If you own an abandoned house and aren’t thinking about what to do with it, you could get yourself in trouble, financially or legally. There are quite a few reasons to consider selling an abandoned property, some of which are obvious but some of which may have occurred to you.

First and foremost, abandoned buildings are huge magnets for crime. It’s a sad truth that vacant buildings are where illegal activity tends to happen. Even if the crime rates are falling in your area, there’s a decent chance you’ll find crime happening in abandoned buildings and homes where those committing the crimes can hide. Your empty house is a prime location for this.

There are also some important health reasons to sell an abandoned house. Vacant properties are major hotspots for bacteria, mold, and insects. It’s exactly the kind of environment where people with health problems can suddenly feel a lot worse. Per a recent study, there was a correlation between living near an abandoned building or vacant lot with public health problems such as mental health or chronic illness. You don’t want to have to deal with something like that.

If your abandoned house isn’t actually abandoned, that could be a real problem too. It’s not uncommon for squatters to move into empty houses and try to claim the right to live in an abandoned property. Many states allow for a person to secure the right to live in an abandoned building or house if they can establish residency and maintain it. Adverse possession, as it’s known, could cost the owner the property or put them in legal trouble.

If the house is truly empty, that probably means that it’s going to fall apart faster than a maintained house. Abandoned houses deteriorate faster than those with tenants. The longer a house sits unoccupied, the more likely it is that there are going to be problems, and those problems accumulate and add up.

Finally, owning any kind of property comes with costs and there’s little reason to keep paying those costs on a house that’s going to sit abandoned. Even if that’s the case you’ll still have to pay utilities and taxes. If the city catches wind of the property’s condition they might start fining you for violations. And if you wait too long or don’t pay what you owe, the government can repossess the house and leave you with nothing to show for it except unpaid bills.