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Tampa to charge interest on costs of cleaning up unkempt property

 
The city of Tampa will begin in April to add interest to the cost of cleaning up properties that have fallen into disrepair or have code violations.
The city of Tampa will begin in April to add interest to the cost of cleaning up properties that have fallen into disrepair or have code violations.
Published Jan. 25, 2015

TAMPA — The cost of being a deadbeat property owner is going up inside the city of Tampa, so watch your mail.

City Hall is sending about 1,500 notices to property owners who owe the city a total of approximately $3.9 million for cleaning up their real estate.

In each case, the letters say, property owners allowed nuisance conditions and didn't respond to city notices to correct them. So the city had to mow their uncut grass, haul away junk or secure and even tear down vacant structures on their land.

Then property owners didn't respond to requests for reimbursement, so the city placed a lien against the property.

Pay what you owe by April 1, the notices say, or watch your balance grow by half a percent per month. That adds up to about 6 percent a year, if recipients let it go that long.

The city is sending one notice per property.

"A person very well could get more than one letter if he has more than one property with a lien on it," assistant city attorney Ernest Mueller said.

The properties in question were non-homesteaded and vacant when the city did the work. Since then, they might have been sold. If buyers didn't do a title search, officials said they might own something without realizing there's a city lien on it.

City Hall has talked for years about how to get property owners to repay these costs. Hire a collection agency? Try to add the cost of the lien on the property tax as a special assessment? That prospect is questionable, city attorney Julia Mandell recently told the City Council. The city of Holly Hill in Volusia County has tried that, but the effort ended up in court.

Tampa's letter includes a telephone number property owners can call with questions about what they owe. Just the same, City Council members are bracing for a lot of questions from concerned or confused constituents.

"I expect to get some calls," City Council member Frank Reddick said.

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times