Neighborhood Nuisance: Peak Avenue home abandoned for over 15 years

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Residents on Peak Avenue want something in the city to address the abandoned crumbling home at the end of the street.

The backyard is littered with debris, the foundation is falling apart, and neighbors use the yard as a parking lot.

”They have a lot of houses to demolish, but 20 years. I think it should be taken care of, 20 years is a long time to tear down the house,” said Doug Gronemeier a neighbor.

Gronemeier said he has watched the house go downhill over the past 15 years.

“That house there I’ve been trying to keep an eye on it because I own the house next door to it. We have people breaking into it now and then, it’s completely stripped out, and I believe the owner is a foreigner, and he has relocated back to his homeland,” said Gronemeier.

After years of the property’s condition worsening, Gronemeier said he doesn’t understand why the city hasn’t stepped in.

“I know they have a lot of work to do and a lot of people to please, so I’m not mad at them, but they really need to go ahead and get these houses torn down,” said Gronemeier.

City code inspectors told 13abc the city is taking the owner of the home – LLC called Deutsche Bank National Trust – to court. The property is being foreclosed on for an excess of $35,000 in delinquent taxes. The home is expected to hit the auction block in a sheriff’s sale in January.

“I’ve been living on the street for like 20 years, and this is basically the street that Toledo forgot about. We’re last in line to get snow, plowed, and the sewers are constantly backed up the storm sewers. We’ve got multiple abandoned houses here that need to be torn down,” says Gronemeier.

If you have a troubled property in your community that has become a neighborhood nuisance, send an email to willie.daniely@13abc.com. Include contact info, photos, and as many details as possible.

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