Louisiana Amends and Reenacts Provisions Relating to Blighted Property and Health, Housing, Fire Code, Environmental, and Other Ordinance Violations-Senate Bill No. 51
by: Louis Danastorg
Louisiana’s Legislature has recently acted to amend and reinstitute provisions relating to administrative adjudication procedures regarding blighted property and health, housing, fire code, environmental, or other ordinance violations. In Louisiana any municipality or parish may prescribe civil fines for property declared blighted or violations of public health, housing, fire code, environmental and historic district ordinances by owners of immovable property. Blighted property is defined as commercial or residential property that is vacant, uninhabitable, and hazardous. Because of such properties’ physical condition, they are considered hazardous to people or property, or declared a public nuisance. A public nuisance may be any structure that, due to the condition it had been left, may endanger the health, life, or property of any person, or cause any hurt, injury, or loss to any person in at least one of the following circumstances: 1) the property is dilapidated, unsafe, or unsanitary, is detrimental to health, morality, safety, public welfare or well-being of the community; endangers life or property, or is conducive to ill health, delinquency, and crime; 2) the property is a fire hazard; 3) present conditions of the property and surrounding area are not reasonably maintained, causing deterioration and creating a blighting influence on nearby properties thereby decreasing their value, use, and enjoyment. Housing violations shall encompass only those conditions in privately owned structures that are determined to constitute a threat or danger to public health, safety, welfare, or to the environment. In parishes with more than seventy thousand citizens “housing violations” will include: building codes, vegetation, zoning regulations and public nuisance ordinances.
Any municipality may adopt an ordinance establishing an administrative adjudication hearing procedure determine the status of blighted property and health or safety violations. The ordinances must provide a time period within which the persons charged with a violation may have a hearing, and provide a process for appointing one or more hearing officers. Such officers may be the parish’s director of health, health officer, either’s designee, or at the discretion of the governing authority, an attorney having been licensed in Louisiana for at least two years. Should a parish adopt an ordinance establishing an administrative adjudication hearing procedure, it shall also provide notice to property owners and to all mortgagees of record.
Prior to any administrative hearing the municipality must notify the property owner 15 days before the scheduled hearing date for housing condition violations and 30 days for blighted property determinations. The notice must state the time, date, the location of the hearing, and must state the alleged violations or that the purpose of the hearing is to determine the subject property’s blighted condition. The notice may be sent by certified mail, registered US mail, or personally served to property owner; the postmark with serve as the delivery date.
Any liens placed against immovable property determined to be blighted shall be included and paid with the next annual ad valorem tax bill. Failure to pay the liens will subject the property to the same laws that govern tax sales of immovable property. When immovable property has been declared blighted or a public nuisance the property owners shall not have a right of redemption. However, if the property was sold for nonpayment of taxes to a bona fide tax sale purchaser, not the municipality, and if the right of redemption for the tax sale has not elapsed at least one year prior to the sale, such purchaser shall have a right of redemption until one year after the right of redemption from the tax sale elapses. Any liens placed against a homestead may only become payable 90 days after the owner’s death, upon the recording of any conventional mortgage, or transfer of title to a new owner.
The hearing officer must issue an order within 30 days of the hearing stating whether the person charged is liable for the violation, the amount of any fines, penalties, costs, or fees assessed, and the violation’s scheduled correction date. After a hearing determining property to be blighted, the officer shall send a written post-hearing notice to the property owner and each mortgagee of record. The post-hearing notice shall explain the determination and state whether any fines have been assessed. Any property owner or mortgagee of record of the blighted property may appeal the determination at the appropriate district court. The property owner may initiate an appeal by filing a petition with the clerk of court within 30 days of the hearing officer’s order. The clerk may then schedule a hearing and notify all parties of the date and location. Service of such notice, however, does not affect the enforcement and collection of any prior judgments.
About the Author:
Louis Danastorg, J.D., M.B.A. is a Regulatory Compliance Consultant at Bankers Advisory, Inc. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and earned his Juris Doctor and Masters of Business Administration from Suffolk University. He can be reached at Louis@bankersadvisory.com
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Anna DeSimone founded Bankers Advisory in 1986 and is a nationally recognized authority in residential mortgage lending. She has received numerous industry awards and has authored more than 40 best practices guides and hundreds of articles.
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