Database on properties three years-or-more delinquent on taxes as of September 2010.
Database of Knoxville properties notified of code violations between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010
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Max Newman, a Public Service Construction supervisor, inspects a house at 2861 Linden Ave. to make sure it is empty before it is demolished.
The bulldozer approached the rundown home at 2861 Linden Ave. slowly, but it took only minutes to reduce the East Knoxville home to a pile of rubble.
The city of Knoxville’s Better Building Board ordered the one-story, wooden structure demolished Sept. 8 for being vacant and blighted.
“On this one, the gas and power has been disconnected,” Max Newman, the city’s Public Service construction supervisor, said as he stood at the scene in pouring rain. “This house appears abandoned.”
Newman, on hand to oversee the home’s demolition, said the Knoxville Neighborhood Codes Enforcement Office gave the owner “every chance to get out.” The owner is listed in city property records as Mildred C. Britton and her address, according to payments she has made to the city for past codes violations, is in Newark, N.J.
She could not be reached for comment.
All across the city of Knoxville, thousands of properties sit vacant, abandoned or blighted.
The Linden Avenue property is one of 60 to 70 properties the city demolishes each year, said Robert “Tiny” Moyers, Codes Enforcement manager.
City officials have scarce answers for why there are so many. In some cases, the owner may be dead and the heirs are not keeping up the property. Perhaps slumlords are failing to take care of rental housing. Or, the owner may be elderly and unable to maintain the property.
Or the area may be a haven for drug activity and prostitution, meaning the properties are not maintained.
Mowing, cleaning, demotion
Codes Enforcement has cited about 75 property owners in the past two years, primarily for illegal dumping and some for trash can violations and dirty lots, said Moyers.
From October 2009 to Oct. 9, Codes received 12,051 complaints on the city’s 311 help line.
When an inspector finds a problem, the first step is to attempt to notify the owner. Typically, notification is done by letter to the owner listed on the city’s property tax records. Or, a codes inspector may post a notice on the property.
If a structural violation is found, the owner is usually given 120 days to correct the problem.
Someone found to have a dirty lot gets 10 days to clean it up. If the owner fails to tidy up, the city may mow and clean and send the bill to the owner, which can amount to hundreds of dollars.
Depending on the severity of the problem, if it’s a violation of building codes, the property may be taken to the Better Building Board for condemnation as “unfit for human habitation,” or the city may seek a demolition or repair order from the board.
The board may order, in worst case scenarios as it did with the Linden Avenue house, that the building be torn down. The owner then gets a bill.
“In extreme health and safety issues, the city would immediately clean up and attempt to bill the owner,” said David Brace, deputy director of the city Public Works Department.
If it’s an emergency, such as medical waste dumped near a school, the city can immediately order a cleanup and will try to identify the person responsible, even by going through trash at the scene, looking for a bill or other identifying documentation. Again, the owner is billed.
The summonses to City Court are “primarily for illegal dumping,” Moyers said.”
Brace added, “We don’t routinely take people to court on housing code violations. Our first tool is the Better Building Board. We routinely take people to the Better Building Board for structural violations. We use the court for solid waste, junking in yards or tree services that dump yard waste in the city.”
In rare cases, if the owner is convicted on the misdemeanor charges after failing to show up for two court appearances, George Aubuchon, senior codes inspector, said he will ask the court to issue a warrant for his/her arrest and send a Knoxville police officer to pick up the offender.
The conviction will be listed on the National Crime Information Center so if the property owner is stopped for a traffic violation or other offense, he can be taken to jail. Otherwise, Aubuchon said he may ask officers to find the offender and make an arrest.
Still, Brace said, he can’t think of a time that city officials have arrested anyone as a result of failure to comply with codes violations.
“Most of what we do is work with property owners,” he said.
Vacant for years
Problem properties “trend with low-income census tracts and areas of higher rentals,” Brace said.
“Our mission is to investigate housing code violations, dilapidated buildings, overgrown lots, to deal with illegal dumping and abandoned cars,” Moyers said. “Dilapidated buildings or dangerous buildings, dirty and overgrown lots are a problem. Overgrown lots lead to mosquitoes and rodents.”
As for properties sitting vacant for years, Moyers said “being vacant isn’t necessarily a problem. Just being vacant isn’t necessarily illegal. If a building is structurally sound and can be repaired, we would hope somebody would come along and repair it. … If there’s some minor violations, why tear the house down? If we do tear a house down, we end up maintaining the property for years.”
When houses are demolished, the city bills the property owner for the demolition, which generally runs $4,000 to $8,000. If the demolition fee is not paid, the city places a lien against the property, Moyers said.
The most common problems inspectors cite properties for are dirty and overgrown lots. The biggest problem is “typically illegal dumping of tires, trash, garbage, furniture,” Moyers said. “It really blows my mind, because generally speaking, the garbage men will pick it up, but people will haul these things to a dirty lot and dump it rather than taking it to the end of the driveway to be picked up.”
Leveraging the board
The city’s Better Building Board is a key tool for Knoxville Neighborhood Codes Enforcement.
The five-person board is charged with “protecting the safety and vitality of neighborhoods by removing blighted properties and repairing blighted and condemned structures from our neighborhoods,” said chairwoman Cortney Piper.
Each month, the board hears from codes inspectors, fire marshal, the property owner if he or she is present and then make a determination as to whether the property meets city codes.
The property owner will be given 60 days to show significant progress, said Piper. After 60 days, Codes Enforcement does another inspection. If there’s no progress, the city can choose to demolish the structure, she said.
As to why there are so many problem properties, Piper said, “We’ve gotten to the point where codes inspectors are bringing us problems more frequently, but we only have so many inspectors for the whole city. What would really help is for neighbors to contact Codes Enforcement before these buildings get in a total state of disrepair.”
Rebecca Ferrar may be reached at 865-342-6357.
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