5. Maintaining Vacant and Non-Vacant Property

Vacant properties can quickly become blighted, dangerous, and magnets for crime.  Intervention in the maintenance of vacant property is critical to staving off a spiral of neighborhood decline. 

• Much of the work in this area is happening at the municipal level through strengthening property maintenance and nuisance laws, increasing enforcement of laws that already exist, increasing the size of fines for violations, receivership, and taking over some maintenance.
• Meanwhile, it is important to encourage existing homeowners and landlords to maintain their property to the highest standards they can manage, by offering loans, grants, mini-repair events, home repair and improvement workshops, etc.

Key strategies for maintaining vacant property:

• Code enforcement.
• Increased fines for violations (e.g., Chula Vista’s Abandoned Property Program, which holds lenders responsible for the condition of their abandoned or financially distressed properties, and is being used as a model nationwide).
• Increased fees for vacant property registration (e.g., Minneapolis’ Vacant Building Registration Program).
• Higher tax rates on vacant property with violations (e.g., in Louisville, KY, the Metro Government charges a property tax rate for vacant properties with unresolved code violations three times higher than the properties would otherwise face.)
• Residents or local government organizing to cut grass, shovel snow, etc. (e.g., Hillsborough County, Florida/Tampa suburbs).
• Receivership. (e.g., the City of Chicago has granted the non-profit Community Investment Corporation (CIC) to administer it’s Troubled Building Initiative (TBI) and to act as a receiver to troubled buildings. According to the Treasury Department, “Under this program, when a property is referred to TBI, the city and CIC work through the housing court to pressure the owner to bring the property into compliance. If these efforts are unsuccessful, the Cook County Housing Court appoints a receiver, with specific responsibilities. These might include management of the building, completing emergency repairs, evicting bad tenants, and evaluating the long-term viability of the property based on occupancy rates, physical condition, rent levels, and rehabilitation potential.”)
• Safeguard Properties has a Good Neighbor Door Hanger Program that alerts residents of nearby properties to contact Safeguard if a vacant property they manage needs attention.

• Requires lenders to register vacant foreclosed properties with the city to include the name of the lender and the person responsible for maintaining the property.
• Outlines specific maintenance requirements for the property including garbage and debris removal, lawn maintenance, graffiti, and other requirements.
• Requires properties that are owned by corporations or out-of-town entities to hire a local property management firm to prevent the abandoned homes from becoming neglected.
• Requires that there be a posting on the property that identifies who to call to report problems and concerns, plus requires the property manager to inspect the property on a weekly basis.
• States that violators that do not maintain their properties can be fined between $100 and $1,000 a day for each property that is unkempt.
• Allows the city to place a lien on the property if the violator does not pay this fine.