Holding property owners accountable

With 500 vacant properties, officials frustrated in efforts to find who’s responsible

John Howell
Posted 4/30/15

A single strategy, such as increasing fines to $1,000 a day, may not answer all of the problems the city encounters with abandoned and foreclosed homes.

But while an ad hoc committee studying the …

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Holding property owners accountable

With 500 vacant properties, officials frustrated in efforts to find who’s responsible

Posted

A single strategy, such as increasing fines to $1,000 a day, may not answer all of the problems the city encounters with abandoned and foreclosed homes.

But while an ad hoc committee studying the problem of neglected properties hasn’t come up with a single solution, there appears to be unanimity that banks and mortgage companies should be held accountable for maintaining property even though they may not have technically taken possession through foreclosure.

“The biggest issue is the banks and the lending institutions,” Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur said at Tuesday’s committee meeting. “If you’re in control you’ve got to be responsible.”

But knowing who is in control is frequently the problem.

Municipal Court Justice Joel Gerstenblatt has seen it.

A member of the committee, Gerstenblatt told of a situation where a woman was named the executor of an estate that included a rundown property in violation of minimum housing regulations. The woman didn’t want to be troubled so she “walked away from the property” and delegated the responsibility to her 19-year-old son. The son didn’t have a clue of what to do and the city really had no leverage to get him to make improvements.

Gerstenblatt has seen similar cases, noting that the problem emerges when a house is in limbo for one, two and even three years. Grass doesn’t get cut. Yard work and repairs to the building doesn’t get done and the property drags down the appearance of the neighborhood.

Clerks in the building department and minimum housing get the calls all the time from people who notice a property in disrepair, piles of debris or no signs of activity. An inspector is sent to the site and violations are recorded, but often reaching the person responsible becomes the challenge.

“We don’t know who to cite,” said one clerk, “so we cite anybody and everybody and see who responds.”

This is not a matter of a few houses, either.

According to estimates provided by city building inspector Alfred DeCourt, there are currently about 500 vacant and foreclosed homes in the city.

Under city ordinance property owners are required to register vacant property. The fee is $100 for one year and the intent of the program is to have a list so that the city can reach owners should it be needed. But not everybody registers and over time the list becomes outdated.

But empty homes don’t go unnoticed.

Thieves and the homeless compound the problem, says Lt. Michael Gilbert, who also serves on the committee. He said he is looking for ways “to cut down on the opportunities for people to loot these properties.” While police occasionally find homeless moving into vacant homes, he said the biggest problem Warwick Police have is the theft of cooper piping and appliances from homes.

“Banks aren’t taking physical possession,” said Gilbert.

It’s an issue that leaves the city searching for who to hold responsible. In some cases, the owners of the property continue to occupy a house, although they no longer are paying the mortgage and consider themselves no longer the owner.

Pulling them into municipal court can be ineffective.

In other cases, while the mortgage holder hasn’t foreclosed, they have hired service companies to check on and maintain the property and identify them as responsible. In some cases, the city has cited the service company only to learn these people have been contracted and are not the owners.

From Gerstenblatt’s perspective, the owners who don’t have the resources to fix the problem are the biggest frustration. Fining them doesn’t help, as it only further limits the resources the property owner might have to correct the violation. In other instances chasing down a responsible party is akin to a wild goose chase.

That might describe Ladouceur’s quest to clean up a property on Warwick Neck amidst some of the city’s higher priced homes. Ladouceur said that ever since he was first elected in 2012 he’s been trying to deal with the house at 1007 Warwick Neck Avenue. Reportedly, the home filled with mold is uninhabitable and has sat vacant for years.

It has been a long process, but Gerstenblatt has approved the city’s request to demolish the property. The city is now looking to remove asbestos before actually starting the work, but EqiFirst Corporation has notified the city its plan to auction the property May 14 in a foreclosure.

The city maintains the court order takes priority and the demolition will proceed.

From DeCourt’s perspective, some people know the system and know how to beat it. They will act to eliminate one violation, such as covering over a hole in a roof and then pile debris in their yard.

Then there are those cases, as Gerstenblatt points out, where the owners of a property have challenged a foreclosure and the matter is going through the courts. Who is the city to chase, the institution that foreclosed or the individual that claims to be the rightful owner?

“Meanwhile, nothing happens,” said Gerstenblatt.

For Ladouceur, the banks and lending institutions should be targeted.

“We’ve got to start chasing them,” he said. “The word needs to get out loud and clear that we’re going after these lenders.”

The committee took interest in legislation introduced by Senator Harold Metts of Providence that would enable that city to increase fines to $1,000 an occurrence.

Ladouceur said yesterday he aims to have a report for the council and that enabling legislation would be needed to implement higher fines.

“The biggest problem is the lending institution, and I want to deal with them,” he said.

Interviewed after the meeting, Mayor Scott Avedisian said the issue of minimum housing violations as they relate to vacant and foreclosed properties has been an ongoing problem.

“We’ve got to be serious about it,” he said. “We can’t go halfway. We’ve got to stop the chronic offenders.”

Acting chief of staff and City Planner William DePasquale believes the situations can be so varied that multiple means would be most effective.

“I think relying on one strategy you would be fooling yourself,” he said.

Yet, he targets the lending institutions, too.

“We need these banks held accountable, too. There are too many delays in the process.”

Mayor Avedisian said he is also considering requests for additional personnel to chase down and stay on top of minimum housing violations. Such changes, if recommended, would be reflected in his budget.

Comments

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  • .

    How many of those 500 vacant homes is a direct result of the city imposed tax sale that put 1500 homes up for tax sale this past November?

    Thursday, April 30, 2015 Report this

  • Smarterthanyou

    Jeez Stacia, thought you would have that number already.

    Thursday, April 30, 2015 Report this

  • Art_Yatsko

    Connecticut has adopted a law that encourages short sales to help prevent troubled properties from ever going vacant. RI should do the same.

    Friday, May 1, 2015 Report this