Vacant Property Registration Act

Jamie Bright Author

09/26/2024 Added

10 Plays

Description

Bobbi Pettit with Five Rule Rural Planning discusses the Vacant Property Registration Act and how communities have used it to help clean up their towns. Jeni Mattern with the City of Terrytown also joins us to share examples of how they have used the program. Recorded 2/14/2024.

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[00:00:00.000]Thank you.
[00:00:29.980]Hi, Bobby.
[00:00:38.380]Looks like you're traveling today.
[00:00:40.080]Yep, I sure am.
[00:00:48.120]I'm in between towns.
[00:00:51.100]Thank you for taking time to join us.
[00:00:55.200]Oh, it's no problem.
[00:00:56.800]I have a question.
[00:00:59.960]I had a presentation I just put on last week for...
[00:01:02.960]Oh, who was it?
[00:01:06.480]Planning and zoning.
[00:01:08.600]Yep, I was there.
[00:01:10.640]Oh, I was going to use the same one.
[00:01:13.780]That's okay.
[00:01:14.640]You might have some overlap, but I warned people that if they were there, they probably heard us in their presentation.
[00:01:23.520]Okay.
[00:01:26.700]I'm just looking for it now.
[00:01:28.980]Yeah.
[00:01:29.040]We might have a pretty good-sized group today.
[00:01:53.940]Okay.
[00:01:54.060]Jenny, just testing to see if you can hear me.
[00:02:23.920]If you can hear us.
[00:02:24.800]I got it now, I think.
[00:02:31.420]Perfect.
[00:02:32.280]We can hear you.
[00:02:33.300]Yay.
[00:02:34.080]Yay.
[00:02:34.320]While Bobbi is pulling up her presentation,
[00:02:53.120]since we have kind of a big group today,
[00:02:55.660]if you all want to introduce yourselves in the chat,
[00:02:58.740]you can share your name and organization or community.
[00:03:03.640]All right.
[00:03:04.640]All right.
[00:03:05.140]All right.
[00:03:35.120]And Bobbi, I'm trying to remember.
[00:03:50.800]I think that maybe was sent out to the whole group
[00:03:56.800]after the workshop last week.
[00:03:59.060]I can see if I can pull up that email with slides.
[00:04:03.160]Oh, no, I've got them here.
[00:04:06.780]You got it.
[00:04:07.560]Perfect.
[00:04:07.960]All right.
[00:04:14.880]We can go ahead and get started.
[00:04:16.800]I'm Jamie Bright with Nebraska Extension.
[00:04:20.460]I'm the Rural Prosperity Nebraska Educator
[00:04:22.860]in the Southern Panhandle.
[00:04:24.660]And today we have Bobbi Pettit.
[00:04:27.940]Is that how I say your last name?
[00:04:30.240]Close.
[00:04:31.240]Yep, that's it.
[00:04:32.220]With five rural planning.
[00:04:34.820]And also we have Jenny with the City of Tarrytown.
[00:04:42.060]They are going to talk about
[00:04:45.280]the Vacant Property Registration Act.
[00:04:47.920]Tarrytown has done some of that
[00:04:50.720]so they can provide examples.
[00:04:52.040]We'll have Bobbi start off with her presentation
[00:04:54.780]and then she'll have to leave in about 40 minutes or so.
[00:04:59.340]And Jenny can share some examples.
[00:05:01.580]Please go ahead when you're ready, Bobbi.
[00:05:03.860]Okay, good morning, everyone.
[00:05:20.660]I'm Bobbi Pettit.
[00:05:24.200]I'm the owner of Five Rural Rural Planning.
[00:05:28.060]We are a planning,
[00:05:31.420]community planning consultant.
[00:05:33.180]I'm based out of Kearney.
[00:05:35.460]I live in Kearney.
[00:05:36.300]I have one employee in Kearney
[00:05:37.640]and then I have one other full-time employee in Stanton.
[00:05:41.000]We do lots,
[00:05:44.060]we provide lots of different planning
[00:05:45.760]and economic development services to our communities.
[00:05:48.800]We primarily are focused in rural communities,
[00:05:53.780]population 5,000 and below
[00:05:57.280]is really who we're set up to serve.
[00:06:01.260]I have lived in Kearney since 2009.
[00:06:06.760]I'm from Myrna, Nebraska,
[00:06:09.660]which is a town of about 300 people
[00:06:12.520]along Highway 2 on the,
[00:06:14.900]I say the east edge of the Sandhills.
[00:06:17.140]So I think it's actually growing up in Myrna
[00:06:21.680]that made me,
[00:06:23.820]or is why vacant property registry
[00:06:26.640]is one of the programs that we offer.
[00:06:28.880]So before I,
[00:06:31.100]I started working at,
[00:06:34.260]before I started the business,
[00:06:35.820]I was at South Central Economic Development District
[00:06:39.300]for several years.
[00:06:41.320]And when I was with South Central,
[00:06:43.300]I did nuisance abatement.
[00:06:46.040]I was a nuisance abatement officer,
[00:06:47.780]which is,
[00:06:48.880]I think it's probably the most interesting job title
[00:06:52.680]I've ever had.
[00:06:53.440]It's one you definitely have to own
[00:06:54.720]if you're going to call yourself nuisance abatement.
[00:06:56.940]And so we would fight pretty hard
[00:07:00.940]I'm going to say to clean up properties
[00:07:04.360]and to encourage or assist owners
[00:07:08.180]with cleaning up properties.
[00:07:09.660]But then once a property was cleaned up,
[00:07:13.680]I still felt like we were just leaving,
[00:07:16.240]you know, if they would clean it up
[00:07:18.120]and they would mow,
[00:07:18.860]if they would board up the house,
[00:07:20.380]they would secure all the windows,
[00:07:22.260]then it wasn't technically a nuisance anymore.
[00:07:24.600]But I also felt like we hadn't got
[00:07:27.200]to the bottom of the issue.
[00:07:28.800]We hadn't really solved the problem
[00:07:30.780]and so that always bothered me
[00:07:33.600]turning a nuisance property
[00:07:37.120]basically into a vacant property.
[00:07:38.920]So here's like one example
[00:07:41.220]of what I'm talking about.
[00:07:42.560]This property was a nuisance property
[00:07:45.680]and we utilized the community's
[00:07:49.520]nuisance ordinance to come onto the property
[00:07:53.040]and clean it up.
[00:07:54.340]And so on the right side of the screen
[00:07:57.360]is the same property after we cleaned it up.
[00:08:00.620]So yeah, we had cleaned up the mess,
[00:08:03.580]but I still don't feel like you feel any better
[00:08:06.220]about your community or you feel any better
[00:08:07.760]about this house when you just leave it here
[00:08:10.560]the way it is right now on the right side of it.
[00:08:13.880]So that's just another example of something
[00:08:17.320]that always bothered me.
[00:08:18.280]Now, growing up in Myrna, Nebraska,
[00:08:20.960]being a kid in the 90s,
[00:08:24.160]which is sadly 30 years ago,
[00:08:27.100]we had a nice school.
[00:08:30.460]And there were some nice houses being built
[00:08:33.300]always on the outside of town.
[00:08:36.200]And there were nice farm trucks.
[00:08:40.140]But something that always bothered me
[00:08:41.640]is that it seemed like we had a nice school.
