Hoarding: Buried Alive - TLC

this is in american I think, so laws are different to uk.

dreadful how people can live like that isn't it.

It's a mental health condition.

I once knew someone who was a hoarder and I helped her get rid of stuff as she just couldn't do it on her own. She was a milder case, but still so much stuff, and she knew she had issues.
She was genuinely distressed when I suggested removing the things that were of no use to her. It was a painful struggle for her to let things go. I felt really sorry for her as she hated the clutter but was powerless to do anything about it on her own. It is a mental health disorder. It is probably based on deep seated fear of not having 'enough'.

It is probably based on deep seated fear of not having 'enough' Yes, and maybe hoarding stuff is a form of control in a scary world - maybe the hoarder is fearful of the past and if the future and so wants everything to stay the same?

My original post was a query about how the Local Authority could have the power to confiscate a house lived in by its owner. I hoped to get a response from a poster who knew something about the American/Canadian legal systems.

My old neighbour who was a hoarder also had a severe case of personal neglect. After she died, her daughters told me they could never remember her having a bath, even when they were young. She kept them clean for going to school and made sure they were well fed, but emotionally she was completely cold and controlling. If they even moved an item of rubbish on the floor so that they could sit on the carpet, she would stand over them screaming at them to put the item back where they found it.

In her case, it was definitely a case of mental illness. If I picked up a little ornament she had knocked down, I had to put it precisely where she wanted it to be - half inch to the left, quarter inch back etc.