“It is so bad, last month the tenants had a pipe burst above the kitchen and the ceiling fell in.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Pablo Raw

“Dear PoPville,

I am a resident in Park View and bought into the neighborhood a little over a year ago. I live next to a house that typically is rented to Section 8 Housing (Housing Voucher Program). The landlord is basically a slumlord and does not maintain the upkeep on the house. It is so bad, last month the tenants had a pipe burst above the kitchen and the ceiling fell in. Fire department came and shut off water and electricity and Red Cross came and provided emergency move for tenants (12 people living in the house).

I recently discovered the landlord does not have a business license nor a Certificate of Occupancy to rent the house so I reached out to Section 8 and DCRA and hopefully they will not allow him to rent the house anymore. However, for the past month, no one lives in the house and now the front yard is beginning to look like a jungle of weeds and very tall grass.

My question for you or your readership is what can/should I do? Can I report it as a vacant home? The entire street’s end goal would be to have the house either foreclosed or sold so we can get a new landlord who would do a nice, proper renovation (complete gut job).

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.”