[00:08:43.480]But on my way, as I walked to my nice school every day,
[00:08:47.160]I would walk by an entire block of vacant houses,
[00:08:50.880]like this one on the top left.
[00:08:53.060]Walk by that every day.
[00:08:54.440]How does that make you feel about yourself?
[00:08:58.140]And so therefore, how does that make you feel?
[00:09:00.300]About your community?
[00:09:00.980]So vacant houses, I think are,
[00:09:05.620]I think they are really holding back
[00:09:09.080]a lot of our small towns,
[00:09:10.280]especially when you take into consideration
[00:09:12.080]how costly it is to develop new homes.
[00:09:15.560]And by vacancy, long-term vacancy,
[00:09:19.920]hold on a second, I've messed up my screen.
[00:09:21.960]So if it seems like I'm confused,
[00:09:23.520]I'm abusing myself, so don't worry.
[00:09:25.340]Okay, there, I'm back.
[00:09:26.680]I know where I'm at again.
[00:09:30.140]Long-term vacancy, I think,
[00:09:32.080]is probably something that we can all agree on
[00:09:35.540]is really hard on a community.
[00:09:37.960]There's a lot of things that get it started.
[00:09:41.220]Houses are meant to be lived in.
[00:09:44.060]So every day that goes by,
[00:09:47.540]that the toilet doesn't flush,
[00:09:50.020]that the water doesn't come through the pipes,
[00:09:52.100]that the heat is not turned on,
[00:09:53.600]that doors aren't open and shut,
[00:09:54.920]is hard on that house.
[00:09:57.300]And so the more days that go by,
[00:09:59.980]with nobody living there
[00:10:01.900]and nobody using what it was designed for,
[00:10:03.840]the faster cycle of decline that that house falls into.
[00:10:08.560]Emergency services,
[00:10:11.640]I do probably one to three,
[00:10:15.200]I attend one to three village board
[00:10:17.460]or city council meetings a week.
[00:10:18.900]So I've sat through a lot of EMS
[00:10:22.500]or dealing with the budget concerns
[00:10:26.100]of your fire department,
[00:10:27.520]your emergency services.
[00:10:29.820]And at the same time,
[00:10:30.920]vacant houses are generally
[00:10:32.340]where your emergency services are called to
[00:10:35.260]or police services or fire.
[00:10:37.680]And so that's how you pay for those services
[00:10:40.940]is with property tax dollars.
[00:10:42.660]But at the same time,
[00:10:44.520]the properties that those services
[00:10:46.220]are most likely dealing with
[00:10:47.500]are the ones that are producing
[00:10:48.600]the smallest amount of property tax revenue.
[00:10:51.380]So I think there's a long list
[00:10:54.680]of why vacant properties
[00:10:57.320]can be so bad for your community.
[00:10:59.660]This picture that's in the background
[00:11:01.560]on this slide,
[00:11:02.420]this is an entire block of vacant houses
[00:11:05.760]on the east side of the street
[00:11:08.060]and on the west side of the street.
[00:11:09.300]Three on the east side,
[00:11:10.360]three on the west side.
[00:11:11.420]So the argument about
[00:11:13.740]it hurts my property values,
[00:11:14.800]it hurts my property taxes,
[00:11:15.880]usually if you have a nasty vacant house
[00:11:19.020]like this on your block,
[00:11:20.740]it's only a matter of time
[00:11:22.100]before it moves on down the block.
[00:11:24.520]Another example,
[00:11:29.500]vacant houses are like this one
[00:11:31.660]that was part of a house fire.
[00:11:33.760]So in this case,
[00:11:36.160]there was a drug bust
[00:11:37.340]that took place at this house
[00:11:39.120]and then a mysterious fire to follow.
[00:11:41.860]So in this community
[00:11:43.840]that we're working in,
[00:11:45.000]they have got their,
[00:11:47.360]hold on, I gotta mute my phone.
[00:11:48.760]They have got their LB 840 in place.
[00:11:51.380]They have built a new subdivision,
[00:11:54.040]just completed downtown revitalization.
[00:11:59.340]Several projects that this community is working on
[00:12:01.900]where they're having success.
[00:12:02.980]And then at the same time,
[00:12:04.660]it's hard for somebody to drive through this community
[00:12:06.980]or for a kid to walk to school every day by this house
[00:12:10.380]and not feel negative about your community.
[00:12:14.000]At the same time,
[00:12:15.660]this house right here
[00:12:17.820]would have been a two-story,
[00:12:20.240]four-bedroom house,
[00:12:21.480]corner lot,
[00:12:22.580]lots of space.
[00:12:24.680]And it just,
[00:12:26.680]it feels like a waste that it sits here on this corner
[00:12:29.180]where there are streets
[00:12:30.880]that were platted to serve this house.
[00:12:33.460]Water, sanitary,
[00:12:35.180]has already been put in.
[00:12:36.920]And this just feels like a lost investment
[00:12:39.420]when we have properties like this.
[00:12:41.060]So these things have bothered me
[00:12:44.420]since I've been working in planning and zoning
[00:12:46.840]and code enforcement
[00:12:48.620]since the early 2000s.
[00:12:50.800]I'm going to take a drink of water quick.
[00:12:51.840]If you are watching my camera
[00:12:56.700]and you notice my lion's mug,
[00:12:57.920]I just want you to know
[00:12:59.020]I'm not a bandwagon fan.
[00:13:00.040]I was with the Lions
[00:13:02.000]when we were 0-16,
[00:13:03.000]so that's just a little side note there.
[00:13:04.520]All right.
[00:13:05.540]I was very excited
[00:13:08.860]when this legislation was passed
[00:13:11.100]and was adopted in 2018.
[00:13:13.920]This is the Vacant Property Registry,
[00:13:15.900]LB-256.
[00:13:17.120]Just a quick reminder,
[00:13:18.880]Nebraska is a Dillon's Rule state,
[00:13:21.060]so that means in Nebraska,
[00:13:22.260]you as a local government,
[00:13:24.900]you cannot pass any laws
[00:13:26.840]or create any ordinances.
[00:13:28.860]Unless the legislature
[00:13:30.700]has given you the right to do so.
[00:13:32.600]So this is called enabling legislation
[00:13:35.300]that was passed in 2018.
[00:13:37.060]So this legislation did not set up
[00:13:40.320]vacant property registries
[00:13:41.880]across Nebraska,
[00:13:42.860]but it made it legal
[00:13:44.720]and possible for you
[00:13:46.940]to do that yourself
[00:13:47.960]as a municipality if you want to.
[00:13:50.400]So I've gotten the question before
[00:13:51.700]if counties can set up registries.
[00:13:54.040]No, right now it's just municipalities
[00:13:56.720]that were enabled by LB-256
[00:13:58.700]to set up a registry.
[00:14:01.520]So what I'm showing you now
[00:14:05.340]is just an excerpt
[00:14:06.900]of one of the ordinances
[00:14:08.620]that we're working in.
[00:14:10.040]I believe this is Nelson.
[00:14:11.840]So we serve six communities
[00:14:15.640]in Nebraska
[00:14:16.760]as their vacant property registry administrator.
[00:14:20.260]So when we get involved,
[00:14:23.300]our communities will engage with us
[00:14:27.020]to represent them
[00:14:28.540]as their program administrator.
