Foreclosed Properties Not Being Maintained  

Yesterday evening the City of Cincinnati filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank Trust Company, and Wells Fargo, N.A.  The lawsuit alleges that many of the properties owned by these entities, as well as their business practices relating to their refusal to maintain their properties to the minimum standards required by law, are statutory and common law public nuisances.  The City has sought recovery of fees, fines, costs for demolition and barricade, punitive damages, remedial action and injunctive relief.  The City’s lawsuit will hold these financial institutions to the same community standard for maintaining properties to which we hold our citizen property owners.  The lawsuit will partially address the issues of blight that have impacted our neighborhoods in the midst of the foreclosure crisis in Cincinnati.  The failure to maintain abandoned and foreclosed properties has worked a hardship on both our City and our state.  This lawsuit is one attempt to end the abuse of our local neighborhoods and the loss of value associated with the foreclosure crisis. 

Over the past three years, the City of Cincinnati and its departments have made several attempts to communicate with Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo regarding the hundreds of properties and buildings they own throughout the City that were and are in violation of City health and housing codes.  These parties have consistently failed to take responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of such properties.  Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo have denied ownership of these properties and have consistently refused service of process and ignored summonses, orders, citations and notices of violations from City Departments. “ These banks are externalizing the costs of their liabilities while profiting from their unlawful behavior.  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 John Curp, City Solicitor.

The City’s lawsuit is one step in ending the blighted condition of City neighborhoods affected by poor lending and banking practices. 

Contacts: Paula Boggs Muething 513.352.4551, Tiffany Hardy 513.352.5377/Cell 240.4387