Cleveland Housing Judge Hands Out $13M In Fines To Pair Of Out Of State Owners Of Dilapidated Real Estate

In Cleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:

• Cleveland Housing Judge Raymond Pianka has fined two out-of-state real estate companies about $13 million -- the largest collective fines the court has imposed -- for their persistent failure to fix derelict property conditions. In a pair of blistering decisions, Pianka fined Interstate Investment Group, LLC $11.9 million and Paramount Land Holdings, LLC more than $1 million. The two are sister companies in Gilbert, S.C.

• He gave the companies until July 19 to pay up. Unpaid fines will be ordered converted to civil judgment so that dollars can be collected and sent to the city's general fund. The decisions covered 13 properties, some that had houses so dilapidated that the city demolished them. Both Paramount and Interstate pleaded no contest. Company officials could not be reached for comment [].

• In the Interstate ruling, Pianka criticized not just the companies for their offer to contribute no more than $100,000 toward resolving their property violations -- but Cleveland for recommending vastly lower fines than the maximum allowed by law. "Defendant's (and the City's) proposed sentences would allow Defendant to treat its neglect of its properties and the laws of the City as a mere cost of doing business and send the message to others that they too may benefit from wholesale disregard for the laws of the City," he wrote.

For more, see Cleveland Housing Court Judge fines 2 real estate firms about $13 million for neglect.