[00:14:29.720]They pass a resolution appointing us
[00:14:32.660]as their program administrator
[00:14:34.460]and then they pass the ordinance.
[00:14:36.680]I'm going to talk to you about the details
[00:14:38.180]about the ordinance in a minute.
[00:14:39.460]Something else that we require
[00:14:42.540]for our client communities
[00:14:43.880]is that they also sign an engagement letter
[00:14:47.720]with Savella Law,
[00:14:48.860]which is out of York.
[00:14:50.220]Because as you can guess,
[00:14:51.960]this is a very like,
[00:14:53.000]I'm going to say lawsuit liable program
[00:14:58.380]and as a local government,
[00:15:01.340]when you get sued,
[00:15:03.040]usually what you're going,
[00:15:05.000]if you get sued and you lose the lawsuit,
[00:15:07.540]usually what you're going to lose on
[00:15:09.820]is on procedure.
[00:15:11.060]So if you skipped a step,
[00:15:13.340]if you did not,
[00:15:14.780]if you cannot prove
[00:15:15.600]that you treat every property owner the same,
[00:15:17.500]if you don't publish your public hearings,
[00:15:19.960]if you don't do your due process
[00:15:22.240]and proper notification
[00:15:23.420]when you're supposed to,
[00:15:24.320]that's when you are most likely
[00:15:26.340]to lose a lawsuit.
[00:15:28.220]So we have a system in place
[00:15:30.360]with Kent Rauerts and John Thomas
[00:15:33.540]and Drew Graham.
[00:15:34.340]They're the attorneys at Savella Law.
[00:15:36.040]They will draft the ordinance.
[00:15:39.720]They will draft and oversee
[00:15:42.320]our written correspondence
[00:15:44.000]with the property owners.
[00:15:45.240]And then we'll talk about this
[00:15:46.940]in a minute when it's time
[00:15:48.000]to take legal action,
[00:15:49.220]like follow through on liens
[00:15:51.580]that we filed or file the liens.
[00:15:53.480]Or if property owners contact us
[00:15:56.320]and with the whole,
[00:15:57.100]I'm going to sue you
[00:15:58.060]blah, blah, blah.
[00:15:58.940]Or when they have their attorney call me,
[00:16:01.140]then I just refer them to Savella Law
[00:16:03.880]and that all of that conflict
[00:16:06.220]and all of that drama
[00:16:07.240]just really when they know
[00:16:09.920]that there's a reputable,
[00:16:11.500]experienced law firm
[00:16:13.240]that is representing the city
[00:16:14.900]and representing five rule
[00:16:16.580]in this process.
[00:16:17.900]So this is again,
[00:16:20.080]is an excerpt of the ordinance
[00:16:21.600]that we passed.
[00:16:22.300]So when Savella writes the ordinance,
[00:16:25.240]they are going off of the legislation
[00:16:27.900]or the guidance that's given
[00:16:29.220]by the statutes.
[00:16:31.120]There is a couple of,
[00:16:34.700]well, it always happens.
[00:16:36.880]Dave Patak,
[00:16:37.660]I've sat through many of his sessions.
[00:16:39.460]He always calls Nebraska State statutes
[00:16:41.920]the big blue book of surprises.
[00:16:43.260]We're never really,
[00:16:44.880]we almost always have
[00:16:46.360]some sort of like gray area
[00:16:47.860]that we have to interpret on our own
[00:16:49.580]when we are enacting a new law.
[00:16:53.980]And then usually, sadly,
[00:16:55.640]what happens is somebody has to get sued.
[00:16:57.740]Has to go back to the Supreme Court
[00:16:59.040]and then they clarify the law.
[00:17:00.360]So this, I'm taking another drink.
[00:17:04.440]I'm sure you've all been through it.
[00:17:08.140]We've been through the bugs
[00:17:10.020]that have come through our house
[00:17:11.880]and I still have the leftover cough
[00:17:14.600]or something from whatever
[00:17:16.460]that was I had last week.
[00:17:17.760]So this first page of the ordinance
[00:17:20.940]is just, you know,
[00:17:21.880]the basic findings comes
[00:17:23.280]right out of the statute.
[00:17:24.560]The second page of the
[00:17:27.580]ordinance goes over the definitions.
[00:17:29.360]So this is something
[00:17:31.200]that I want to talk about, too.
[00:17:32.600]We do commercial properties
[00:17:34.940]and residential properties.
[00:17:36.480]The amount of fees
[00:17:38.660]that are assessed is different
[00:17:40.640]based on whether it's a commercial
[00:17:42.360]or a residential property.
[00:17:44.780]These letters A through F,
[00:17:47.340]this evidence of vacancy,
[00:17:48.980]it's from my years
[00:17:50.960]of doing nuisance abatement
[00:17:52.460]that I don't really worry about.
[00:17:57.420]I don't worry about most of these letters
[00:17:59.300]because I don't worry about A, C, D, E, or F
[00:18:04.340]because I feel like all of those
[00:18:06.200]are very subjective,
[00:18:07.220]which means that we can argue about them.
[00:18:10.100]And I've already lost
[00:18:11.520]too many hours of my life
[00:18:13.120]arguing with people
[00:18:14.440]about whether or not a tire
[00:18:15.600]in a front yard is a nuisance
[00:18:16.980]or an unlocked door is a nuisance.
[00:18:19.940]So I really try to stick
[00:18:22.520]with black and white.
[00:18:23.700]And so letter B is our main qualifier.
[00:18:27.260]Your property belongs on the registry.
[00:18:28.800]And that's the active utility accounts.
[00:18:31.720]So that's the city's water,
[00:18:34.480]sewer and trash, if you do trash.
[00:18:36.180]And then also the electric.
[00:18:38.120]It's easier if the city
[00:18:40.680]provides the electricity
[00:18:41.780]than another company.
[00:18:46.940]Because if another company
[00:18:49.880]is providing electric,
[00:18:50.840]for example, Stanton, Nebraska
[00:18:53.000]is one of our clients.
[00:18:57.100]Stanton, Nebraska.
[00:18:59.700]Hold on, you guys.
[00:19:01.060]I'm very sorry.
[00:19:01.680]I got a cough.
[00:19:02.480]There is a lot of stuff going around.
[00:19:06.640]Also, Jenny shared
[00:19:15.900]some of the documents
[00:19:18.300]they use in Tarrytown.
[00:19:19.880]So I will remember to send those out
[00:19:21.980]after the meeting.
[00:19:22.680]So you guys have samples
[00:19:23.920]of those as well.
[00:19:26.940]Okay, I'm back.
[00:19:31.400]Yeah, Nebraska.
[00:19:42.920]I'm so sorry, Jamie.
[00:19:44.600]I have to cough some more.
[00:19:45.620]Does anyone have questions
[00:19:50.280]up to this point?
[00:19:56.780]Do any of our other communities
[00:20:01.740]that are currently on
[00:20:03.340]participate in
[00:20:05.860]this type of program?
[00:20:08.100]I wasn't even made aware
[00:20:21.480]of the program
[00:20:22.380]until I went to
[00:20:24.100]the LEAD conference,
[00:20:25.840]the Minnesota
[00:20:26.620]midwinter, the February one
[00:20:28.160]in 2022.
[00:20:29.640]So I think there's a ton
[00:20:31.980]of communities out there
[00:20:32.880]that still don't even know
[00:20:34.060]that this exists
[00:20:35.180]and how beneficial
[00:20:36.780]it really is.
