If you are a California REO agent, the following is a list of some of the California cities that are have or are adopting new ordinances and enforcing existing ones requiring the registration and maintenance of vacant REO properties.
Sacramento, Stockton, Merced, Fresno, Chula Vista, Santee, Palmdale, Murrieta, Temecula, Lake Elsinore, Hemet, Indio, Desert Hot Springs.
These Ordinances are not just California specific. Under these new ordinances the beneficiary of an abandoned property is required to inspect and register the property, within 10 days of vacancy. Registration fees can range from $75.00 up. If the lenders fail to comply with the ordinance they could face civil penalties of $100 per day for failing to register, $250 for allowing the lawn to die and $500 for having green swimming pools. Some of the city ordinances allow fines to go as high as $100,000 and could be used to issue a lien against the property.
The threats of imposing significant civil penalties tend to provide significant motivation to lenders and dissuade the neglect of their REO homes. Cities hope that maintaining the empty homes will help keep property values high, avoid blight, discourage criminal activity and reduce the amount of calls to code enforcement departments.
If you are an REO agent, it's important to keep your REO asset manager up to date with the rapidly changing Vacant Home Registration and Maintenance requirements so they can keep their lenders in compliance with the provisions of the ordinance to avoid large tax lien assessments against their REO properties.
We don't have these type of registrations here in Virginia, but in a few instances I wish we did! It really behooves the agent to make sure all of the jurisdictions they have REO listings in have/have not instituted a program like this.
Thanks for the info. I've been searcing several city sites to see if ehese ordinances exist. Not an easy task. Information does not seem readily available.
Thanks for the posting!
Cindy