Cities fight mortgage lenders in court over vacant homes

Cities like Buffalo and Cleveland, where foreclosures have left scores of homes vacant, are taking subprime mortgage lenders to court. A Buffalo housing court has hauled in representatives from CitiFinancial, JPMorgan Chase, and Countrywide Financial to order them to fix the peeling paint, broken masonry, and overgrown yards at houses they have foreclosed on. Banks say they are not responsible for maintenance on properties they don’t own. When they ignore Buffalo’s summonses, the city often enters default judgments against the lenders with fines of up to $15,000.