[00:20:37.740]Thank you, Jenny.
[00:20:40.140]I hadn't heard of it
[00:20:41.500]until recently either.
[00:20:42.800]I think I'm back.
[00:20:51.640]All right.
[00:20:56.460]This lack of active
[00:20:57.260]utility accounts
[00:20:58.160]is where we really focus
[00:21:00.920]when we create our list
[00:21:02.660]of properties
[00:21:04.040]that when we talk
[00:21:06.540]about the criteria.
[00:21:07.400]What I was saying
[00:21:10.360]was Stanton, Nebraska
[00:21:11.560]is a customer
[00:21:13.560]of Stanton County Electric.
[00:21:16.220]Stanton County Electric
[00:21:20.740]is not going to share
[00:21:22.280]that information, right?
[00:21:24.540]That's private information.
[00:21:26.300]They're not going to tell us
[00:21:27.340]who does or does not have
[00:21:28.960]an active electric account.
[00:21:30.720]So we mostly focused
[00:21:33.260]on water and sewer.
[00:21:35.960]If you are doing
[00:21:38.620]commercial buildings
[00:21:39.740]and they are still paying
[00:21:41.740]for electricity,
[00:21:42.480]I don't think you're going
[00:21:44.660]to be very effective
[00:21:45.600]trying to put them
[00:21:47.000]on your registry.
[00:21:47.780]So I wanted to point
[00:21:49.940]that out there.
[00:21:56.140]So when we notify somebody
[00:22:01.340]that they're going
[00:22:03.280]on the registry,
[00:22:03.960]we follow a lot
[00:22:05.080]of the same mailing
[00:22:05.800]that you would follow
[00:22:06.760]if you are enforcing nuisance.
[00:22:09.440]So we have to go off
[00:22:12.460]of the property owner
[00:22:13.580]listed that your county assessor
[00:22:18.040]has down as the owner,
[00:22:19.280]and we have to contact them
[00:22:21.500]at the mailing address
[00:22:24.080]listed for the assessor
[00:22:25.980]to identify the property owner.
[00:22:27.200]So what we do is
[00:22:28.480]if we identify properties
[00:22:29.840]that meet the criteria,
[00:22:31.640]then we send letters to the owners.
[00:22:35.200]We notify them
[00:22:36.960]that we believe this property
[00:22:38.660]meets the criteria
[00:22:40.920]of going on to the vacant property registry.
[00:22:42.920]They have two weeks
[00:22:46.360]to register the property.
[00:22:48.620]We also include an occupancy form,
[00:22:51.880]and then they mail it back to us.
[00:22:55.960]Most of them don't mail it back to us.
[00:22:58.280]Most of them ignore it.
[00:22:59.420]And so 14 days
[00:23:01.340]from the day we mail the letter,
[00:23:02.760]if we don't get anything back,
[00:23:05.040]then we enter them onto the registry
[00:23:07.420]as the program administrator.
[00:23:09.820]That is another one
[00:23:12.000]where there's been some argument
[00:23:14.200]and a couple of communities
[00:23:15.380]have decided not to work with us
[00:23:17.340]because their village attorney
[00:23:20.100]or their city attorney
[00:23:21.000]didn't feel that we have the right
[00:23:23.780]to enter properties
[00:23:25.740]onto the registry
[00:23:26.620]without the owner's consent.
[00:23:28.020]Our interpretation of the law
[00:23:30.660]is that we do
[00:23:31.960]because it says that
[00:23:33.280]if the owner meets the criteria,
[00:23:34.660]they shall register the property.
[00:23:36.760]If they refuse to,
[00:23:39.020]if they don't comply,
[00:23:40.460]then there's also the $100 a day fine
[00:23:44.300]that we can charge for noncompliance.
[00:23:46.180]And we have determined
[00:23:47.680]that it's better to register the property
[00:23:51.060]without the owner's consent
[00:23:52.580]than to charge them the $100
[00:23:55.520]a day for noncompliance.
[00:23:57.440]So we can come back to that if you want,
[00:24:00.100]but that's what's listed out here.
[00:24:02.680]The maximums that you can charge.
[00:24:06.500]So the way that we do it is,
[00:24:08.020]so we send them the letter.
[00:24:09.820]14 days from the day we send them the letter,
[00:24:12.900]we put them on to the registry.
[00:24:14.440]Once the property is on the registry,
[00:24:16.960]that's when the clock starts ticking.
[00:24:18.840]So they have, they're on there.
[00:24:20.940]So that's when the clock starts ticking.
[00:24:22.600]Every six months from that day
[00:24:25.300]that it's on the registry, we assess a fee.
[00:24:28.400]The maximum you can start at is 250 for a residential
[00:24:33.340]or 1000 for a commercial.
[00:24:37.100]We start out at the maximums
[00:24:40.880]and then you can, you double the fees
[00:24:44.220]every six months up to 10 times the original.
[00:24:46.980]So if you're a house,
[00:24:48.860]the first six months you're on there is $250.
[00:24:51.180]And then after you're on there for a year,
[00:24:55.080]it's $250 plus $500 because the $250 doubles.
[00:24:58.260]So we send the owners an invoice every six months.
[00:25:02.700]If the invoices are not paid,
[00:25:06.320]if the fees are not paid,
[00:25:07.820]then we'll come back to the council.
[00:25:09.780]We report to our councils quarterly.
[00:25:12.300]So when it's time to do that quarterly update,
[00:25:14.740]when we have unpaid fees,
[00:25:16.720]then Savella will prepare a resolution
[00:25:18.920]to assess the liens against the property.
[00:25:24.860]So when the fees go unpaid
[00:25:27.740]and if we have no communication from the owners,
[00:25:30.120]then we will go ahead and file liens
[00:25:32.340]on the property for the unpaid fees.
[00:25:34.220]If you were to look up the statute,
[00:25:37.900]it would tell you several exemptions
[00:25:41.100]that you have the option to include
[00:25:47.860]if you want to.
[00:25:48.800]So those exemptions are like
[00:25:51.000]if the property is damaged in a fire,
[00:25:52.760]if it's being held up in,
[00:25:54.640]in a probate court,
[00:25:55.340]if it's under construction,
[00:25:57.960]if the owner demonstrates an intent to return.
[00:26:00.900]So there's lots of exemptions.
[00:26:03.080]It's from my days of doing nuisance abatement.
[00:26:05.440]We don't, we don't have any of those exemptions
[00:26:07.920]because I, I especially feel in our communities,
[00:26:11.020]which are second-class cities and villages,
[00:26:12.740]any property can be under construction.
[00:26:16.500]Any owner can demonstrate
[00:26:19.260]that they're going to return.
[00:26:20.500]So it's, I feel like it's very subjective.
[00:26:22.400]So we don't include those.
[00:26:24.420]Um, these three, we, um, well,
[00:26:27.780]A and C, we are required by law to include.
[00:26:30.820]So if it's advertised for sale and good faith,
[00:26:34.400]then we have to get an exemption.
[00:26:36.360]Good faith, the state statute
[00:26:40.220]just says advertised for sale in good faith.
[00:26:43.320]So we have defined what good faith means.
[00:26:47.340]So for sale by owner,
[00:26:49.140]going up in the window
[00:26:50.600]or going up in the yard doesn't count.
