From article in this morning’s Times Dispatch:
While a single dilapidated property can drag down values in a neighborhood, in many cases it wouldn’t be quite as literal as what’s happening to W. Thomas Wiles’ two-story row house at 418½ S. Pine St. in Richmond’s Oregon Hill community.
The condemned end unit next door, which shares a wall, roof and porch with Wiles’ property, has been vacant since late 2004, crumbling into ruin and pulling his house along with it, said Wiles, who keeps a binder full of code violations that the neighboring owner, believed to live in Maryland, has racked up with the city.
Despite eight years of phone calls and emails, he has been unable to get the city to do anything about the house besides tabulating code violations and tacking up bright-orange condemnation notices that have made it tough for Wiles to sell or rent his property.
There is also a related gallery of photos.