Nashville woman may lose condo because of hoarding

[n2doc]

By SHEILA BURKE, Associated Press

Wednesday, April 20,

(04-20) 13:57 PDT Nashville, TENN. (AP) --

A Nashville condominium owner likely will be forced out of an upscale high-rise after losing a lawsuit that claimed she was hoarding and living in filth.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has upheld a judge's decision to order the condo sold and the proceeds used to pay $116,000 in legal fees to the Windsor Towers homeowner's association.

The 59-year-old condo owner, Stacy Harris, says she is not a hoarder.

The case originated when neighbors complained of a foul smell and escalated into condo managers pushing Harris to have it cleaned.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/20/national/a125527D38.DTL

[Mrsadkins9399]

1. I live in a condo and if I had a hoarder for a neighbor I would complain

It's a fire hazard.

[elehhhhna]

3. and every other form of public health nightmare you can think of.

sad.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. me too. Smelly units can be smelt from outside. ugh.

[blondeatlast]

2. while I'm thinking Ms. Harriss needs mental help, she signed

a contract and the rest of the community shouldn't have to suffer:

Workers at the condo testified the odor made them gag, while court records show waste from the unit filled a commercial-sized trash bin three times.

[cutlassmama]

4. I wonder if she was on that show "Hoarders"?

[Sirveri]

5. 116k in legal fees? Why not just bend her over and rape her too.

But I guess it's OK since she only has six more year until full retirement...

Steal a home from a person with mental challenges, and all their money too...

[NotThisTime]

6. Hoarders do not go easily nor do they often agree there is a problem

Yet there is a real and present danger to themselves and every unit around them.

[Sirveri]

10. So that means lawyers and the HoA can basically steal her home?

Persons with mental challenges need protection, not predation of this sort. Why not just put a gun to her head afterwards if this is the communities idea of 'help'.

[wickerwoman]

11. Have you seen the show Hoarders?

They've had several people who "collected" their own bodily waste (one woman had almost four years worth of it socked around her house). Other houses were crawling with rats, flies and maggots. One woman had waist-high piles of rotting food in every room of her house and could only move sideways through little paths.

If it's bad enough for the neighbors to smell, it's *bad*. It's a fire hazard. It spreads disease. If it's been going on long enough, it can render the home permanently uninhabitable. And mold and pests in one home can spread to the surrounding ones.

If she's at a high enough hoarding stage, she may be too ill to care for herself and may be need to be placed in a home. The problem is that it's extremely difficult to place an adult in protective care if they don't want to be there and if they aren't demonstrably a physical danger to other people.

What would you do if you were living next to someone who was literally collecting garbage in their home and their fleas, lice, rats, mold, etc. were spreading into your condo? They refuse to clean up, they refuse to get help, they refuse to move. What else can you do?

On edit: And is it fair on the neighbors (let's say they have kids) to have to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to evict someone who is threatening their family's health and safety?

[blondeatlast]

8. Yes, because the HOA just upped one day and told her to clean up.

Do you honestly think she wasn't given any opportunity to correct the problem before this? If so, I've got a dandy bridge in Lake Havasu City, AZ you might be interested in.

[Sirveri]

9. The point is she needs help not massive legal fees.