[00:26:52.500]The property has to be listed
[00:26:54.200]with a realtor
[00:26:55.060]and it cannot be more than 125%
[00:26:58.300]of the assessed value.
[00:26:59.740]And then local governments
[00:27:03.420]can't go on to this.
[00:27:04.280]We learned this the hard way in Binkleman.
[00:27:05.780]We put several properties
[00:27:07.720]owned by the CRA on the registry
[00:27:09.200]and then we found out we can't do that
[00:27:10.700]because the CRA owns a property.
[00:27:13.900]They are a unit of local government
[00:27:18.060]so they can't go on to the registry.
[00:27:23.980]So this enforcement
[00:27:25.960]is what I was talking about.
[00:27:27.400]So the first one is
[00:27:28.960]if they don't register the property
[00:27:30.820]but they meet the criteria
[00:27:32.560]that it can be fined $100 a day.
[00:27:35.260]We don't do that.
[00:27:36.740]We just go ahead and register the property.
[00:27:39.000]We've had a couple of situations
[00:27:41.260]where a property owner's attorney
[00:27:42.660]has contacted us
[00:27:43.900]and either the property owner's attorney
[00:27:46.440]will go ahead and register them
[00:27:47.760]or they'll understand
[00:27:49.560]that we are registering for the owner
[00:27:52.060]so they're not paying this $100.
[00:27:53.760]And then this is where
[00:27:56.080]we have the unpaid fees.
[00:27:57.620]They can be leaned against the property
[00:28:00.720]and then they are only second
[00:28:02.920]to unpaid property taxes.
[00:28:05.760]So if the property sells
[00:28:07.860]or if you force a foreclosure
[00:28:10.000]or if there's a share of sale,
[00:28:11.760]we are next in line
[00:28:13.660]after the county assessor
[00:28:16.780]if there's other liens filed
[00:28:18.580]against the property.
[00:28:19.660]Bobby, Jason had a question.
[00:28:23.540]He said he thought the $100 a day fine
[00:28:26.160]was a way to get those building owners
[00:28:29.660]to participate more
[00:28:33.760]so you could foreclose more quickly.
[00:28:35.520]I mean, we could do that,
[00:28:39.140]but we feel like this is a long game.
[00:28:42.860]And so we're just focused on the fees.
[00:28:45.740]And also the number one argument
[00:28:48.480]fight back that I get
[00:28:50.060]is that we need time.
[00:28:51.340]We need more time
[00:28:52.300]to do something with the property.
[00:28:54.140]And so I think if we just start
[00:28:55.480]racking up the $100 a day daily,
[00:28:57.400]we're going to,
[00:28:58.640]we're not going to be,
[00:28:59.560]we're going to lose all hope
[00:29:00.560]of communicating with our property owner.
[00:29:02.360]And I think we're going to come across
[00:29:03.980]as too aggressive.
[00:29:04.680]Thank you.
[00:29:07.060]That's why we don't do it.
[00:29:08.600]This is a sample of the reports
[00:29:13.780]that we give every quarter.
[00:29:17.160]So we have the address
[00:29:19.000]and then we assign them
[00:29:20.260]a case number of the owner.
[00:29:23.420]The day the property was registered
[00:29:24.680]and then what they owe now
[00:29:26.320]and what's been leaned
[00:29:27.460]against the property.
[00:29:28.500]Then we also provide like a photo.
[00:29:32.160]So if we come to give an update
[00:29:35.000]and there's a resolution to file liens,
[00:29:37.360]then we have a photo with the address,
[00:29:40.640]the day it was registered,
[00:29:41.680]what's been leaned
[00:29:43.800]and what's still unpaid
[00:29:45.100]and when the next bill
[00:29:47.360]is going to be due.
[00:29:53.360]Yeah, I guess that's all I have
[00:29:57.040]to share with you or to show you.
[00:29:59.120]So before I need to take off,
[00:30:02.400]I don't know,
[00:30:02.760]is there any other questions
[00:30:03.560]I can answer,
[00:30:04.300]other parts of the program
[00:30:05.440]that you'd like me to talk about?
[00:30:07.600]Does anyone have questions for Bobby?
[00:30:17.980]Bobby, I just wanted to know, Bobby,
[00:30:23.460]what the timeframe is
[00:30:25.200]when your company would come in
[00:30:27.720]to help a community?
[00:30:28.820]Well, we'll,
[00:30:33.440]like we'll come and do one presentation
[00:30:35.400]and then they have all the time
[00:30:37.940]to decide that they want.
[00:30:39.120]And then if they choose to hire us,
[00:30:41.140]they'll go ahead and,
[00:30:43.840]approve our contract and pass the resolution to appoint us and approve the engagement letter
[00:30:51.760]with subvaluable law. And then the next thing we would do is adopt the ordinance. So I want to be
[00:30:59.380]working for you before I have you adopt your ordinance. And so we can do the ordinance the
[00:31:06.240]next month or within three months of being hired. Just depends how quickly the board wants to work.
[00:31:11.880]Once we adopt the ordinance, then we start with the clerk's list of inactive utility accounts.
[00:31:20.480]And we go down the list and figure out what's going on with the owners. We try to identify
[00:31:25.620]any ones that don't belong on the registry. Because at the end of the day, the goal is to
[00:31:30.680]not have a lot of properties on your registry. Once we get through that list and we identify
[00:31:35.620]that list, then we contact the owners and then we're up and running, I guess.
[00:31:41.640]We are a lump sum to do the program. We bill quarterly. The first year, the fee that we
[00:31:51.260]charge is standard. And then the following years, the fee is negotiable, just depending
[00:31:56.120]on how much time we have or have not had to spend working on your registry.
[00:32:02.100]Thank you. And one last question that I had was,
[00:32:11.400]you had mentioned the CRA owning a property, but could a CRA pay for this procedure to hire you?
[00:32:23.220]Yeah. So if you're going to have a vacant property registry program, that's a great
[00:32:28.700]question, Joni. If you're going to have a vacant property registry program,
[00:32:31.960]I strongly recommend that you have a CRA or a CDA in place, Community Redevelopment Authority,
[00:32:41.160]or Community Development Agency. And then if you're a village, your entire village should
[00:32:48.800]be a blighted and substandard area. That's just my right but humble opinion. If you're
[00:32:54.720]a city of the second class, then you want to, you can blight up to 50% of your community.
[00:33:00.060]Your vacant property registry houses should be in a blighted area. Because if an owner
[00:33:06.140]decides they don't want this property, or they want to give it to the city in exchange
[00:33:10.920]for not being on the registry, it needs to be your CRA or your CDA that purchases the
[00:33:18.540]property, not your city council or your village board. For your CRA or your CDA to be able
[00:33:24.980]to purchase the property quickly, it needs to be in a blighted area. So every community
[00:33:31.960]that we're in, not every community that we're in, the ones that I do what I tell them to
[00:33:40.680]purchase the property is in a blighted area and they have a CRA. And so we've had a couple
[00:33:45.140]instances, that burned house I showed you, this one, this owner called, she lives out
[00:33:52.020]of town, she has serious health problems, she doesn't have the money or the energy to
[00:33:57.440]deal with this house. She sold it to us for, she sold it to the CRA for $5,000. We, when
[00:34:06.360]we offer to purchase a property like this, the $5,000 is a standard.
