Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Condemn House

My grandmother has owned her home and property for 30+ years. The last several years due to fixed income she has not been able to keep her home in good living condition. The entire house is in shambles-The toilets will not flush, the electric is not up to code, the ceiling is falling in, the only form of heating is an old wood stove, and the house is severely cluttered with trash including bags of dirty toilet paper that is growing mold. She was living there with my aunt but due to health problems neither of them are currently living there. They are both are hoping to return when their health improves. I believe that the house needs to be condemned. What would happen if the house was condemed? Would they lose everything? Would they need to pay anything? Could they sell the property just for the land?


Asked on 12/05/08, 2:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathon Moseley Moseley & Associates Law Firm

Re: Condemn House

However bad the value of the house, it will be worse if the government officially condemns the house. I cannot imagine how that would help.

Having the property condemned would be the government taking negative action AGAINST you, so that could only hurt.

You can consider the house worthless as far as your evaluation, but if the government declares it condemned it will hurt the property value, and probably she will be responsible for the clean-up. The difference would be that no one could live in it. But your mother would be responsible for cleaning it up, either way.

So I would suggest that you just go ahead and quietly work on cleaning it up and see how much you can sell it for. You will probably have to do it either way, but the government is not going to help you if you get them involved.

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Answered on 12/05/08, 2:38 pm


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