Campaign to help stop the spread of 'zombie homes' in NY State

SEAFORD, L.I. (WABC) -- They're called zombie houses: empty but ugly abandoned homes, filled with tales of woe, and sometimes a lot of stench and garbage.

The banks eventually take them over, but only after the foreclosure process runs its course.

Now a proposal to change all that, from New York's attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who brought his campaign for "zombie homes" legislation to Long Island Thursday.

"There's raccoons, there's possums, for all I know they could all be living in that house," said zombie house neighbor Douglas Rovery.

He's snapped pictures of live rats in the grass, rat carcasses on the deck-black mold, mosquitos and toxic fumes. Welcome to Doug Rovery's rotting neighborhood.

"These are dead houses, it's like the walking dead," said Rovery. "They're here, they're existing and they're making everyone's property value go down and no one's doing anything about it."

There are six so called zombie houses within a few blocks of his home, abandoned eyesores left to rot, like the one right next door.

"Nobody knows who owns it, if he owns it, if the bank owns it," said Rovery.

Attorney General Schneiderman announced a Zombie antidote: a newly expanded Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act, aimed at stemming the rising tide of zombie homes.

Long Island has more than 4,000, the most in the state.

"In my view this legislation is a no brainer. I don't think zombies have brains so it's appropriately titled," said Schneiderman.

The bill seeks to help homeowners who want to remain in their homes and will require mortgage lenders to take responsibility for properties soon after they have been vacated and pay penalties if they don't.

"Money from fines paid by the banks would go into a fund and be used to help local governments pay for the code enforcement," Schneiderman said.

With the neighbor's basement filled with water since Superstorm Sandy, Doug needs the town to stop the leeching ruining his property.

"It's making my property like a sponge," he said.

Douglas hopes the bill passes in Albany because if it does, the mortgage lender here will be forced to take responsibility right away instead of waiting until the end of the foreclosure process, which could take years.