[00:34:10.440]Price because we assume that if we have to abate this nuisance or if we have to
[00:34:15.600]demolish this using your dangerous buildings, we're probably going to pay
[00:34:18.960]that in legal fees and we still won't own the property. So when she agreed
[00:34:24.780]to it, then I get off the phone. I call the city clerk right away. City clerk
[00:34:30.260]schedules a CRA meeting. CRA meets, decides to purchase the property and Savella has
[00:34:35.560]the purchase agreement to the owner. We try to do that as quickly as possible before
[00:34:40.200]they change their mind. I've had one gentleman that was going to do it and he talked to his
[00:34:46.060]uncle and he decided not to do it. We try to have the process in place so we can purchase
[00:34:50.300]these properties as quickly as possible. That's why you need your CRA to do that.
[00:34:54.360]Thank you. We do have all of that in place, blighted CRA. That sounds like a great thing.
[00:35:04.160]I see we're recording this, so this will come out to us. I'd like to share that with our community
[00:35:09.960]then. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Bobby, hi. This is Michelle with VB Associates.
[00:35:21.480]Just a quick question with your process that once a lien is filed and it sits on the tax records,
[00:35:29.880]does the fine continue to accrue and that lien continues to increase? I guess my question is,
[00:35:39.720]once it goes through the process, when it's sitting there and it is on the tax records,
[00:35:45.180]what happens at that point? What is the further reconciliation of the property?
[00:35:51.820]The liens are filed at a fixed amount. After you're on the registry for a year, you owe $750.
[00:36:01.140]We file a lien for $750. Then you sit on the registry for another year. Now you're up to
[00:36:09.480]$1,500. We file a lien for the $1,500 and we've still got the lien for $750. The lien is filed at
[00:36:18.160]a fixed amount. As time goes on and fees go unpaid, we just file one lien after another.
[00:36:24.220]They start to sit on top of each other. There are several purposes for filing the liens.
[00:36:31.020]The first one is to show the owners that we're serious. Now this community we've been in a while,
[00:36:39.240]that's got $7,000 worth of liens. So the owner, in one situation, we had the owner call us and ask
[00:36:46.140]us if we just took over the property, if we'd forgive the liens, which we did. So the liens
[00:36:51.120]give you some leverage. Another good use of the liens is that sometimes properties get sold in
[00:36:58.920]exchange for a dog, in exchange for a car, for a dollar. They don't sell them on the up and up.
[00:37:05.180]And so the owner doesn't know that this property is on a
[00:37:09.000]registry like this. If we filed the liens and if the new owner would have bought the property on
[00:37:15.240]the up and up, they would have gotten title insurance. They would have searched the history
[00:37:19.920]of the property and they would have seen that it was on the registry and that there was liens.
[00:37:24.800]So there's been a couple of times where a property has got sold and we got paid out of the process.
[00:37:31.620]Um, that happened with the old, um, it's still hard for me to understand. We had like an invest,
[00:37:38.760]investor from Bellevue that collects properties that have back taxes. Um, then he went to sell
[00:37:45.660]the property for way too much money. And we actually ended up getting our liens out of the
[00:37:50.160]sale of the property. And that investor, that investor that likes to collect properties on
[00:37:54.820]tax sales, he doesn't, he doesn't mess with that town anymore. Um, because he knows he lost most
[00:37:59.980]of his profits on paying us our liens. Um, then if we want to, we have the power to foreclose on
[00:38:08.520]If a local government forecloses on a lien, basically we're demanding payment.
[00:38:13.120]Once we file the lien, we have financial interest in the property. So we have the right to foreclose
[00:38:19.360]to get paid if we want to. When a local government forecloses, it's at least a two-year process.
[00:38:24.940]So it's not like you're going to foreclose on the property and have it tomorrow.
[00:38:28.320]It's still going to be a two-year process, but you do have the right and the power to do that.
[00:38:32.820]Um, when you file the lien, you now have a financial interest in the property,
[00:38:38.280]so there's another property that we've worked on that, um, mom died.
[00:38:42.080]Um, big sister wants nothing to do with the property.
[00:38:45.680]As a matter of fact, she had her attorney call me and tell me
[00:38:48.520]we're not allowed to contact her anymore about her mother or this property.
[00:38:52.240]We have big brother in another state that wants nothing to do with the property.
[00:38:55.900]Then we have baby brother who's supposed to be responsible, but he's,
[00:38:59.580]um, generally institutionalized.
[00:39:02.020]So because we have a financial interest in the property,
[00:39:04.860]we were able to hire a trust officer.
[00:39:08.040]So you, any bank that says like so-and-so bank and trust means that they have trust officers.
[00:39:13.740]We hired a trust officer.
[00:39:15.880]The trust officer is opening the estate on our behalf because we have liens.
[00:39:21.720]We have a financial interest.
[00:39:23.560]Nothing is happening with this property.
[00:39:25.820]There's no human alive willing to take responsibility for it.
[00:39:30.920]So we use our lien to hire, to give us the power to appoint a trust officer who will
[00:39:37.800]then open the estate.
[00:39:38.800]Now we have to go to court February 29th and get a judge's permission to open the estate,
[00:39:45.280]but it's procedural.
[00:39:47.200]And so we know that we'll get it.
[00:39:49.080]So the liens, there's several reasons for those liens.
[00:39:52.480]Sure.
[00:39:56.400]No, I definitely support that.
[00:39:58.180]I just was curious as to kind of the rate of success and so on that once it hit that
[00:40:03.820]point, as far as resolution to the actual property.
[00:40:07.800]It's remaining in the state that it, the, the condition that it's in.
[00:40:11.300]But what that actually prompts me to then ask, do you happen to have a flow chart or
[00:40:18.480]something of your process?
[00:40:20.160]And I realized that it obviously changes depending on whether the dog ran away type thing or
[00:40:25.860]something, you know, whatever happens.
[00:40:27.200]I'm just curious if there's, if there's something that you're able to kind of from
[00:40:31.320]visual aid perspective, you know, that's an excellent idea and, um, at the end of the
[00:40:37.800]day, if you go to MPCA, we'll give a, we'll give a talk at MPCA, which is the first week
[00:40:43.900]in March.
[00:40:44.400]And, um, yeah, I think I'll try to make a flow chart in time for that.
[00:40:49.340]We've been at it long enough that now I could tell you now we've come across enough weird
[00:40:55.660]situations that I could tell you if this, then this, if this, then this.
[00:40:59.340]Sure.
[00:41:00.260]Now that would be great because, because I think there's a lot of, um, communities that
[00:41:04.000]would like to compare, um, some processes and actually be able to.
[00:41:07.800]Do a little, little comparison on a couple of different steps in terms of not only ready
[00:41:16.700]to return, but just even the time invested in, in what it is.
[00:41:20.060]So they're able to do that.
[00:41:21.580]And, and as we all know, as you have leaders that get turned over, it just helps educate
[00:41:28.520]somebody that does that.
[00:41:29.820]So I think that would be, I'd love to see it.
[00:41:32.020]It would be great.
[00:41:32.800]Yeah, that's a great idea.
[00:41:35.760]And also on that point.
[00:41:37.800]Central City administers their own program and I copy off their paper all the time.
[00:41:44.560]And they've been very like, we go back, we compare notes and they let me know how it's
[00:41:50.280]going for them.
