Neglected Houston homes pile up as city fails to use key probate resource
A year after KPRC 2 Investigates revealed a Harris County office created to help move abandoned residential properties through probate, we found the City of Houston has rarely utilized the service.
A year after KPRC 2 Investigates revealed a Harris County office created to help move abandoned residential properties through probate, we found the City of Houston has rarely utilized the service.
In October 2024, the county created the Office of the Public Probate Administrator.
“I believe that the office was created to kind of be a solution to a couple of different things,” said Brandon Cofield, the county’s Public Probate Administrator. “This office has a unique ability to kind of serve, as I say, like a universal heir or administrator of last resort when there’s no known or suitable heirs.”
Under Chapter 455 of the Texas Estates Code, the courts can appoint a Public Probate Administrator to assume temporary control of a property.
Cofield said this allows his office to track down heirs, address liens and taxes, arrange repairs, and, if needed, prepare properties for sale.
“It helps a lot because now there’s a point of contact. Once you have somebody appointed as a representative, now if there are notice requirements, if there are liens, taxes, all of that stuff can come to a point person instead of it just going to the ether,” said Cofield.
Yet, in the year his office has been in operation, Cofield said the city has only forwarded two properties. Cofield said both properties were forwarded by Councilmember Amy Peck.
One involves a Spring Branch property on Lynnview.
“We always have problems, like in the streets, you always see rats,” said Raul Aguirre, who lives across from this home.
An obituary shows the owner died in May of 2024, and residents of the neighborhood said the home has since attracted homeless people, who’ve broken windows looking for shelter.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I’ve been waiting for them to knock it down. I was like, it’s been past time,” said Aguirre.
When 2 Investigates visited the property, we saw faded violation notices from the city, as well as piles of trash inside the home. Cofield said in December the city filed a motion to appoint his office to investigate the case. Cofield got the weeds knocked back, looked for heirs, and as of September, the sale of the home is pending.
Cofield said he can get this entire process down to about four months.
“I think it’s a win-win for everybody. If you get the information to this office, then we can kind of take it from there on the probate side and at least get answers for your constituents,” said Cofield.
Cofield said he was finally able to speak with someone in the city’s Public Works Department last week and was told they are now trying to set up a system to alert his office when an inspector encounters a vacant property with a deceased owner.
“We only recently became aware of the existence of this office, but have not had any dealings with it nor have not had any contact with that office wherein anyone offered assistance or support. That may be due to the transition from DON (Dept. of Neighborhoods) to HPW (Houston Public Works). The City has only recently transitioned the handling of dangerous building demolition matters to HPW, and we have been working to improve processes, add efficiencies, and adequately fund the volume of matters that have been on the docket,“ HPW Dir. Randy Macchi wrote in a statement to 2 Investigates. ”We are always willing to partner with agencies that have a shared common objective, but without more information, including an understanding of how the OPP office works and their processes, it is impossible to provide more information.”
Members of the public cannot ask Cofield’s office to get involved in cleaning up a derelict property. However, Cofield said residents can ask their respective councilmember to contact his office.
“The way the statute provides is that information needs to come from either a funeral home, a housing facility, or a governmental entity,” said Cofield. “The proper method is to go through your city councilmember or any sort of elected official to notify us.”
According to a city database obtained by 2 Investigates, there are 1,806 residential properties either declared a dangerous building by the city or have pending dangerous building code violations.
Roughly half the properties in this database show problems have had problems pending for a year or longer.
“A lot of illegal activity, drug use,” said Independence Heights resident Cynthia Brown about a vacant house next to her.
The city’s database shows the home on Westfield popped up on the city’s radar in 2019 and is still a problem for Brown.
“When I’m out mowing my yard, I’m always careful over there because I’m picking up needles and used condoms,” said Brown. “They are shooting over there, so I don’t know what they’re shooting at; as a matter of fact, there’s a bullet hole in my car porch.”
Macchi wrote in a statement to 2 Investigates that the city has made changes to how it handles derelict properties.
“The large backlog of cases is exactly why the City effected the transition from DON—where these items were significantly underfunded—to HPW. Under the Public Works umbrella, we are able to dedicate resources more effectively and with less duplication. In addition, process changes have been implemented to move matters forward faster, including recission of the Administrative Policy that required an internal panel to meet that would evaluate the necessity of abatement up to and including demolition," Macchi wrote.
Macchi also wrote that the city allocated $20 million in fiscal year 2025 for the demolition of derelict properties.
City Council was expected to vote this week on whether to budget an additional $50 million for demolition of derelict properties over the next few years, but the item was tagged.
