Dade City explores taxing abandoned, foreclosed properties

Attorney Karla Owens has proposed a new tool for dealing with foreclosed and abandoned properties in the city - taxing them.

Owens said the taxing method is being utilized by a handful of Florida cities and counties to clean up overgrown lots and condemned structures. Local governments are adding the cost of the clean up to the property owner's tax bill.

City commissioners said residents are complaining about problems created by the growing number of foreclosed homes, but the city's code enforcement office has had little success getting out-of-state banks to maintain the property.

The traditional way cities and counties dealt with problems, such as overgrown lots and putrid pools, was to clean up the problem and attach a lien to the property for the cost of the cleanup.

"If we put on lien on the property and it goes to short sale, we'll never get that money," City Manager Billy Poe said.

Owens wants the commission to adopt an ordinance that would create a citywide special taxing district and give the city authority to add a non-ad valorem assessment to abandoned properties. Under the new provision, the city could hire a company to clean up overgrown lots and bill the owner.

If the owner refuses to pay, the bill would be added to his tax bill the following year.

The important thing for people to realize is that this will not be a citywide assessment, Owens said. Only the property in question would be assessed.

"What we want is to eliminate these public nuisances," Owens said.
Fort Meade, which is about the same size as Dade City, was dealing with many of the same problems, Code Enforcement Officer Mary Jo Russell said.

"People pick up these properties cheap, and they don't want to maintain them," Russell said. "Then they get offended to get a certified letter telling them to mow their lawn. If you have a vacant property and it's not maintained, it invites all kinds of trouble. People don't want to live next to that."

In February 2009, Fort Meade adopted a series of new ordinances making it unlawful to abandon property in the city and giving the city the right to charge a special assessment for the cost of cleaning it up.

City Manager Fred Hilliard said the city paid the costs in the first year to mow 35 vacant lots and demolish two abandoned houses. It has assessed property owners a combined total of $22,419.

"If it's bank-owned, we can put all the liens we want on it, but it won't get paid," Hilliard said. "With this, they usually pay it."

Polk County Commissioners adopted the same policy in December. The county began assessing property owners for the cost of mowing on their 2010 tax bills. Both the city and county had to work out agreements with Polk County's property appraiser and tax collector to be able to add the assessments to individual tax bills.

"That was the hard part - all the legal stuff," Fort Meade City Clerk Phyllis Kirk said. "Setting it up was quite a process. After this year, I think it'll just flow."

Wade Barber, chief deputy appraiser for Pasco County, said Dade City would be the first municipality in Pasco to try the assessment approach. But if it works, they likely won't be the last.

"It's a good idea," he said.

Owens said she plans to bring the ordinance to the Dade City Commission in September so the city can implement the program in time to add the assessments to next year's tax bills. "I could envision this working very smoothly," she said.