New Las Vegas Foreclosure Ordinance may end up getting Las Vegas sued
Posted by Paul Francis on Thursday, December 29th, 2011 at 1:49am.New Las Vegas City Ordinance Stricter then the Chicago "Code"?
Read about the new Las Vegas City Ordinance HERE concerning Vacant Las Vegas homes in foreclosure. When I first heard about this, my thought was that it was one of those new ordinances where you know the intentions mean well but it was poorly thought out.
For Las Vegas homeowners that just stop making their mortgage payments and walk away, there is a process that must be followed in order for the lender to legally take Title (ownership) to the home. During this proces, more often then not the abandoned home where homeowners just walk away and don't even attempt a Las Vegas short sale gets run down, broken into and creates blight for the neighborhood. One of our big pet peeves, especially when we are trying to sell a home a couple of houses down and potential buyers see the home that is obviosly rotting away.
However, the foreclosure process has to be followed by the lenders and lenders don't technically own the home until it's completed so you have to really wonder who came up with the following requirements "or face imprisonment".
1) After a Notice of Default is filed, the bank has 15 days to inspect the property to determine if it's vacant. If the property is vacant, the lender has 10 days to list it as vacant on the City's registry and pay $200.00. (I wonder who those fees are going to get passed on to?)
The property then needs to be maintained in compliance with health and safety codes. If the lender fails to comply:
2) It would get a notice, then a citation and then a possible misdeanor violation which could result in a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.
All for a property that they do not even OWN. Sort of equivalent to fining a bank that owns the car loan of the owner that racks up a bunch of unpaid parking tickets and then abandons the car. Besides the "nanny" state issues, how can somebody be responsible for a home that they do not even own?
The City of Chicago had passed a similar ordinance some time back, that according to this article, was not even as strict as the new code that Las Vegas passed. Low and behold, the City of Chicago was just handed a lawsuit from the likes of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Fan and Fred's conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sets out these arguments in detail in its lawsuit. The agency also complains that even if Fan and Fred did hold the property on their books, the city doesn't have the right to subject the federal agency to "the supervision and direction of the Department of Buildings." Plus any additional fees imposed on Fan and Fred are paid by the U.S. taxpayer because the mortgage giants are under federal conservatorship.
It probably won't be too long until the City of Las Vegas gets to answer to something similar.
No Real Estate Agent likes vacant homes sitting around rotting away but we all need to realize that there may be better ways of handling a situation then using up taxpayer dollars to fine entities funded by the taxpayer.
I've certainly done my part in cleaning up the front of an abandoned vacant home more then once. If a neighbor bails out on their home to leave it to rot, I don't think anybody is going to mind if neighbors do some basic upkeep in the front.
Just my thoughts..
Paul Francis
Prudential Americana Group, REALTORS
Las Vegas Real Estate
702.592.3058
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