Local Housing Solutions issued a brief providing “information on common approaches to creating and managing vacant properties inventories, including how to fund these activities and identify sources of vacancy data.”

Included in the brief “A vacant property registration ordinance (VPRO) is a common policy tool used by localities to identify properties with lengthy tenant vacancies and establish requirements for the maintenance of those properties. VPROs require owners to register their vacant properties with the city every year, often paying a fee for each property that is registered.”

To view the brief, please click here.

Update May 29th, 2023
The Supreme Court has issued a ruling. As discussed in a recent article from Route Fifty that even though the Court ruled against cities and counties, “local officials nationwide are breathing a sigh of relief that the court didn’t go further.”
To view the ruling, please click here.
To view the article from Route Fifty, please click here.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the “constitutionality of letting states keep all the proceeds of the sale of confiscated property even when they far exceed the taxpayer’s debt.”

According to the New York Times “The Supreme Court seemed united ….., in its distaste for how county officials in Minnesota had treated a 94-year-old woman who had stopped paying property taxes on her condominium after moving into an assisted-living center.”

For more information, please click on the following links:
Reuters: US Supreme Court mulls legality of a state’s property tax ‘windfall’
New York Times: Supreme Court Wary of Windfall in Seizure of Condo for Unpaid Taxes

In a recent blog post, the Center for Community Progress in addition to its fully updated version of their National Land Bank Map, provides a thorough overview of “land banks” covering the topics of;

• What is a land bank?
• What does a land bank do?
• How Land Banks work
• Is there a land bank near me?
• What’s the difference between a land bank and a “land banking program”?
• Can I buy a vacant property from a land bank?
• There are no land banks serving my community. Now what?

For more information, please click here.

Local leaders in Illinois are petitioning the Statehouse to close a loophole that allows for “Profiting off of Blight”.

Recent article discusses some purchasers of tax liens, “after four years they take steps to void the deal thanks to what’s called a “sale in error loophole.” The tax buyer essentially returns the rights they have to the deed, and in turn gets all their money they initially spent on the taxes, plus interest. State law allows those interest rates to go up to nine percent. After four years, that can amount to up to a 41 percent profit”

For more information, please click on the following links:
WCIA: Profiting off of blight: Loophole in state law incentivizes leaving properties abandoned

CIProud: Community Development Bill to address vacant and abandoned homes