[00:41:50.840]I let them, if I come across anything, I let them know how it's going.
[00:41:54.900]So I know Tarrytown is going to share here in a minute.
[00:41:59.100]And yeah, I guess that's a good point.
[00:42:03.440]You can administer your own program and we can all share.
[00:42:07.800]Now, it's obviously I'm for profit, so I want to work for you so I can make money and stay
[00:42:12.060]in business.
[00:42:12.640]But this is not our most profitable thing that we offer.
[00:42:17.060]But I do think this is the most important thing that we have to offer, especially our
[00:42:23.180]small rural towns.
[00:42:25.660]Right.
[00:42:26.760]And I'm not trying to indicate that somebody could do it on their own because it definitely
[00:42:30.460]is a time.
[00:42:31.760]In fact, I think the flowchart actually would help make the case.
[00:42:37.800]I think that outside staff, I mean, look at my title.
[00:42:42.340]There's a reason why some things sit and squander, even when it comes to getting to
[00:42:48.460]from when you refer it to the court system, because it just really takes a lot of hands
[00:42:52.020]to do that.
[00:42:52.520]And I think it helps illustrate that it's not a cut and dried system.
[00:42:55.960]So the fact to be able to lay eyes on it and to do that just kind of helps that.
[00:43:00.280]I think we have a couple more questions.
[00:43:06.040]Do you have time for those, Bobby, or do you have to?
[00:43:07.880]I think I have about five more minutes.
[00:43:09.760]Okay.
[00:43:10.420]Anthony, did you have a question?
[00:43:12.420]You unmuted yourself a couple times.
[00:43:14.400]Yeah, I was just wondering.
[00:43:17.280]I'm in Fall City.
[00:43:18.760]We implemented the ordinance back in late 22 and been operating the vacant property ordinance in effect.
[00:43:27.180]We got, I think, 56 or so properties registered currently.
[00:43:31.420]And I just wondered what sort of success rate.
[00:43:37.800]Where other programs are implemented, what they're seeing for coming out of them or getting them off the list.
[00:43:44.100]We've been fairly good at it to get things done with some different avenues like the CRA.
[00:43:51.600]Or we got a local land bank also set up to help deal with that and set aside $100,000 to start demoing properties on top of that with the city.
[00:44:02.880]And that's kind of been the only way getting most of them done for us is through another program.
[00:44:07.800]A housing abatement program that we created.
[00:44:10.800]And we're getting a few property owners that are taking it on themselves.
[00:44:16.040]Some of our actually are getting them rehabbed and brought back into code compliance and others we have scheduled for demo.
[00:44:24.220]But I just wondered what sort of success rates, you know, maybe Five Rule was seeing in their areas.
[00:44:29.840]Well, it depends on the town and how aggressive they want to be.
[00:44:37.800]I think we end up with about 25% after the first year.
[00:44:46.860]So if we start out with 20, we probably end up with 5 to 10 in the following year.
[00:44:53.760]And then, you know, several of them.
[00:44:57.060]So then we're, I think every town we end up in the single digits.
[00:45:00.200]I think every town we're managing right now, we're in the single digits.
[00:45:04.000]Maybe a couple are at 10.
[00:45:07.800]Most often the, if the owner takes them off,
[00:45:11.840]the owner will demolish them.
[00:45:13.800]Minkleman, Nebraska is one of our communities.
[00:45:18.460]And at one time we had like 57,
[00:45:20.720]a compromise that we reached in Minkleman that took several of the
[00:45:24.920]properties off. That was, it was a compromise. It wasn't a victory.
[00:45:28.220]But several of those property owners were in Colorado and had just bought
[00:45:32.960]up property cheap. So in order to keep them off the registry, they did agree.
[00:45:37.800]To reactivate the utility account and at least pay the base utility rate
[00:45:43.060]every month. And so those vacant houses are still sitting there,
[00:45:45.760]which bothers me. However, every single month,
[00:45:49.400]that owner is getting a bill from the city every single month.
[00:45:52.780]They have to remember to send in a check.
[00:45:54.620]So it's like a monthly reminder and a little monthly fee just to have the
[00:45:58.260]base utility rate.
[00:45:59.220]Arapahoe is where we've had the most success on getting properties off.
[00:46:03.680]And I think they're probably also one of the most,
[00:46:07.800]progressive towns we work in.
[00:46:09.320]And that situation is mostly people selling or giving their property to the
[00:46:17.680]CRA.
[00:46:18.020]And then we usually have like one or two properties at a time that are
[00:46:22.780]taking a lot of our time and taking a lot of our attention.
[00:46:25.720]All the other properties, I just let them, you know,
[00:46:28.740]they sit there and the clock runs and the fees accrue.
[00:46:31.300]And so sooner or later we plan to get to every single property that's still
[00:46:35.820]sitting there.
[00:46:36.440]But I would say,
[00:46:37.800]as far as like the first 18 months and owners taking initiative,
[00:46:41.180]probably you're still going to end up with at least 25%.
[00:46:44.720]Still on there.
[00:46:46.640]Thank you guys very much for your time and for your attention.
[00:46:56.520]And if you saw my contact information or you can Google me,
[00:47:01.120]don't judge my website.
[00:47:02.480]It's not very good,
[00:47:03.380]but you can get my email address or emails for the website if you have,
[00:47:07.800]more questions.
[00:47:08.620]For those of you out in greater Western Nebraska,
[00:47:12.940]it's hard for me to travel out there.
[00:47:15.020]The older I get,
[00:47:15.800]the further away you live.
[00:47:16.960]I'm sorry about that.
[00:47:18.060]It's just you in fall city to you people in Southeastern Nebraska that goes
[00:47:22.260]on forever.
[00:47:23.000]So I don't even know that I would want to,
[00:47:26.000]that we could offer this program to you,
[00:47:27.840]but if there's somebody else in the area that wants to do this,
[00:47:31.200]or if you want to do it yourself,
[00:47:33.280]I'm happy to share it with you again.
[00:47:35.700]I am a for-profit business,
[00:47:37.800]but I just,
[00:47:38.420]I think so many kids in small towns don't deserve to grow up next to
[00:47:43.880]something like a lot of what our small town kids have to grow up next to.
[00:47:47.560]So whatever we can do to share resources,
[00:47:49.980]I'm happy to be part of the solution.
[00:47:52.080]And I will share your email address in the email I send out with recording
[00:47:58.860]Bobby.
[00:47:59.200]Thank you again for your time.
[00:48:01.060]Jenny,
[00:48:03.780]would you like to give us just a quick summary of how,
[00:48:07.800]how things have been going in Tarrytown since you've implemented this
[00:48:11.440]process?
[00:48:12.040]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:48:13.620]And I've never done this screen share thing before.
[00:48:16.340]But like you said, you can provide the documents after.
[00:48:21.840]So we do like very simple tracking because obviously here in Tarrytown,
[00:48:27.900]we don't have a huge amount of.
[00:48:30.800]Vacancy.
[00:48:33.920]We do have a few residential that we just started trying,
[00:48:37.800]to get them to do something.
[00:48:39.320]But we've primarily focused on 10th street.
[00:48:42.800]So our commercial.
[00:48:44.900]And we did that just because we're so landlocked here that we can't,
[00:48:51.020]we can't expand.
