FENTON, Mo. – Fenton residents want something done about a house that has become a source of foul odor, rats, and insects, in a well-kept neighborhood.
FOX 2 confirmed the homeowner died years ago and squatters apparently moved in and stayed until earlier this month.
Rodents and bugs appear to be the only things now living in the 26-year-old house on Winter Park Drive. Residents captured video of what appeared to be a rat clamoring for attention just inside a window on the side of the house.
“This morning, I was sitting on my back stoop and a rat ran by on my back porch, which I’ve never seen,” said Eric Patterson, who lives next door.
The homes in the neighborhood boast tidy lawns, landscaping, backyard decks, and an occasional swimming pool.
The one house started to decline quickly around the time the pandemic hit three years ago, according to neighbors.
In January 2022, MidFirst Bank initiated foreclosure proceedings in Jefferson County Circuit Court and was finally granted foreclosure in last month. Attorneys for the bank claimed in a court filing that default occurred in September 2020 for failure to pay monthly loan installments. The filings list the house’s deceased former owners and “John/Jane Doe a/k/a Unknown Occupant” as defendants.
Neighbors said the owner died before the pandemic, but people kept living in the house without paying for things like trash service.
“Their house had a full garage with a year’s full of garbage because they didn’t have trash pickup,” Patterson said.
Junk has piled up on the house’s backyard deck, which appears to be rotting. Neighbor’s houses are being inundated with small flies. Exterminators point to the problem home as the source.
“It kind of deflates everyone’s sense of neighborhood, because we have to live next to this and look at it all the time,” neighbor Patrick Wright said.
Things have been happening with the property, albeit slowly. On June 1, the Jefferson County Code Enforcement division posted two notices for solid waste and lack of trash service violations, plus a notice that the house had been declared “unsafe for human habitation.”
At least five adults and three children were staying there until the notices were posted, and county authorities made them leave, neighbors said. The unauthorized residents have not been identified.
FOX 2 confirmed the house will be sold at auction on July 27. Neighbors want either the bank or the county to have it cleaned up before then.
“They can take all the time they want to get it renovated for somebody to move in, but get the trash out. It’s affecting everybody around here,” Patterson said.
“Yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing a big change here,” Wright said.
A county official told FOX 2 that the home was to re-inspected 30 days after the violations were posted.