Lenders Continue To Skate As New Ordinance Targeting Vacant, Dilapidated Foreclosures Has No One To Enforce It

In Manteca, California, the Lathrop-Manteca Sun Post reports:

• A new city law meant to crack down on owners of vacant, dilapidated homes remains unused because there is no one to enforce it, city officials say. The law, which went into effect in December, would force the owners of abandoned homes, usually banks, to take care of their properties or face $1,000-a-day fines — up to a total of $100,000 each year.

• The City Council OK’d the law in October, when a rising number of foreclosed homes were wreaking havoc on local neighborhoods by attracting vandals and driving down property values. While the number of foreclosed houses in Manteca has grown, the police department has yet to issue a single citation under the 7-month-old law.

• The problem, according to the city’s only code enforcement officer, Greg Baird, is that the law requires an enormous amount of back-office work, and so far no one has been able to pick that up. “It’s much harder than anyone anticipated,” Baird said.

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• Police Captain Dave Bricker said the law was not too difficult to enforce, but the city needs time to figure out who would handle the new work it created. “What we have is a good ordinance,” Bricker said. “We just need to set up a procedure to enforce it.” [...] Manuela Iniguez, who lives next to a [vacant] house [...] that was sold in a foreclosure auction last month, said she worried the weeds on the lawn would dry out this summer and become a fire hazard.

For the story, see Vacant homes law remains unused. register