The city of Los Angeles has sued the US Bancorp on Monday, accusing a unit of the U.S. commercial bank of being one of the biggest slumlords of the city and blighting the city by allowing numerous foreclosed homes to fall into disrepair. The civil lawsuit filed by the office of Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich alleges that US Bancorp has foreclosed more than 1,500 residential properties in the city, but allowed the once-homes to fall into disrepair, thus affecting the city.
The lawsuit mentioned that since July 2008, US Bank has “disregarded virtually every one of its legal duties and responsibilities as owner, resulting in the creation and maintenance of an alarming number of vacant nuisance properties and substandard occupied housing units.”
The city alleged that the bank had ignored repeated demands for compliance with city laws and caused hundreds of homes to become uninhabitable and degrade into “public nuisances.” The actions of the US Bank also led to illegal evictions of hundreds of tenants as the buildings lost required safety standards.
The city is seeking a fine of $2,500 a day for each violation by “one of the largest slumlords in the city.”
Thomas Joyce, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based US Bancorp said that it’s role was that of trustee, and it is the mortgage servicers who have the responsibility of maintaining foreclosed properties and “we intend to bring them into” the lawsuit.
However, the city maintains that it was U.S. Bancorp, which in its role of trustee to mortgage providers, foreclosed and took possession of the hundreds of homes acquiring titles to the property. Trutanich maintains that US Bancorm is responsible, “when you own a piece of property, you’re at the top of the food chain and you can try to deflect and say someone else is responsible, but you’re the owner.”
