Foot-Dragging Lenders Slow To Foreclose On Abandoned Homes Force City To Consider Converting Upkeep Expenses Into Tax Liens

In Rutland, Vermont, the Rutland Herald reports:

• [Mayor Christopher Louras] told the aldermen that the city has incurred considerable costs dealing with everything from mold and mosquito-related public health hazards to situations involving tenants left in buildings where water and electrical utilities have been stopped.

***

• The problem, according to city Assessor Barry Keefe, a former banker, is that the banks haven't taken the legal foreclosure step on the properties, leaving the city with no one to call if health and safety situations exist on the properties.

• With no way to ignore the property issues and no one to bill for the expenses, Louras told the aldermen he hopes they will pass an ordinance similar to one in Burlington that converts that municipality's property management expenses into tax liens. [... A] tax lien, which would essentially convert the property expenses into a "tax," would put the city's claim at the front of the line of creditors.

For more, see City proposal may remedy costs of abandoned parcels.

Go here for other posts on code violation problems associated with homes in legal limbo; when a foreclosing lender is reluctant to complete a foreclosure action to avoid getting clipped with housing fines. responsibility code violations foreclosure