TAMPA, Fla. – Standing at the end of this quiet suburban cul-de-sac, Gene Minkel surveyed one tiny battleground in a nationwide fight that often pits local governments against Wall Street.

The veteran Hillsborough County code enforcement officer looked over 7501 Woodland Oaks Court and wished Bank of America would mow the waist-high weeds. Or patch the shattered windows. Or get rid of the wasps that have taken up residence.

Additional Photos

A Tampa, Fla., house that has been empty for months has become the scene of gang activity. Local officials across the U.S. are sometimes hard-pressed to figure out who’s responsible for upkeep on houses under foreclosure. Los Angeles, for example, is suing “slumlord” Deutsche Bank for problems at 166 properties. Washington Post photo by Michael Williamson

The 1,300-square-foot home has sat largely vacant since falling into foreclosure more than two years ago, racking up $55,372 in code violations while the case lingers in court. A tattered sign out front informs visitors that BAC Field Services, a subsidiary of the megabank, “intends to protect this property from deterioration.”

“They’re doing a great job,” Minkel said sarcastically.

This slice of central Florida has been battered particularly hard by the fallout of the foreclosure crisis. But thousands of abandoned and vacant properties, many stuck in an ongoing legal limbo, are plaguing neighborhoods across the country. The result has weighed down already-falling home values, attracted crime and vagrancy and forced cash-strapped municipalities to tap dwindling budgets to care for decaying houses.

With more foreclosures looming, some state and local officials are pushing the financial industry to do more to repair the damage on Main Street, which is still reeling from high unemployment and a housing crisis that has hampered a national economic recovery.

In Los Angeles, officials are suing Deutsche Bank, calling it the city’s biggest slumlord. In Illinois, some legislators have pushed for a bill that would allow cities to enforce vacant property ordinances against banks that are foreclosing on homes, even if they haven’t taken ownership. In Maryland, a lawmaker from hard-hit Prince George’s County wants banks and lenders to face stiff fines for failing to maintain properties to local standards. Hundreds of cities have passed, or are considering, ordinances requiring firms to register vacant properties so officials know whom to pursue when homes fall into disrepair.

“I’m seeing almost every week another community doing something to go after these properties,” said Frank Alexander, a law professor at Emory University who has advised municipalities on how to face off with banks. “The local governments are realizing that they are the ones that are getting stuck with all the cost. It’s killing them.”

A central problem is one of assigning responsibility. In many cases, homeowners vanish before the bank that initiated the foreclosure completes the process and legally takes ownership. That leaves local officials to either pursue absent borrowers with no ability to pay or to wrestle with banks that have limited authority to maintain the property.

Even when firms do seize a property, the complex system that fueled the housing boom can cause confusion during the bust. Millions of mortgages were pooled into massive securities that were then sold to investors and managed by trusts. In turn, mortgage servicers were hired to collect the mortgage payments and foreclose on behalf of investors when loans went bad. That complicated structure has made it difficult and time-consuming for authorities to determine whom to pursue.

The system allows people to “pass the buck to someone else,” said Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Nobody is willing to take responsibility.”

Banking industry officials insist they have no incentive to let properties sit vacant, that doing so would hurt both their reputation and their bottom line. Rather, they say they also have been overwhelmed and frustrated by the crisis. They say that in many states, drawn-out foreclosure timelines often mean unoccupied homes deteriorate while awaiting a final judgment. And given the backlog of nearly a million foreclosures, getting empty homes off the market has proven tough.

“There’s a shared interest” between financial firms and local officials, said David Stephens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “A foreclosure costs nothing but money . . . for everyone involved — communities and neighborhoods, lenders and investors, and in many cases, taxpayers.”

Robert Klein, president of Safeguard Properties, a private firm that works with banks and servicers across the nation to maintain foreclosures, insists the industry has done an admirable job given the unprecedented downturn.

“I’m not going to sit here and put a halo over the banks’ heads,” he said. “But for every property you show me that has broken windows and doors, I’ll show you 20 that are being properly maintained.”

Whatever the case, the result has been maddening for local officials.

“It’s really difficult for local officials to stand around twiddling their thumbs while their tax base and their constituencies are taking such a beating,” said Kermit Lind, a Cleveland State University law professor who worked on that city’s public nuisance lawsuits against multiple banks in 2008.

Los Angeles’ suit against Deutsche Bank, one of the country’s largest trustees of mortgage-backed securities, seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. It details problems at 166 properties, accusing the bank of illegally forcing out tenants, allowing others to live in deplorable conditions and letting scores of empty homes devolve into havens for gang members, squatters and drug dealers.

“They are a slumlord. The facts speak for themselves,” said L.A. city attorney Carmen Trutanich, who noted that other cities have contacted him about filing similar suits. “If any bank is going to take solace out of the fact that we hit Deustche and not them, don’t be so sure you’re not next.”

Deustche officials insist the city is suing the wrong party. Loan servicers, not Deutsche, which is the trustee for the properties, are responsible for the maintenance of the properties, said spokesman John Gallagher.

In Ohio, Democratic lawmaker Dennis Murray has introduced legislation that requires banks to complete foreclosures once filed and to hold a sheriff’s sale within a set time period or risk forfeiting the property. “The idea was, if you’re not going to do anything with it after you get your foreclosure, why are you keeping it?” Murray said.

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