You know the old Jones house down on 4th Street in the town’s historic district, don’t you? Well, it’s a real shame that it is in such bad shape. I remember when that house was right at the center of a very charming neighborhood. Now? Well, I hear that there is a realty company that […]
Posts Tagged ‘minimum housing’
Demolition and Code Enforcement Involving Historic Districts and Landmarks
Thursday, November 14th, 2013Tax Foreclosure and Redevelopment
Friday, October 18th, 2013Carolina County has been working with its largest municipality, Tar Heel Town, to redevelop one of Tar Heel Town’s more dilapidated neighborhoods. Many of the properties in this neighborhood are owned by absentee landlords who fail to maintain them properly. Not surprisingly, many of these properties are also subject to liens for thousands of dollars […]
Nuisance Abatement and Local Governments: What a Mess – Part II
Wednesday, July 31st, 2013Several years ago I prepared a blog entitled “Nuisance Abatement and Local Governments: What a Mess.” At the end of that blog I promised a sequel to take up several other legal issues related to nuisance abatement and building condemnation. Here is that sequel. One issue concerns the nature of the process that must be […]
Tax Foreclosures and Competing Liens
Thursday, September 13th, 2012When property owners stop paying their property taxes, it’s a good bet that they’ve been ignoring other obligations concerning those properties as well. Weeds grow chest-high, houses slowly crumble, and neighbors begin to use the lots as informal trash dumps. The properties become dangerous eyesores, forcing local governments to mow the weeds, demolish substandard housing, […]
Who is an owner “of record” to be served with complaints and orders under NC minimum housing codes?
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012John Spartan serves as the senior housing code official for the town of San Angeles, NC, where he recently presided over his 100th minimum housing hearing. He has overseen the repair or removal of many unfit homes over the years, and he is careful to ensure that his town’s minimum housing code keeps up with […]
Targeting Troubled Neighborhoods for Housing Code Inspections
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012Along Broken Dreams Boulevard, not far from Main Street, an abandoned mill overlooks a troubled neighborhood. Once a thriving residential area with inexpensive mill housing (single family homes and duplexes), the neighborhood is now typical of a declining mill village. Many of the dwellings are substandard, owned primarily by absentee landlords who are either unable […]
Building Occupancy and Turning on the Juice
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012My blog from December 15 of last year (“Preoccupied with Occupancy Certificates: Part I”) was intended to provide an introduction to the use of a certificates of occupancy (CO) by local inspections agencies to ensure that a development project is ready for use before it is occupied. This blog concerns the interplay between certificates of […]
Ensuring Local Policy Complies with New Residential Inspections Law
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011The city manager of Tooltime, North Carolina, picks up the phone and calls Tim Taylor, the city’s minimum housing public officer and lead housing inspector. “Tim, I understand why you suspended all periodic inspections in Tooltime that did not comply with the new periodic inspections law. I know we have much less flexibility now than […]
Minimum Housing: A Way Around Residential Inspection Limits?
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011Tim Taylor is both a housing inspector and the appointed minimum housing public officer for the town of Tooltime, North Carolina. For years he has conducted periodic inspections of dwellings throughout the town in accordance with his town’s periodic inspection program. When those inspections revealed minimum housing violations, he used his powers as a minimum […]
Repairing unfit houses—and then recouping the costs
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010[2011 UPDATE: For more detail on this topic, see the following 2011 book: Housing Codes for Repair and Maintenance: Using the General Police Power and Minimum Housing Statutes to Prevent Dwelling Deterioration] An earlier post on minimum housing ordinances (MHOs) explained how MHOs can be employed by a local government for the purpose of ordering […]