Councilman to push bill to combat blight

[thelakelander]

Unfortunately, it's a Pittsburgh councilman instead of Jax but it's still worth following:

Pittsburgh Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle plans to introduce legislation to hold banks responsible for maintaining homes they've foreclosed upon, a measure that he said will give the city a new tool to fight blight.

The bill would require creditors to register abandoned properties with the city. The creditor would be responsible for maintaining the exterior of the home, keeping the home up to code, cutting overgrown vegetation and keeping it clear of debris.

Banks that failed to register their abandoned properties would be penalized with a $100-a-day fee. The city also would levy a daily fine -- yet to be determined -- on banks that failed to maintain their properties.
Mr. Lavelle will introduce the bill at Tuesday's council meeting.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-councilman-to-push-bill-to-combat-blight-693856/#ixzz2XvfCLydH

[strider]

Basically this is what mothballing a house is all about and while we have that on the books here now for t the Historic Districts, it was originally desired for all of Jacksonville for this very reason.  Unfortunately Ms Scott (among others, I'm sure) was not for it. Getting Mothball past her department was not easy as it was.  It would be a great way to save the bank foreclosures without making the neighbors live next to an ugly house and would keep the houses viable for the next owners.

All Jacksonville would need to do would be to pass  a simple piece of legislation allowing for mothballing and proscribing an easy to follow procedure to getting it done.  Rather than fining the owner though, it would seem far more productive to have Municipal Code Compliance mothball it and charge back the owners.  Of course the ordinance would have to also REQUIRE Ms Scott to do mothballing as she has refused to do it thus far. 

[JFman00]

Would also be a great way to incentivize banks to stop sitting on foreclosed properties for so long.

[m74reeves]

Apparently we do have a vacant property registration for foreclosures...managed by the Neighborhoods Department (oh vey), which is farmed out to an outside agency. $150 to register...where is the money going? How is this being managed?

http://www.coj.net/departments/neighborhoods/housing-and-community-development/vacant-property-registration.aspx

The servicer's website has no details about properties, etc.

[Debbie Thompson]

I wonder how many lenders know about it.  For some reason, I can't connect to the ordinance link, so I can't see if there is a process to notify lenders about the registry.  Otherwise, how would they know when a Jacksonville property is in default, they need to register it? 

I'm on my lunch hour, so I can't register on the website or do much at the moment, but I'd think law enforcement, and COJ, can create accounts and monitor properties, or what's the purpose of it? 

Or did you register and discover that's not the case m74?  Interesting. Maybe they have tight limits on who can use the site, other than to report a property, so we don't get bad guys trolling for distressed and/or vacant properties to go steal stuff.  I'm speculating, though, because I didn't register.

[m74reeves]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,18735.0.html

Debbie, see my link at the end of this thread for the ordinance. The purpose of the ordinance is supposedly to cut down on nuisance issues caused by banks not keeping foreclosures maintained and secured. They have to pay a registration fee and post contact information on their properties.

The City is having this outside agency handling the monitoring of this ordinance...obviously they are collecting a portion of the $150 per pop registration fee per property. I wonder What department gets the remainder and how is it spent?

And if you have a vacant REO property next to you and you want to see if they are registered with the City, you unfortunately cannot confirm it with the servicer's website. That website seems to be for the lenders to register the property and (shock!) a majority of the links on the servicer's website just say "coming soon" with no info. I just saw someone recently post a complaint on the City's FB page about a REO property not being maintained.

Although I could find this glowing testimonial from a city staffer on the site [http://vacantregistry.com/client-surveys/]:

Tina M. Beals, Housing & Community Development Division
City of Jacksonville
•Have you found your ordinance to be effective? Yes, we currently have approximately 12,000 registered properties.
•Has it increased or decreased your departments work load?  My division’s workload has increase minimally as we manage the overall program, however, the Code Compliance department has seen a decrease in the time it takes to research property owners/servicers (when notified of possible nuisance issues.)
•Has FPRC performed up to your expectations? Most definitely. They respond promptly and knowledgeably with a pleasant attitude to any issues, questions, etc. that I have had. They work well with the lenders, servicers, property management companies, etc. and are always prompt to answer any requests they may have. I have only received one complaint in the 2 years we have been in partnership with them and that was due to a computer glitch where the email was not received. Their dedication to research has provided an accurate database that I have full confidence in using, whether for my own needs/reports or to provide information to City Council, the Mayor’s Office, our Board of Directors, for Media requests, and for other public records requests.
•Have the number of neighborhood complaints increased or decreased since the banks have been required to register and take responsibility for properties they own or are in foreclosure? There is a decrease in the number of nuisance “complaints” due to our requirement that signs with contact information for the property management be posted at each registered property. Neighbors can now contact the PM or servicer directly if there are issues.
•Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience with FPRC? FPRC has shown during our partnership that this work is not just a “job” to them. They are dedicated to making a difference in neighborhoods and communities and are constantly looking for ways to improve their processes. In addition, they are researching additional functions they may be able to perform in conjunction with what they are currently doing as a way to provide more assistance to the cities they partner with.