Fort Worth

Eviction Debris Finally Removed from Fort Worth Front Yard

After days of trash and scrappers, the former tenants belongings were finally picked up.

A front yard mess that had residents in Fort Worth worried and asking questions has finally been cleaned up.

A resident's belongings were left in the front yard in the Park Glen neighborhood for several days following an eviction. The items were removed on Monday, nearly a week, by some accounts, after they were first placed there.

Residents were concerned about debris ending up in their yards, potential health hazards and unwanted people coming to loot the belongings at all hours.

The eviction process has been going on for months and the property owner, DFW Properties, tells NBC 5 that it gave the tenants extra time to make arrangements to leave before going through with the eviction.

Neighbors say the issues go back years with the family. While the residents have suffered deaths and health problems, residents say they tried to help them as much as they could.

The eviction date finally came down last week and that's when neighbors and the property owner says the residents took very few of their belongings with them, even though they had a U-Haul truck.

And as much as DFW Properties would like to have simply removed the belongings, by law they cannot.

"Under the current statute, it has to be placed out at the front of the property," said Fort Worth Code Compliance Director Brandon Bennett. "It has to be placed in the front yard so it’s accessible to the previous tenant to collect their belongings before they’re disposed of."

State law provides that a reasonable amount of time is given for access to that property, which DFW Properties says it did. Bennett says that's typically three business days in Fort Worth.

Residents were concerned that there were no safeguards to keep the debris from ending up in their yards or to keep unwanted scrappers out of the area.

"There's nothing that prevents an owner from bringing a Dumpster or drop box in and actually putting the stuff in the drop box," Bennett said.

But, that's not required by law and scrappers, he says, likely created the mess NBC 5 saw first-hand on Sunday.

"They rip open the bags, they rip open the boxes and we end up with a catastrophe like we had with this particular situation," Bennett said.

Tarrant County constables, who enforce evictions, usually inform code about situations like this, but it's unclear if that happened in this case.

House Bill 1853, which is currently being discussed in the Texas Legislature, would allow municipalities to provide containers for such evictions, however there is no mandatory requirement for that in the law.

DFW Properties told NBC 5 by phone that it followed the legal process in this case and allowed a reasonable time for the tenant to retrieve any wanted items from the yard. A representative did say the company understands that this process creates an inconvenience, but it was one that was cleaned up by Monday afternoon. The property owners also said that it will also work to improve the house so that it will better fit in with the neighborhood in the future.

The city says this kind of problem use to be much worse.

Code Compliance says the best way to fight off scrappers is to call the police and also inform code about the issue of a dump site. After three days the city will typically mandate a clean-up and write citations if there is a health hazard. The cost to clean-up the site will then be billed to the owner.

A code officer was only made aware of the situation on Friday, so in this case no citations were issued.

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