Among the estimated 25,000 vacant properties in 50度灰视频, more than half are still privately owned.
Most will sit and continue to deteriorate for five, six, maybe seven years before they鈥檙e offered to the public for sale because of unpaid taxes. If no one wants them, the city鈥檚 land bank, the Land Reutilization Authority, will take ownership 鈥 unwanted properties in distressed neighborhoods that have the added burden of another half-decade of neglect.
As City Hall looks at ways to better manage vacant properties 鈥 a top priority for Mayor Lyda Krewson 鈥 the 50度灰视频 collector鈥檚 office could play an important role. It sits at the center of the process that moves property back into private hands or into the LRA.
While state law allows the 50度灰视频 collector of revenue to take action to collect unpaid property taxes after one year of nonpayment, in practice, it waits for three years of unpaid taxes before starting that tax foreclosure process. With other notice and court requirements, the process can stretch out for another year or more.
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The internal policy shows the complicated balance between protecting property rights, addressing vacant nuisances and the needs of an elected official 鈥 Collector of Revenue of Gregory F.X. Daly 鈥 independent of City Hall and reliant on fee income that accrues for each year of unpaid taxes.
鈥淲e have learned in the 50 years that LRA was created that this is the time that is needed for people to clear up issues in the family as far as the property is concerned,鈥 said Deputy Collector Tom Vollmer. 鈥淚 get it. We just walk this tightrope because you don鈥檛 want to take property away from individuals, but yet you have to make quality of life for the rest of the people living there attractive.鈥
Some neighborhoods may be beyond saving; others need help now.聽聽
The lag time in the city鈥檚 system to process abandoned property has been cited in two reports examining 50度灰视频鈥 vacancy problem, in a 2016 Center for Community Progress report and the next year in an on the LRA.
The , which studies vacancy in American cities, recommended reducing the time initiating delinquent tax enforcement actions.
鈥淭he suggestion is: Why don鈥檛 you foreclose on it sooner? Because if someone鈥檚 not going to pay their taxes in year two, they鈥檙e not going to pay their taxes in year four, which isn鈥檛 always true,鈥 LRA Director Laura Costello said in a September interview. 鈥淏ut foreclose sooner so, A, you know, you鈥檒l get people into court, you鈥檒l wake them up sooner ... And No. 2, if the city would foreclose in year three, LRA would have properties that have only been sitting vacant for three years versus five.鈥
While the LRA may be preferable to an absentee owner, or one who has written off the property, Costello also noted her agency鈥檚 struggle to afford maintenance on the properties it already owns 鈥 almost half of the city鈥檚 estimated 25,000 vacant properties 鈥 with limited resources.
Dale Sweet, an attorney with Beck, Ostrom, Sweet who is an expert on local tax foreclosure laws, also questioned whether loading the LRA up with more properties by initiating earlier tax foreclosure would help. He noted that the collector鈥檚 top mission is to collect revenue and using the tax foreclosure process to address 50度灰视频 vacancy 鈥渋s kind of like using a paint brush to mop the floor,鈥 Sweet said.
鈥淚 think the general notion is Americans have property rights and we don鈥檛 go around depriving people of their property through eminent domain or tax foreclosure without giving you every chance possible,鈥 Sweet said.
However, Peter Hoffman, an attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri鈥檚 Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative, said there could be ways to use the process to get problem properties out to auction faster. He鈥檚 leading a task force examining the tax foreclosure laws with the hope of producing recommendations on policy changes that could help in the overall effort to reduce the city鈥檚 vacancy.
鈥淲e want to be able to make the argument to the collector that this could be a more effective tool,鈥 Hoffman said.
Maybe there could be an incentive program to get community development corporations to buy and rehab tax foreclosure properties, he said. Maybe state law changes on notice and other requirements could make investors 鈥 and the title insurers and lenders they need 鈥 more willing to risk their capital on property that has gone through tax foreclosure.
Yet Hoffman agreed that it would be 鈥渁 pretty mammoth undertaking for a collector to try and foreclose more properties earlier in the process.鈥
The collector will initiate foreclosure earlier in the process if there is a problem property brought to its attention by an alderman or a neighborhood group, Vollmer said, using the problem property sale held once a year and run by attorney Matt Moak of the city counselor鈥檚 office. Vollmer said he speaks frequently with Moak and the collector鈥檚 office works with them to address problem properties.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a problem, we鈥檒l move on it,鈥 Vollmer said.
There are other ways the collector鈥檚 office could help with abandoned property. The Asakura Robinson report recommends the collector鈥檚 office waive the title fees it charges the LRA for processing property that goes unsold at the tax auctions 鈥 an amount it estimated at roughly $100,000 a year when it was published in 2017. The LRA, another office created by state statute, is reliant on income from properties it sells back to private owners and doesn鈥檛 receive any revenue from the city, a unique arrangement among city land banks.
Reducing its inventory is going to take changes in state law, additional staff.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 usually a suggestion when you meet with other land banks, it鈥檚 usually their first suggestion,鈥 Costello said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e not going to contribute (revenue) every year, then have them not be charging you fees.鈥
Vollmer, though, argued that 鈥渆verything we collect is spelled out鈥 in state law and that the collector鈥檚 office, too, depends on fees for its revenue.
Maybe, though, keeping the number of properties that ever get to the LRA is the best way to help the agency. Hoffman said the vacancy task force is looking at trying to bring outside services to the table to help buyers with financing and to attract a larger pool of buyers.
Both he and Sweet, the other attorney, said title insurers鈥 inconsistent treatment of tax-foreclosed properties can pose a major hurdle for those who are interested in rehabbing them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 no surprise that sometimes the buyers at the tax auctions are not always the buyers with the greatest credit history and paying taxes themselves,鈥 Hoffman said. 鈥淎re there ways to make tax auctions more appealing to investors who have good reputations and have the resources and capital to do what needs to be done with the properties?鈥