t responded to a letter mailed by The Columbian or to earlier letters sent by the county.

County officials have been aware of the problem since March 1, when they received a complaint, said Kevin Pridemore, a code-enforcement coordinator with Clark County Community Development.

Pridemore said an official inspected the property that day and found so much garbage that the property was deemed in violation of the county’s public-nuisance ordinance.

Officials sent a letter to Wells Fargo on March 3, giving the company 30 days to remove the garbage, Pridemore said.

“The property was reinspected on April 5, with the officer noting no improvement from his previous inspection,” Pridemore said in an email. “A Notice and Order was issued to the property owner on April 7 giving the property owner until May 5 to clean up the property or face $100 a day fines until compliance with the order has been achieved.”

As the matter stands, one of three things will happen, said Marty Snell, Community Development director.

“One, the owner will comply. Two, the owner will appeal the Notice and Order, which leads to a code-enforcement hearing. Or, three, the owner will do nothing.

“If the third scenario plays out, which sometimes can be the case of a distant bank-owned property, I will have to work with Kevin (Pridemore) and possibly someone from the prosecuting attorney’s office to consider other remedies.”

“I just wish it was clean and safer,” a neighbor said, “for my kid.”

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.