1540 Rucker Rd Alpharetta, GA 30009 / 3447

Description: This case involves a vacant house at 1540 rucker road, and is a perfect example of the issues code enforcement deals with on vacant property. this house has been vacant for at least two years. in the past, the grass had been maintained, usually after a hang tag was left at the door. however, this spring, the owner of the property stopped maintaining the yard. 4/25/11, left hang tag at front door for high weeds. 5/2/11, left notice of violation at front door, in the name of marguerite cox, the owner of record per the fulton county tax assessor's web site. ms. cox's mailing address was the property address. deadline of may 9 for compliance. 5/3/11, i tried to confirm that marguerite cox was still the owner of this property. a deed search through the clerk of courts web site identified a christian singh as the owner of the property. i found two addresses for mr. singh, and i sent letters to both addresses, one in dacula and one in suwanee, informing him that a notice of violation had been posted at the front door of the house for high weeds. one letter was returned by the post office. no response was received. 5/10/11, re-inspected the property and found a notice from bac field services had been posted on the property on 5/5. bac field services is the arm of bank of america that handles foreclosed properties. i contacted bac by phone (their offices are in california), they indicated that the grass would be cut shortly. 5/23/11, re-inspected the property, found no action had been taken. i again contacted bac field services by phone. they informed me that their vendor would have the grass cut by 5/27. 6/2/11, re-inspected the property, found no action taken. sent a notice of violation to the simi valley california address provided by bac field services. deadline for compliance was 6/11. 6/15/11, a summons to appear was mailed to the simi valley address. since bac field services does not have a local office, a copy of the summons was delivered to the bank of america branch on windward parkway. i immediately received telephone calls and e-mails from the local corporate security department and a supervisor from bac field services in california. i was informed that the grass would be cut on friday, june 17. 6/20/11, i re-inspected the property and found that the grass in the front yard, and half the rear yard, had been cut. i sent a photo of the uncut portion of the rear yard to the bac field services supervisor, requesting a time frame for the completion of the work. 6/23/11, presented case to code enforcement board. bac found guilty, fined $50 per day for every day after july 1 that the property remained out of compliance. 7/20/11, property in compliance, bac notified of $950 fine for 19 days out of compliance.