Is your neighborhood haunted by the (standing) dead?:

Brooklyn and Queens are plagued with “zombie” properties — homes abandoned by their owners and banks that fail to complete the foreclosure process.

New York currently has 807 of the deserted homes, which can waste away for years as lenders fail to maintain them.

. . . .

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pushed a bill that would force mortgage holders to care for the properties. It failed to pass this legislative session.

'Zombie homes are a drain on families and communities and place undue burden on thinly stretched municipal resources,' said Melissa Grace, an AG spokeswoman. 'We look forward to working with the legislature . . . next session.' (link)