The government is apparently dragging its feet with cleanup at a dead couple’s abandoned home in The Villages.
The home located at 739 Cortez Ave. was the subject of a public hearing Wednesday afternoon before the Village Center Community Development District Board of Supervisors at Savannah Center.
A complaint was received by Community Standards on Nov. 14 about mold on the home, overgrown bushes and dead grass.
Community Standards determined the property owners, Fred and June Powell, are deceased. She died in 2019 at age 92. It is not clear when he died. The utilities have been shut off and there is an unpaid balance.
The property is currently under the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD’s property preservation company, Guardian Asset Management, indicated it was in the process of obtaining a bid for the cleanup of the mold. As of this week, the property had not been brought into compliance and no work had been performed.
The VCCDD board ordered the property be cleaned up and the yard resodded or reseeded. If the work is not completed within 30 days, a series of fines will be imposed.