[00:48:52.940]So we have to utilize the business area that we do have.
[00:48:56.080]And this was an old one because my drop box wasn't working well this
[00:49:01.980]morning.
[00:49:02.260]So this was just one of the original tracking that we, we started.
[00:49:06.400]Okay.
[00:49:07.800]So this is the first one we sent out.
[00:49:08.980]So this is the first one we sent out.
[00:49:09.060]Of the, of the ones that we did send out.
[00:49:12.240]As you can see the first four, those are all the same owner.
[00:49:16.380]Right.
[00:49:17.620]He's since added another vacant property on there as well.
[00:49:21.940]So our process, we do just the same as our code enforcement officer does.
[00:49:26.680]They get, they get a nice little letter with a copy of the ordinance.
[00:49:29.900]It says, Hey, do something with this.
[00:49:32.340]Right.
[00:49:32.880]And then the next one we send certified.
[00:49:35.640]If we try to use.
[00:49:37.800]30 day increments.
[00:49:38.900]Some, there are times that that gets away from us.
[00:49:41.840]Two of his.
[00:49:44.580]Properties we've now have had to put the liens on.
[00:49:48.380]Because he still just isn't doing anything with them.
[00:49:51.620]And we also on our new tracking sheet.
[00:49:55.380]Had to.
[00:49:56.940]Add on there because some of his properties know they're under water.
[00:50:03.320]Well, so we weren't able to track it via water usage.
[00:50:07.800]But again, just as Bobby said, there was no power to these properties either.
[00:50:16.080]So two of them have liens on them.
[00:50:19.740]Outside of that, then after the third letter goes out.
[00:50:26.260]That one comes from the city attorney and then we do go and file the lien on it.
[00:50:31.460]But this is just like general, very basic tracking.
[00:50:37.800]Takes two seconds to add a note into.
[00:50:39.840]But I did also attach a copy of the letter that we sent the first time.
[00:50:48.300]The first one's actually very nice and says, hey, we decided to do this and you're not in compliance.
[00:50:57.060]Our next step is definitely to go to residential just because we have several dilapidated trailers.
[00:51:07.800]And we have three properties that are just horrendous and it makes the view something crazy.
[00:51:16.200]Like I said, my Dropbox wasn't working, so I couldn't get you the most current stuff, but this is what I did have available.
[00:51:24.980]You guys have any questions? I don't have a huge amount to add, but that's kind of where we're at.
[00:51:37.800]I'm going to go share my screen quickly with that copy of your ordinance.
[00:51:41.260]Okay. Sorry about the line.
[00:51:44.340]They have to go in such detail because the penalties and fines are pretty huge.
[00:51:55.800]So it took us the entire three months in order to get this ordinance passed.
[00:52:01.340]Prior to it being signed, every resident...
[00:52:08.340]Every business, anybody who had any property in Tarrytown
[00:52:12.700]got a copy of the ordinance prior to it being signed along with a letter saying,
[00:52:19.520]hey, if this pertains to you, you might want to know this ahead of time.
[00:52:23.420]And we had not a single person come and object to the ordinance.
[00:52:29.920]So, yeah, there's pretty clear and strict definitions that go along with it.
[00:52:37.800]We had one that tried the, I'm just going to put a sign out front saying the building's for sale.
[00:52:44.020]And so we had to pursue that one.
[00:52:46.640]And now it's actually on an active, you know, actively for sale on Realtor.com.
[00:52:54.060]So, and it isn't over that 125% of the assessed value.
[00:53:00.700]So, I mean, there is a lot that goes along with it, but definitely, definitely can help us.
[00:53:07.800]The smaller communities.
[00:53:09.260]Jenny, we'll see if you can answer Sean's question that he had for Bobby.
[00:53:21.220]Okay.
[00:53:22.160]Have you, with any of your properties, and I might have missed this when I was switching screens.
[00:53:31.220]Have you gotten to the point where the city tore down a building yet?
[00:53:36.360]No.
[00:53:37.800]Okay.
[00:53:38.200]And to be honest, I don't know how keen they will be on doing that.
[00:53:44.080]Just because of the financial side of it, it kind of puts a damper and, you know, if they're going to sign and, you know, sign it over to us, then the council might be more apt to do something with the actual property.
[00:54:01.660]However, don't know as though we'll get to that point.
[00:54:07.800]Maybe one of the Falls City folks can answer if where they find funds to help with that demolition.
[00:54:16.080]Yeah, I can introduce one here.
[00:54:20.860]So when we implemented the program, we set aside some funds, we set aside initial program, we called our housing abatement and demolition program.
[00:54:35.020]So we set aside $100,000.
[00:54:37.800]And we set aside $100,000 to essentially deal with these properties, whether the city owns them and tears them down, or we also go into agreements with the property owners.
[00:54:48.260]So say, hey, rather than going through litigation through court and us doing this abatement, enter into a loan agreement with us.
[00:54:56.120]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:55:07.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:55:37.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:56:07.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:56:37.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:57:07.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:57:37.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:58:07.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:58:37.800]We come in, take over all the costs to tear it down, go through all the asbestos components, coordinate the demos, coordinate the demos, coordinate the demos, and then we put them in a loan agreement to pay that back over X period.
[00:59:07.800]And yet it's the same kind of notify advance type thing that gets it in the funnel to do that.
[00:59:13.860]This would be something that could either be incorporated or replaced depending on what the individual community is most comfortable with, which is kind of why I had asked.
[00:59:24.540]I mean, if they wanted to contract with that or however they want to do that, but that is a process to be able to use to evaluate.
[00:59:30.600]So Anthony Nesbaum, I may visit with you a little bit about because you already have that pipeline kind of.
[00:59:37.800]You've got that bigger scope with that.
[00:59:39.480]So as they're moving with the communities with that this way and looking at specifically with the other two communities in Morrill County, as we move that direction, that looking at that step of the process for them, that might be an option that we end up looking at it.
[00:59:55.760]There is there is some benefit to it.
[00:59:58.180]There's some things that it would not necessarily fit.
[01:00:00.900]But I mean, I think, again, that's something that the individual communities are able to look at to see what best works.
[01:00:07.800]For them to either expedite it or not.
[01:00:09.820]The big caveat is obviously ownership of property by a municipality and how long that takes.
[01:00:15.600]And sometimes that's a hurdle for the residents.
[01:00:18.120]But and but I.
[01:00:20.300]This actually, like I said, there's some interest in that on how that can be how that can be married with and used as an option.
[01:00:28.220]So it was good information to have.
[01:00:29.800]Thank you.
[01:00:31.820]Anyone else have final questions or comments?
[01:00:37.800]Or anything you'd like to share from our resource partners?
[01:00:41.900]If not, I will let everyone know I will most likely be on maternity leave for the next three rural rendezvous.
[01:00:58.000]So Sean and Jason will be helping me out by hosting those.
[01:01:03.120]And we appreciate you all joining.
[01:01:07.800]Yes, thank you, Jenny, for talking about Tarrytown and Anthony for talking about Falls City.
[01:01:14.760]And have a good day.
[01:01:18.360]Thank you, Jamie.
[01:01:22.740]Thanks, Jenny.
[01:01:25.640]Thank you.
[01:01:25.760]Thank you.
[01:01:25.820]Thank you.
[01:01:25.860]Thank you.

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Vacant Property Registration Act

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