hey guys, i have a messed up situation with my house and i'm not exactly sure how to proceed. thought some of you might have some ideas?
the situation is this -- my fiance bought the house we live in several years ago (before we were together). it was a big mistake to buy this house, as it is a mess. we have the inside fixed up nicely, but the foundation is shifting, it looks like our roof is leaning on the house next door, and our kitchen -- a poorly built-on addition -- is literally falling off the back of the house.
we live in pittsburgh, where it is very hilly, and we have a shed and a parking space out back, about 3 feet higher than our little back yard. a few weeks ago, a hole opened up between our neighbors' garage and our parking space. it's about 3 feet wide and goes under the neighbors' garage (which is 2 stories -- shed on one level, garage on the 2nd).
i went to talk to my neighbor about it earlier today, and she said that she'd had her home insurance people come look at it. they told her that the problem was that the ground on our side was shifting, and they wouldn't pay for her garage to be repaired.
so, i'm thinking we are going to have to get that fixed. we don't really have the cash to get it fixed, but we'll have to figure something out, because it's really unsafe the way it is now.
the problem is, our house is only worth like $30k. so i don't want to pay any more than i have to, because we are never going to be able to sell this place anyway. we'd need to pour at least $30k into it to fix all the problems to the point where it would pass inspection.
honestly, at this point, i would be happiest to just move into a rental, treat our small remaining mortgage like a credit card debt and pay it off, and abandon this place.
i'm just wondering what the consequences of that would be. there are lots of abandoned houses in our neighborhood, and eventually the city comes and knocks them down. but would the city come after us for whatever reason?
i guess i'm just wondering -- what are some options for getting out of this place without having to pay double the property's worth for the privilege?
thanks so much for your ideas, i have no experience with real estate and no clue what we should do.