MuniReg Blight Alert

Good Afternoon,

We're pleased to provide you with the latest updates and national best practices regarding the mitigation of vacant and abandoned properties, specifically tailored to meet the needs of municipal governments like yours.

Please feel free to share this valuable information with your colleagues or any other relevant parties within your municipality.

For those who may be new to our newsletters, we typically release them on a monthly basis, occasionally bi-monthly at most. Given the interconnected nature of community challenges, solutions developed elsewhere could offer invaluable insights for your own municipality.

At MuniReg, we're committed to understanding the unique pain points municipal governments face in combating "blight" and offering tailored solutions to address these challenges effectively.

This alert serves solely for informational purposes. Should you wish to explore how MuniReg can assist your municipality further, please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

Colorado Taking on HOA's

As we originally reported on in May 2022, Colorado homeowners were experiencing what was reported as “predatory” behavior, such as aggressive code violation enforcement and penalties, along with foreclosure.

Now in a feature from the Denver Post:"Lawmakers have introduced several reform bills that would restrict foreclosures from delinquent fees and require HOAs and metro districts to adopt written policies, enhance notifications to homeowners and add licensing requirements for professional managers. The legislation would also set regulations on how much homeowners can be charged. HOAs would be required to work with homeowners before beginning any foreclosure proceedings" For more information, please click here. ?

North Carolina Supreme Court Tackles Case Involving Municipal Blight Reduction Efforts

A recent report discusses a North Carolina Supreme Court case about “whether racism has influenced Kinston leaders’ foreclosure efforts that could have implications for the power of local governments across the state.”

So far courts have agreed that Kinston have not engaged in any discriminatory behavior, in what it described as efforts to clean up blighted areas of town.

As discussed in the article, the concerns focus on the municipal process and its appeals process, and where additional remedies can be sought. For more information, please click here. ?

MuniReg Spotlight on Communities

Several specific unique approaches, solutions etc.

• Toledo, OH: Community engagement is a critical component of any successful strategy. Toledo has created an interactive map of the neighborhood associations with each listing providing organization name, contact name, phone number & email, listing of services (i.e. Block watch, community safety, neighborhood beautification), & location and meeting time. For more information, please click here .
• Memphis, TN: The University of Memphis School of Law’s Neighborhood Preservation Clinic represents the City of Memphis in public nuisance lawsuits seeking recourse against the owners of badly neglected, vacant and abandoned properties. “Everybody wins in these scenarios,” said Tarik Terry, another third-year law student. “For us as law students, we win by getting experience. And the city of Memphis will have ten excellent lawyers coming in to play in the 2024 when we graduate in May.” For more information, please click here.
• Aroostook County, ME: A headline like this “Aroostook County landfill cuts towns a break on blighted buildings” shouldn’t be newsworthy, as collaboration between all levels of government should be the norm. However as it appears to not be the norm, it warrants highlighting. For more information, please click here.
• Las Cruces, NM: MuniReg has never been a proponent of "advertising vacancy". The Las Cruces Nuisance Abatement Team's (NAT) FAQ page has a simple but direct and logical response to "Am I able to obtain a current list of vacant and abandoned properties?" For more information, please click here. ?

Regional Op-Eds Keep the Focus on Blight

Two op-eds in a regional newspaper advocate for a greater and continued focus on addressing blight. In our latest blog post, I discuss these articles and some of the specific quotes that speak volumes.?To view the brief blog post, please click here.

Vacant Property Tax

We have been tracking various initiatives to implement a vacant property tax for the past 2 years.

Recently, a guest Op-Ed in Baltimore MD, advocates for enabling state legislation, along with a separate report coming from Toronto detailing some difficult challenges they are facing and perhaps lessons to be learnt. For more information, please click here.

Challenging Squatters

As reported last month, several states are making inroads against the growing problem local communities face from squatters.

With the passing of Florida HB 621, Yahoo Finance discusses "Why Real Estate Investors Hope Florida's Tough New Anti-Squatter Law Goes Nationwide" For more information, please click here.?

?VA Seeks to Halt Foreclosure Crisis

Back in December 2023, we reported on significant numbers of veterans facing foreclosure. Now the Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced it will launch its Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program, designed "to assist more than 40,000 veterans experiencing severe financial hardship to avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes." For more information, please click here.