New ordinance will jail and fine absentee landowners

Absentee landowners that neglect their residential or commercial properties now face a six month jail sentence and $1000 fine. Passed by Columbus City Council, Monday, Oct. 25, Mayor Michael B. Coleman is expected to sign the Disappearing Real Property Owner ordinance into law by week’s end. The legislation is active 30 days after it is signed by Coleman.

“The ordinance strengthens the penalties for the landowner that disregards the standards for our communities,” said Charleta B. Tavares, City of Columbus Council member and Housing Committee chairperson.

Under the plan approved by council members, code violations would become first-degree misdemeanors if city officials can't locate a property's owner and a notice mailed to the address in county records comes back as undeliverable. The charge would remain on the books until a person is located.

“Initially, we proposed legislation because we were hearing from lots of community members about the vacant houses in the city of Columbus,” said Tavares. “We were looking at other tools within our housing administration to ameliorate the vacant and abandoned housing situation,” she said.

For more than a year, the Columbus Board of REALTORS® has remained active in the discussion to hold absentee property owners accountable for blighted structures. “We first got engaged in the conversation last year when the original legislation – Vacant Housing Registry Ordinance – was introduced,” said Gavin Blair, Columbus Board of REALTORS® government affairs director.

The initial “ordinance put an undue burden on property owners,” said Blair, by requiring landowners to “pay an annual fee to register a property,” as well as report when the building is for sale or rent.

“We joined with the Columbus Apartment Association and the Building Industry Association of Columbus to oppose the initial ordinance because there was no distinction between absentee property owners and engaged investors,” notes Blair.

After scrapping the original legislation in April, the Columbus City Council, Housing Committee started over. This latest strategy is aimed particularly at out-of-town and often out-of-state investors who have purchased cheap properties in Columbus with the hope they'll eventually be worth a lot more.

“Through collaboration with CBR, Columbus Apartment Association, Affordable Housing, Building Industry Association, alongside individual REALTORS®, neighborhood residents, and various advocacy organizations, we were able to develop a consensus ordinance that was a win for everyone,” Tavares said.