Abandoned house in Cape Coral becomes headache for neighbors, boaters

CAPE CORAL, Florida – An empty house on Wisteria Court has raised concerns among neighbors.

Rats, a sunken boat, and a rancid odor are some of the issues that neighbors have noticed.

“I’m sick of picking up dead rats on my property. We have rat feed containers that we pay extra with our pest company to refill and they always tell us that they are empty and we know that they are empty because we are getting dead rats, ”said Frank Tripodi.

According to Tripodi, who moved next to the problem property about a year ago, the city of Cape Coral received several calls.

A Cape Coral city official said the house has been on foreclosure since 2020 and there are multiple liens on the property for unpaid fines for violating the law. Last week the liens were paid, but the issues were not resolved. If the violations are not remedied, further fines can lead to another lien on the property.

Regarding the sunken boat, the City of Cape Coral said, “The law does not allow the city to remove the boat from private property, however, the code’s staff have contacted the property management company that works with the bank through the foreclosure process . “

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the sunken ship had not been reported to their authorities.

The agent who represents the seller said the condition of the property was not the homeowner’s intention.

According to Remax’s Kynse Leigh Angles, the homeowner’s husband passed away unexpectedly and couldn’t afford the mortgage on his own.

The house was put up for sale in May 2019.

It turned into a pending short sale in September.

The broker confirmed that once the paperwork and negotiations are complete and the short sale has been approved by the lender, the buyer plans to demolish the current home and build a new one in its place.

Anyone with similar problems can turn to the city’s 3-1-1 Action Center.